Putin Has Retooled Russia's Economy to Focus Only on War

If the war does end in Ukraine, some of Russia's neighbors worry its war economy may be refocused on them

- Thomas Grove

Moscow has expanded military recruitment and boosted weapons production. Peace could jeopardize the economic gains.

Russia's successes on the front lines in Ukraine are a big reason why Vladimir Putin isn't yet ready to sign up to President Trump's peace efforts. Some of his neighbors fear the success of the war machine now driving its economy means he never will.

In the early stages of the war, the Russian president put the country on a footing for a long conflict. Putin retooled the economy to churn out record numbers of tanks and howitzers, while using sizable signing bonuses of up to a year's salary to raise a massive army. At one point, more than a thousand recruits were signing up each day to fight.

This increase saved Moscow from the initial losses it suffered after failing to quickly capture Kyiv three years ago. Now it is helping Russian forces advance westward again, taking more than 100 square miles in the past month.

The gains have given Putin the latitude to slow-walk peace negotiations and shrug off direct talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, despite growing European pressure and Trump's own exasperation with the lack of progress in ending the war.

But if or when Putin is ready to make peace, unwinding his military buildup could prove a trickier task.

"It is absolutely imperative for Russia to continue to rely on the military industry, because it has become the driver of economic growth," said Alexander Kolyandr, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis. "For a while, it will be next to impossible for Russia to reduce military spending."