Putin Swears Off Stimulus as Policy Mix Moves Toward ‘Orthodoxy’

It was by no means the showstopper of President Vladimir Putin’s annual call-in with Russians, complete as it was with digs at the U.S. and justice dispensed on live television.

Two days after Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina urged reforms and warned against the “big illusion” of using inflation to propel growth, Putin said last week that he won’t turn on the taps to pump the economy with cash even as a recession drags on. The president is channeling his central banker in what’s now standard fare for Russia after the worst oil crash in a generation jolted the world’s biggest energy exporter.