A wartime boom in Russia has given way to sluggish growth, tax hikes and squeezed public services. Will it affect the conflict in Ukraine? Western leaders were bullish when they imposed sanctions on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “The Russian economy is on track to be cut in half,” said the then US president, Joe Biden, in March, a month into the war. “It was ranked the 11th biggest economy in the world before this invasion – and soon it will not even rank among the top 20.” His