Finance ministers from Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were among the signatories of a letter to Britain’s Guardian newspaper that argues a “rosy” economic picture painted by Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machine is hiding a grimmer reality.

Some Western observers see the IMF’s healthy 3.2% growth forecast for Russia in 2024 as a sign that sanctions aimed at curbing Russian revenues are having an effect opposite to the one intended and giving a boost to the economy.

The Finance Ministers remind readers that the Kremlin is also engaged in “a war of information” spending an estimated $1.5bn (£1.2bn) a year "to ensure their 'rosy' view of the economy is picked up by Western media."

But the EU ministers say that since the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine, the Russian economy has been “re-Sovietized.”

Russian industrial development is “geared towards the war industry,” the ministers say in their letter, published on July 24. Factories there are at “maximum capacity,” so the chances of further growth of the economy are limited, they add.

One sign of a return to a Soviet-style economy is the use of forced convict labor to make up for worker shortages at munitions factories. Meanwhile, the Russian authorities are putting excessive pressure on the country’s private sector to finance the war, according to the letter.

The ministers, including Poland’s Andrzej Domański, say that more effective measures are needed to impose a blockade on Russian oil exports at prices above the $60 per barrel price cap imposed by the group of seven largest economies in the world (G7).

The cap was initially effective in 2023 in limiting the Kremlin’s revenue, as no reputable global shipping firm would get insurance on loads of Russian oil being sold above $60.

However, in order to get around the G7 cap, the Russians have amassed a “ghost fleet” of tankers not insured by Western companies. The US has taken steps to counter this illicit trade route, but these measures have only been partly effective, the letter says.

The ministers say in the piece published in the Guardian that more of these rogue transporters must be taken out of service to increase the pressure on the Kremlin’s budget.

They also call for tighter sanctions in finance and technology, as well as measures against sanction breakers such as Belarus, and certain Middle Eastern and Far Eastern countries.

The letter ends by saying that Putin “has put the Russian economy on a path towards decline. Now it is time for the west to up the pressure even more.”

The letter was signed by finance ministers from the following countries: Elisabeth Svantesson - Sweden; Mart Võrklaev - Estonia; Riikka Purra - Finland; Arvils Ašeradens - Latvia; Gintarė Skaistė - Lithuania; Eelco Heinen - Netherlands; Andrzej Domański - Poland; and by Stephanie Lose, minister for economic affairs - Denmark.