https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66502552

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If you switch on Russian state TV today, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Russian economy is booming.

A presenter on the Rossiya-24 channel did admit that the dollar exchange rate had reached an eye-watering 101 roubles - but, he went on to insist, the Russian economy was still doing marvellously well. Russian GDP - up! Oil and gas revenues - growing!

And in today's copy of Komsomolskaya Pravda, the biggest-selling daily newspaper in Russia, an article on page 3 declared: "The Russian economy takes a sharp upward turn."

Russia has been here before - the rouble fell steeply after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But then it recovered, prompting President Putin to declare at a meeting just over a year ago: "The dollar is clearly faltering, and the rouble is strengthening."

Chris Weafer, founding partner of Eurasian consultancy firm Macro-Advisory, says last year's economic priority was keeping the rouble's value as high as possible but officials have now chosen to devalue the currency as a means of balancing government spending.

The exchange rate slide therefore reflects these decisions made by officials rather than a specific sign of an "imminent crisis" or a broader collapse of Russia's economy, he adds.

The economy has not collapsed - as many in the West had predicted. The Kremlin still has sufficient resources to maintain tight control over the country.

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If you switched on western TV news or looked at any western media today you could be forgiven for believing the Russian economy had crashed and burned.

It hasn't, it's just wishful thinking from the usual anti-Putin, anti-Russian propagandists.

It's Brits who are suffering a cost of living crisis worse than other European citizens. Russia has nothing like it. And even Ukraine seems to be faring better than we are.