Can Putin Save Russia’s Struggling Companies?

Russian agribusiness group EkoNiva recently got a 2 billion ruble ($32 million) loan to expand its dairy operations in the Black Earth region of Voronezh. There’s nothing unusual about that, except that the loan came from the Central Bank of Russia, which has set aside 100 billion rubles to help finance industrial and agricultural projects.

Central bankers usually stick to macroeconomic policy and leave business lending to others. But Western sanctions imposed against Russia for its aggression in Ukraine have made it hard for the country’s banks and companies to raise money. So over the past few months, Russia’s central bank and government have become lenders of last resort. “We need to quickly saturate the economy with long-term, cheap financing,” says Andrey Margolin, an economist and vice rector of a state economics academy with close ties to Vladimir Putin.