内容摘要：Friends I admired and respected. Friends I laughed with, trusted, whose counsel I sought and who sought mine.

Friends I admired and respected. Friends I laughed with, trusted, whose counsel I sought and who sought mine.

Since al-Assad’s downfall after nearly 14 years of war, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration reports that 1.87 million Syrians who were refugees abroad or internally displaced have returned to their places of origin.The IOM identifies the “lack of economic opportunities and essential services” as the greatest challenge facing returnees.

Unable to afford rebuilding, Shamtan decided approximately two months ago to leave the camp with his family and young grandchildren, and has begun planting wheat on his land.Al-Hawash had been under al-Assad’s control and bordered front lines with neighbouring Idlib province, which became a stronghold for opposition groups, particularly Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the opposition fighters that spearheaded the offensive that toppled the former president.“We cannot stay in the camps,” Shamtan maintained, even though “the village is all destroyed … and life is non-existent,” lacking fundamental services and infrastructure.

“We decided … to live here until things improve. We are waiting for organisations and the state to help us,” he added. “Life is tough.”Local official Abdel Ghafour al-Khatib, 72, has also returned after escaping in 2019 with his wife and children to a camp near the border.

“I just wanted to get home. I was overjoyed … I returned and pitched a worn-out tent. Living in my village is the important thing,” he stated.

“Everyone wants to return,” he noted. However, many cannot afford transportation in a country where 90 percent of the population lives in poverty.More than 1,300 companies announced they would exit Russia or curtail their operations there, according to a tally by the Yale School of Management.

Russia’s economy, however, has weathered the pressure campaign better than expected and there is a growing acknowledgement that the expectations sanctions would bring Moscow to heel were misplaced.Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) declined by only 2.1 percent in the first year of the war, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – compared with a predicted 8.5 percent contraction – and has been growing ever since.

Russians’ real disposable income decreased by just 1 percent compared with 2021, according to an analysis by the Brussel-based think tank Bruegel, less than the decline seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.At least initially, imports took a considerable hit.