Senior Russian banker fired after warning over wartime economy

Andrei Klepach of VEB said Russia’s economy was falling behind China, US and ‘in some respects Ukraine’ The chief economist at Russia’s second largest bank has been fired after a series of critical comments about the state of the economy, including warnings that Moscow would not win a prolonged economic war with Ukraine. Andrei Klepach, who had served in the role at the state-controlled development bank VEB since 2014, was fired days after Russian media reported on a scathing speech he had…