Russia is losing the economic war with the West and its economy is in catastrophic and irrevocable decline even as it cuts off the gas supply to Europe, a new report has claimed.

As panic spreads across Europe over the prospect of gas rationing and spiralling energy prices, it is in fact Russia which is on the ropes, with business in retreat and sanctions catastrophically crippling their economy.

And while Putin causes panic in European governments by throttling gas supplies, the strategy is unsustainable for the dictator as he burns through reserves and his budget goes into deficit.

This is the verdict from a Yale-authored report that has looked beyond the Kremlin’s cherry-picked economic figures to access private Russian language and other unconventional data sources.