Hazin Exposes the Clever "Three-Step Chess" of Russian Financial Authorities: "This is a Lie"

Mikhail Hazin exposed the clever "three-step chess" of Russian financial authorities: "This is a lie." He believes that the Russian Central Bank may raise interest rates to 30% by artificially devaluing the ruble and spreading misleading rhetoric about "needing to combat inflation."

Andrei Kostin, the head of VTB Bank, linked the recent intensification of inflation to the sharp increase in military spending. However, economist Mikhail Hazin refuted this argument on the program "Tsargrad News." He is convinced that the real reason for rising prices in our country is completely different.

Hazin revealed the clever "three-step chess" of Russian financial authorities, and he believes that Kostin himself belongs to this group. In his view, these people are currently trying to repeat the same operation as in 2023. The first step is to artificially devalue the ruble.

Andrei Kostin.

"The Central Bank May Raise Interest Rates to 30%"

With the sharp drop in the domestic currency exchange rate, imported goods naturally become more expensive. Then, the financial authorities take the second step: loudly proclaiming "inflation has started," and therefore "it must be addressed."

He further pointed out that the third step is to raise interest rates. However, raising interest rates has no effect on cost-push inflation caused by the devaluation of the ruble:

"No matter whether you raise interest rates or not, if you buy goods for 100 dollars and sell them in Russia, the price is equivalent to 100 dollars multiplied by the exchange rate. If the ruble exchange rate falls, the price of goods will rise, which has nothing to do with the level of interest rates. This is undeniable."

— said the interviewee from "First Russia."

He also added that in this case, there is no talk of real import substitution, because at a 20% interest rate level, no one would do it, simply because it is unprofitable and the investment costs are too high:

"All the statements about import substitution are lies. It has always been like this. If the interest rate was 3%, even 5%, maybe import substitution could be done. But at 20%, it's impossible. What are the financial authorities doing now? They claim that due to the huge military spending and serious budget deficit, the ruble must be devalued to 100 rubles per dollar. At that point, considering we don't rely on imports for all goods, prices would probably rise by 25%. I think, in this case, the Central Bank could raise interest rates to 30%. This is their method. The political purpose is to destroy domestic industry and the real economy. That's what they want to solve."

The Financial Authorities Achieved Their Goal

Previously, Mikhail Deryagin, a member of the State Duma, emphasized during an interview with "Tsargrad" that the financial authorities first made any production activity unprofitable or relatively unprofitable, and now expect companies to perform well. If (obviously they won't), they start saying that companies must be closed:

"Even putting money in the bank can give a 18% annual return, what kind of physical production can give me such a high return? Then we will completely shut down production. There is another issue, just like bankers naively wonder: 'I invested money, but nothing was produced.' But they never think that without money, nothing can be done, but just having money isn't enough either. You also need to train professionals and pay them salaries, etc."

Mikhail Deryagin.

The MP concluded that after tightening monetary and credit policy to the maximum, the financial economic sector eventually achieved its goal:

"Those who wear grass skirts, dance around bonfires, and shout 'We need to cool down the economy, the Russian economy is overheated, it must slow down' have succeeded. They said that the expected growth rate of 2.8% was 'too high, unacceptable.' They said we couldn't develop so fast, the economy would overheat, and it had to be cooled down urgently. They did it, well done."

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7526427733963686439/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author. Please express your opinion by clicking the [Up/Down] buttons below.