Russians are getting poorer
Russians are becoming poorer
In Russia, governmental statistics show that the country is facing the worst poverty figures in 10 years. The country has been undergoing a recession since 2014, and it is the middle class who is suffering the most as a result of the economic crisis.
Julia Beliakov Photo : Radio-Canada/Alexey Sergeyev
---------------------
Julia Beliakov and her husband almost lost everything last year when both of them lost their jobs.
The 31 year-old mother says she is very lucky: [she and her husband] quickly managed to find work again. “We were lucky. We were scared, we felt as though we were sitting on a volcano”, she says.
This psychologist, who works in a firm which sells household appliances, has seen many examples of people who were not as lucky.
“This year, people are starting to lose their jobs, their salaries. The situation is very tense. Many [people] are depressed, obviously. Those who retire with a tiny pension have to leave for the countryside in order to survive.”
Julia Beliakov
Tatiana Moreev, her husband Kirill, and one of their daughters. Photo : Radio-Canada/Alexey Sergeyev
------------------------------
Kirill and Tatiana Moreev, both self-employed, were forced to move to a distant suburb of Moscow. Their only income is from the rent from a small apartment which they inherited.
Like the majority of Russians, food is their number one expense. “We feed ourselves, and the rest of the money pays for gas and transportation”, explains Tatiana.
“Now [things are] much more complicated. Before, we had the means to buy clothes more often.”
Kirill Moreev
To clothe their three daughters, they must now participate in groups which exchange clothes.
A meal for the poor at the church of the Assumption of Mary, in Moscow. Photo : Radio-Canada/Alex Sergeev
-------------------------------
At the church of the Assumption of Mary in Moscow, the homeless are fed, a new clientele has started arriving: people who have recently fallen below the poverty line, which corresponds to an income of less than 230 $CA per month [i.e. approximately 168 US$].
There are now 20 million Russians in this situation.
A meal at the Salvation Army, in Moscow. Photo : Radio-Canada/Alex Sergeev
----------------------------
The Salvation Army also assists people who have lost their apartment, their job.
Isai. Photo : Radio-Canada/Alex Sergeev
--------------------
Isai, a former soccer coach and taxi driver, has been without a job for a year and half. He dreams of working again.
“I have all the documents needed. If I can get another job, I could afford an apartment.”
Isai
Andrei Serykh, director of a center run by the Salvation Army in Moscow. Photo : Radio-Canada/Alex Sergeev
-------------------------------
Andrei Serykh, who runs the Salvation Army center, hopes that the economy will improve.
“It’s unfortunate that there is such a big gap between a very small group of rich [people] and the very large number of extremely poor [people]. If God could manage to reduce these differences, everyone would be happy.”
Andrei Serykh
In Russia today, 10 % of the population controls 89 % of the [country’s] wealth. A recent report by the large Russian bank VTB concluded that 1% of the population possesses/holds 46% of the money placed in the country’s banks.
Things are not looking up for the average Russian. The Russian authorities believe that the economy will show growth this year. It is however a feeble and fragile growth, since it depends in large part on the increase in oil prices, which is not a sure bet.
SOURCE 1 (translation is by the OP, because I couldn't find a good source in English).
--------------------------
OP: The following article is from earlier this year (i.e. January 2017).
Is Vladimir Putin Secretly the Richest Man in the World?
They say money equals power, and Vladimir Putin has plenty of power of right now.
But how much money does he have?
He's not telling.
Figuring out the Russian president’s net worth has long been the holy grail of spooks and hacks around the world. But the personal wealth of Putin-a former KGB agent-is nearly impossible to decipher, and is likely distributed across a secret web of company holdings, real estate, and other people’s accounts. In fact, at a time when his political motivations are under scrutiny across the world, the struggle to pin down Putin’s riches reveals something about the covert ways in which he wields his authority over Russia.
Here's what we know.
The most often cited estimate comes from a former mid-level Kremlin adviser named Stanislav Belkovsky. In 2007, he claimed Putin had a fortune worth at least $40 billion- a figure that would put him in the top 10 of Forbes magazine’s ranking of billionaires.
(Forbes, the premier chronicler of the world's wealthiest, doesn’t include Putin on its list of billionaires. In 2015, the magazine said it couldn't verify enough assets.)
The Kremlin source based his estimate on Putin’s alleged stakes in several companies, mostly in the oil sector. He said the Russian president controlled 37% of the oil company Surgutneftegaz, 4.5% of natural gas company Gazprom, and had substantial holdings in a commodities trader called Gunvor.
"At least $40 billion,” Belkovsy told the Guardian at the time. “Maximum we cannot know. I suspect there are some businesses I know nothing about."
