Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to President of Russia’s Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) Alexander Shokhin in the Novo-Ogaryov residence, outside Moscow on Monday, Feb. 15, 2016.
Credit: Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo/AP)

Every week, The WorldPost asks an expert to shed light on a topic driving headlines around the world. In this edition, we speak with Sergey Aleksashenko, former deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia and a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Institution, about the national and international implications of Russia’s weakening economy. 

Russia is in the middle of its worst economic crisis since 2008.

The country’s economic output declined by 3.7 percent in 2015 and is projected to decrease by a further 1 percent in 2016, according to International Monetary Fund estimates published in January. Inflation soared to 15.4 percent in 2015, compared with 7.8 […]