news media shut down or suspended operations those included the ekho moskvy radio station and novaya gazeta the newspaper whose editor dmitry muratov shared the most recent nobel peace prizethe psychological cost of the repressions restrictions and shrinking opportunities could be high on ordinary russians although difficult to measure although some public opinion polls in russia suggest support for the ukraine war is strong the results are likely skewed by respondents who stay silent wary of expressing their genuine viewsandrei kolesnikov of the carnegie moscow center wrote in a commentary that russian society right now is gripped by an aggressive submission and that the degradation of social ties could acceleratethe discussion gets broader and broader you can call your compatriot a fellow citizen but one who happens to have a different opinion a traitor and consider them an inferior kind of person you can like the most senior state officials speculate freely and quite calmly on the prospects of nuclear war thats something that was certainly never permitted in soviet times during pax atomica when the two sides understood that the ensuing damage was completely unthinkable he wrotenow that understanding is waning and that is yet another sign of the anthropological disaster russia is facing he saidthe economic consequences have yet to fully play outin the early days of the war the russian ruble lost half its value but government efforts to shore it up have actually raised its value to higher than its level before the invasionbut in terms of economic activity thats a completely different story said chris weafer a veteran russia economy analyst at macroadvisorywe see deterioration in the economy now across a broad range of sectors companies are warning that theyre running out of inventories of spare parts a lot of companies put their workers on part time work and others are warning to them they have to shut down entirely so theres a real fear that unemployment will rise during the summer months that there will be a big drop in consumption and retail sales and investment he told the associated pressthe comparatively strong ruble however heartening it may seem also poses problems for the national budget weafer saidthey receive their revenue effectively in its foreign currency from the exporters and their payments are in rubles so the stronger the ruble then it means the less money that they actually have to spend he said that also makes russian exporters less competitive because theyre more expensive on the world stageif the war drags on more companies could exit russia weafer suggested that those companies who have only suspended operations might resume them if a ceasefire and peace deal for ukraine are reached but he said the window for this could be closingif you walk around shopping malls in moscow you can see that many of the fashion stores western business groups have simply pulled down the shutters their shelves are still full the lights are still on theyre simply just not open so