Moscow pushed through legislation allowing it to borrow more money, a rare belt-loosening from the fiscally conservative Kremlin that implies that the Russian system is eroding, a scholar argued.

President Vladimir Putin has long boasted that Russia has the lowest public debt among G20 nations, but the Ukraine war has pushed defense spending to unsustainable levels and the federal deficit to 2.6% of GDP, Carnegie’s Alexandra Prokopenko wrote in the Financial Times.

Putin’s “juggling act” of funding the war while limiting inflation and protecting growth is starting to fail, Prokopenko argued. Ukrainian attacks on energy and export infrastructure are also hurting the economy: Cities in occupied Crimea were left without power after drone strikes hit an electricity substation.