Putin's former chief economic adviser says the number of Russians living in poverty will probably double, maybe triple, in the wake of the Ukraine war

• Putin's former chief economic adviser said the number of Russians in poverty could triple in the wake of the Ukraine war.
• Andrei Illarionov told the BBC that Putin was more concerned about his territorial ambitions than the livelihoods of Russians.

The number of Russians living in poverty will probably double and could even triple in the wake of the Ukraine war, President Vladimir Putin's former chief economic adviser has said.

Nearly 19 million Russians live in poverty, according to the World Bank. In an interview with the BBC's Talking Business program, Andrei Illarionov, who served Putin between 2000 and 2005, said: "We'll see probably doubling the number of those people, maybe even tripling."

He said Putin's territorial and imperial ambitions "are much more important than anything else, including livelihoods of Russian population."

Putin seemed to be "completely not interested" in economics or living standards for Russians, Illarionov added.

Illarionov said the resources of Russia's public and private sectors "to increase or even to sustain the income of the population is actually pretty limited."

Putin pledged in 2018 to halve the number of Russians living below the poverty line.

Illarionov told the BBC: "It is absolutely impossible to have any positive future for Russia with the current political regime."

He said there was "no way" that Russia "might be integrated back into the international relations, in the world economy."

Although Russia's ruble has rebounded to where it was before the Ukraine invasion, the country's economy remains in a perilous state.

The Institute of International Finance expects Russia's economy to shrink 15% this year, wiping out 15 years of growth.

The Centre for Strategic Research, a Moscow-based think tank, estimated on April 1 that two million jobs could be lost in Russia this year as unemployment rates rise.

The impact of sanctions and the exit of Western companies, including McDonald's and Goldman Sachs, could cut the supply of goods and services in Russia. Economists have said that Russians may face inflation of 20% or more by the end of the year, Insider previously reported.