Group of finance ministers call for sanctions to be ratcheted up amid signs Moscow’s war machine is weakening

Vladimir Putin is “peddling lies” about the strength of the Russian economy that must be refuted, finance ministers from eight EU member states have said, with growing signs of deterioration in the face of biting sanctions.

They say there are signs that the economy is being “sovietised” with many hallmarks of the former USSR including expropriation of private assets to fund public spending, a “total disregard to the social and economic wellbeing of the population” and reorientation of the economy towards its war in Ukraine.

“If Putin stays on this path, the long-term damage to the Russian economy will be significant,” they wrote in a joint article in the Guardian.