The Bell: Russian state development corporation fires chief economist Andrei Klepach over remarks on Russia’s defeat in economic ‘war of attrition’

Russia’s state development corporation VEB.RF fired its chief economist, Andrei Klepach, after quotes from a speech in which he said Russia cannot win the economic “war of attrition” circulated in the media.Two acquaintances of Klepach told the independent Russian news outlet The Bell about his dismissal. One source said VEB.RF head Igor Shuvalov fired Klepach after a “call from above.” A second source confirmed that the dismissal was linked to Klepach’s May speech.A VEB.RF spokesperson confirmed to the Russian business daily Vedomosti that Klepach had left his position as chief economist, but declined to comment on the reasons for his departure.An acquaintance of Klepach told Vedomosti that his departure from VEB.RF was “connected to his personal, harsh assessments of the country’s economic and political development, which cannot possibly align with the corporation’s position.”The Bell sent VEB.RF an inquiry but had not received a response as of publication.The day before, the independent Russian news outlet The Moscow Times drew attention to remarks Klepach made at a meeting of the Nikitsky Club at the Moscow Exchange in late May 2026, where he said the Ukrainian economy, “despite everything, is surviving.” “So we will not win this competition in the war of attrition. We have an illusion that everything will collapse there [in Ukraine]. It hasn’t collapsed, and it won’t. Our costs are growing,” he said. Klepach also said Russia is losing “both the technological and economic competition in the world,” and not “only to China and the U.S.,” but “in some ways” to Ukraine as well.Klepach, 67, spent 12 years as VEB.RF’s chief economist after a decade at the Economic Development Ministry. Alexandra Prokopenko, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Berlin Center, said that Klepach “was never afraid to defend his opinion.” “One need only recall his public clashes with Alexei Ulyukaev in 2011 and his departure from the Economic Development Ministry, where Klepach was responsible for macroeconomic forecasting, when Ulyukaev became minister,” she recalled.At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.