Silicon Wafers

2026-02-17 | UPDATES #134 | Russia’s Economy Enters the “Death Zone”. Russia’s war economy hasn’t “collapsed”. It’s done something worse. It has climbed into what mountaineers call the death zone — that altitude where the body survives by consuming itself. (X (formerly Twitter))

Here’s the key question: if Vladimir Putin chooses more war, what breaks first? If he chooses to pause the war, what breaks immediately? Because Russia is now in a trap where every option has a cost to Russia’s future — and some options cost in the present. The economy is burning up, and soon Russians who have been shielded from the war will feel the heat.
This episode is based on the writings and comments of Alexandra Prokopenko, an expert on Russia’s politics and economics, who recently wrote an excellent piece in the Economist, and the video podcasts of Vladimir Milov, Russian dissident economist.