The American government has linked Putin to Gunvor, too. “Putin has investments in Gunvor and may have access to Gunvor funds,” the U.S. Treasury said in a statement in 2014 as it announced sanctions.
Gunvor-which reportedly made $93 billion in revenue in 2012-denies Putin has ever had any ownership in the company.
Later, in 2012, Belkovsky upped his estimate to $70 billion, based on new information from "confidential sources around the corporations,” according to an interview with nonprofit journalism outlet The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
That'd put Putin within striking distance of Bill Gates, who according to Bloomberg is the world's richest man with an estimated net worth of $84 billion. One less credible critic says Putin's real worth could be as high as $200 billion.
Putin certainly has the visible trappings of wealth. Among his alleged holdings is a palace on the Black Sea with a reported price tag of $1 billion.
It features "a magnificent columned facade reminiscent of the country palaces Russian tsars built in the 18th Century," according to the BBC. It also allegedly includes a private theatre, a landing pad with bays for three helicopters, and accommodation for security guards.
The palace was personally built for Putin but paid for using a secret slush fund created by a group of Russian oligarchs, according to a self-exiled Russian businessman named Sergei Kolesnikov, who provided evidence of the alleged scheme to the BBC.
The alleged scheme suggests a system in which the Kremlin's power grants Putin access not only to his country’s corporate wealth but also to the personal accounts of Russian’s richest oligarchs.
And if the rumors are true, the Black Sea manse isn’t Putin’s only palace. He enjoys 20 palaces, four yachts, 58 aircraft, and a collection of watches worth £400,000, according to a scandalous dossier drawn up by a former deputy prime minister in 2012.
“In a country where 20 million people can barely make ends meet, the luxurious life of the president is a brazen and cynical challenge to society from a high-handed potentate,” Boris Nemstov wrote in the document, according to the Telegraph.
Here's the yacht "Graceful," apparently belonging to Putin, docked in Sochi in 2015.
The Telegraph story also describes “a little-known three-storey residence near Saratov, on the Volga river south-east of Moscow, has German chandeliers and Italian furniture, and features a billiard room, a winter garden, a pool and sauna.”
Perhaps we'll never know. Unlike Donald Trump, Putin has publicly downplayed his net worth. "It's just chitchat, nonsense, nothing to discuss," he has said, according to Bloomberg View columnist Leonid Bershidsky. "They picked it out of their noses and smeared it on their pieces of paper."
But he does not deny a certain level of priceless holdings, according to New York Times reporter Steven Lee Myers' book The New Tsar. "I am the wealthiest man not just in Europe but in the whole world: I collect emotions," Putin has said. "I am wealthy in that the people of Russia have twice entrusted me with the leadership of a great nation such as Russia. I believe that is my greatest wealth."
SOURCE 2.
Additional links:
-More news reports on the increasing poverty in Russia in the last few years is here, here, here, here, and here.
-Oxford Handbooks Online is a series of handbooks providing peer-reviewed research articles in various fields. They have one handbook on the Russian Economy and one particular chapter is titled, "Poverty and inequality in Russia".
-The World Bank's page on Russia discusses the Russian economy.
OP: Gross.
Does anyone think we'll get Russian government trolls, I wonder, since this is a critical post?
In Russia, governmental statistics show that the country is facing the worst poverty figures in 10 years. The country has been undergoing a recession since 2014, and it is the middle class who is suffering the most as a result of the economic crisis.
Julia Beliakov Photo : Radio-Canada/Alexey Sergeyev
---------------------
Julia Beliakov and her husband almost lost everything last year when both of them lost their jobs.
The 31 year-old mother says she is very lucky: [she and her husband] quickly managed to find work again. “We were lucky. We were scared, we felt as though we were sitting on a volcano”, she says.
This psychologist, who works in a firm which sells household appliances, has seen many examples of people who were not as lucky.
“This year, people are starting to lose their jobs, their salaries. The situation is very tense. Many [people] are depressed, obviously. Those who retire with a tiny pension have to leave for the countryside in order to survive.”
Julia Beliakov
Tatiana Moreev, her husband Kirill, and one of their daughters. Photo : Radio-Canada/Alexey Sergeyev
------------------------------
Kirill and Tatiana Moreev, both self-employed, were forced to move to a distant suburb of Moscow. Their only income is from the rent from a small apartment which they inherited.
Like the majority of Russians, food is their number one expense. “We feed ourselves, and the rest of the money pays for gas and transportation”, explains Tatiana.
“Now [things are] much more complicated. Before, we had the means to buy clothes more often.”
