Senior Russian banker fired after scathing speech on wartime economy

Andrei Klepach of VEB said Russia’s economy was falling behind China, US and ‘in some respects Ukraine’

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The chief economist at Russia’s second-largest bank has been fired after a series of critical comments about the state of the economy, including warnings that Moscow would not win a prolonged economic war with Ukraine.

Andrei Klepach, who had served in the role at the state-controlled development bank VEB since 2014, was fired days after Russian media reported on a scathing speech he had delivered to fellow economists in May.