Russian opposition politician Mark Feygin said this in an interview with Antin Borkovsky on the Espreso TV channel."We heard various statements at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum – they were all not optimistic about the situation in the economy due to the war. Someone like Makarov, the head of the State Duma's budget committee, Nabiullina to some extent, and a few others spoke about Russia slipping into a recession. Does Putin understand this? Has he been told? I am sure he understands, he has the numbers on his desk, the managers report to him. The other question is, can Putin, based on this assessment, stop the war or reduce military spending? The answer: no, he cannot," he said.According to Feygin, even with such tension, the result—what you see in Ukraine—so far is modest."It gives Putin optimism, but they have not taken Sumy, that's a concrete example. Although, progress is more intense in the Donetsk direction than on the Sumy border. But again, I emphasize: most likely, this is verbal manipulation, an attempt to make it seem like, 'yes, yes, we need to optimize spending—steal less, for example.' There may also be some loud cases arising against the backdrop of Artem Ivanov's sentence, the former deputy defense minister under Shoigu," the politician stated.He added that Russia has no real ability to reduce war spending right now."Rather, they will, with a high degree of probability, reduce spending not related to the war in Ukraine, but other areas—social spending, the apparatus, many other things. So, imagining that this is done to end the war or due to Moscow's inability to continue the war from an economic standpoint, with money—it doesn’t seem that way to me, I believe these are more propaganda claims," Feygin noted.The politician pointed out that this does not negate the crisis situation in the economy—statistics show that production is declining, inflation is growing, and pricing is not optimistic."But beyond that, I reiterate, Moscow and Putin intend to continue fighting. Crisis phenomena in Russia’s economy will not stop them; for Putin, continuing the war is a matter of power. Can Putin give this up? Never, under no circumstances, he 'won't stop at any cost,'" he concluded.