hello. it s good to see you. we re here in the bbc s central newsroom for another edition of unspun world. in today s programme how is it that russia s economy is doing so well in spite of the ukraine war and western sanctions? a quite extraordinary transformation of the russian economy into a war economy, with massive defence spending, with the reorientation of its industrial base towards its war machine. iran s client groups around the middle east get a hammering from us missiles. but what s the point of having the americans in the region? maintaining counterterrorism efforts against isis, and also, they check iranian influence in syria, in iraq, in lebanon. and, is ethiopia yet again going to be a byword for hunger and despair? this is the moment to try and fix this problem, - not six months down the line - when an awful lot more people have died and it s much harder to turn the whole thing around. - russia invades its neighbour after signing solemn undertakings that it
unspun world withjohn simpson. hello. it s good to see you. we re here in the bbc s central newsroom for another edition of unspun world. in today s programme how is it that russia s economy is doing so well in spite of the ukraine war and western sanctions? a quite extraordinary transformation of the russian economy into a war economy, with massive defence spending, with the reorientation of its industrial base towards its war machine. iran s client groups around the middle east get a hammering from us missiles. but what s the point of having the americans in the region? maintaining counterterrorism efforts against isis, and also, they check iranian influence in syria, in iraq, in lebanon. and, is ethiopia yet again going to be a byword for hunger and despair? this is the moment to try and fix this problem, - not six months down the line l when an awful lot more people have died and it s much harderl to turn the whole thing around. russia invades its neighbour after signin
and, is ethiopia yet again going to be a byword for hunger and despair? this is the moment to try and fix this problem, - not six months down the line l when an awful lot more people have died and it s much harderl to turn the whole thing around. russia invades its neighbour after signing solemn undertakings that it wouldn t. some of the richest countries on earth impose crippling sanctions on it. and the invasion, far from being the walkover russia assumed, is only partly successful and hideously expensive. missile fire. so, what would you expect the result on russia s economy to be, two years after the invasion? well, the international monetary fund estimates that the russian economy grew by 3% in 2023. russian factories are operating flat out. russian banks have little trouble moving money around. russian oil and diamonds are earning huge amounts. so what can the west do about it? the bbc s economics editor, faisal islam, has been listening to the ideas of several politica