Dmitry Oreshkin: "All talks about growing incomes of the population can be forgotten for years"

- How do you assess the future of our country after the start of the war in Ukraine?

- From my point of view, the prospects for our country are disgusting. It is clear that the economic consequences will be very long-term. This is a problem not even for months, but for years. Recovery, even if everything suddenly stops now, recovery will take at least a couple of years. Of course, all the talk about increasing the income of the population by 2.5%, which Putin promised, is completely irrelevant. The ruble collapsed, the process is just beginning. More importantly, the country will receive zinc coffins in the near future. The question is who will get more losses - Ukraine or Russia. But this is a question that does not make much sense, because it will be a blow to the Russian population. I think that we have entered an era when we can talk about a catastrophic scenario, first of all, for Russia. It is clear that Ukraine suffers even more, but we are interested in the inner side. We could not keep the country from the worst option. We are talking about the slow and inevitable sliding of the country into a catastrophe.

- How serious is the threat of using nuclear weapons ?

- I think that everything is possible, because everything depends on what contacts are made in the head of the main brain of the Russian Federation. If suddenly this main brain decides that NATO is a threat to Russia, it will have to resort to defrosting nuclear arsenals. And what he decides is out of our control. We are all hostages of the situation. And the situation is getting worse and worse.

NATO countries will supply Ukraine with defense weapons. How this will be perceived by the Russian side, whether it will be concluded from this that it is necessary to strike at the NATO infrastructure, we can only guess. The situation is catastrophically unpredictable, it has no restraining elements.

No one is able to stop the process, which is started by one person who imagines himself the arbiter of the fate not only of Russia, but of all mankind. We can only sit and wait in horror for what will happen. Of course, we must resist. But for now, we are experiencing shock and cognitive dissonance. Few people can say what needs to be done in the near future - whether to go to street protests or focus on informational impact on the authorities. But in any case, I think that the situation will obviously worsen, accordingly, the screws will be tightened, censorship restrictions will be introduced in accordance with the laws of wartime. The worst is to be expected. And most importantly, we do not have legal opportunities to influence this situation.