It has been challenging to promote the idea of credit in Russia.

Decades of Soviet propaganda portrayed credit as an unbearable burden, and this mindset has persisted.

Even after the fall of communism, Russians continued to refer to mortgages as 'debt slavery,' preferring to save money until they could purchase their homes outright.

Vladimir Putin, the president of the country, has spent two decades trying to change this perspective.

In 2003, during his first term, he explained that mortgages could help address the 'acute problem of housing' that Russians were facing.

However, his plea was largely ignored.

This article appeared in the Finance & Economics section of the print edition under the headline 'War and Prices.

' The country's economy is thriving, yet the krone is becoming less and less valuable.

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