Kirill Moreev
To clothe their three daughters, they must now participate in groups which exchange clothes.
A meal for the poor at the church of the Assumption of Mary, in Moscow. Photo : Radio-Canada/Alex Sergeev
-------------------------------
At the church of the Assumption of Mary in Moscow, the homeless are fed, a new clientele has started arriving: people who have recently fallen below the poverty line, which corresponds to an income of less than 230 $CA per month [i.e. approximately 168 US$].
There are now 20 million Russians in this situation.
A meal at the Salvation Army, in Moscow. Photo : Radio-Canada/Alex Sergeev
----------------------------
The Salvation Army also assists people who have lost their apartment, their job.
Isai. Photo : Radio-Canada/Alex Sergeev
--------------------
Isai, a former soccer coach and taxi driver, has been without a job for a year and half. He dreams of working again.
“I have all the documents needed. If I can get another job, I could afford an apartment.”
Isai
Andrei Serykh, director of a center run by the Salvation Army in Moscow. Photo : Radio-Canada/Alex Sergeev
-------------------------------
Andrei Serykh, who runs the Salvation Army center, hopes that the economy will improve.
“It’s unfortunate that there is such a big gap between a very small group of rich [people] and the very large number of extremely poor [people]. If God could manage to reduce these differences, everyone would be happy.”
Andrei Serykh
In Russia today, 10 % of the population controls 89 % of the [country’s] wealth. A recent report by the large Russian bank VTB concluded that 1% of the population possesses/holds 46% of the money placed in the country’s banks.
Things are not looking up for the average Russian. The Russian authorities believe that the economy will show growth this year. It is however a feeble and fragile growth, since it depends in large part on the increase in oil prices, which is not a sure bet.
SOURCE 1 (translation is by the OP, because I couldn't find a good source in English).
--------------------------
OP: The following article is from earlier this year (i.e. January 2017).
Is Vladimir Putin Secretly the Richest Man in the World?
They say money equals power, and Vladimir Putin has plenty of power of right now.
But how much money does he have?
He's not telling.
Figuring out the Russian president’s net worth has long been the holy grail of spooks and hacks around the world. But the personal wealth of Putin-a former KGB agent-is nearly impossible to decipher, and is likely distributed across a secret web of company holdings, real estate, and other people’s accounts. In fact, at a time when his political motivations are under scrutiny across the world, the struggle to pin down Putin’s riches reveals something about the covert ways in which he wields his authority over Russia.
Here's what we know.
The most often cited estimate comes from a former mid-level Kremlin adviser named Stanislav Belkovsky. In 2007, he claimed Putin had a fortune worth at least $40 billion- a figure that would put him in the top 10 of Forbes magazine’s ranking of billionaires.
(Forbes, the premier chronicler of the world's wealthiest, doesn’t include Putin on its list of billionaires. In 2015, the magazine said it couldn't verify enough assets.)
The Kremlin source based his estimate on Putin’s alleged stakes in several companies, mostly in the oil sector. He said the Russian president controlled 37% of the oil company Surgutneftegaz, 4.5% of natural gas company Gazprom, and had substantial holdings in a commodities trader called Gunvor.
"At least $40 billion,” Belkovsy told the Guardian at the time. “Maximum we cannot know. I suspect there are some businesses I know nothing about."
The American government has linked Putin to Gunvor, too. “Putin has investments in Gunvor and may have access to Gunvor funds,” the U.S. Treasury said in a statement in 2014 as it announced sanctions.
Gunvor-which reportedly made $93 billion in revenue in 2012-denies Putin has ever had any ownership in the company.
Later, in 2012, Belkovsky upped his estimate to $70 billion, based on new information from "confidential sources around the corporations,” according to an interview with nonprofit journalism outlet The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
That'd put Putin within striking distance of Bill Gates, who according to Bloomberg is the world's richest man with an estimated net worth of $84 billion. One less credible critic says Putin's real worth could be as high as $200 billion.
Putin certainly has the visible trappings of wealth. Among his alleged holdings is a palace on the Black Sea with a reported price tag of $1 billion.
It features "a magnificent columned facade reminiscent of the country palaces Russian tsars built in the 18th Century," according to the BBC. It also allegedly includes a private theatre, a landing pad with bays for three helicopters, and accommodation for security guards.
The palace was personally built for Putin but paid for using a secret slush fund created by a group of Russian oligarchs, according to a self-exiled Russian businessman named Sergei Kolesnikov, who provided evidence of the alleged scheme to the BBC.
The alleged scheme suggests a system in which the Kremlin's power grants Putin access not only to his country’s corporate wealth but also to the personal accounts of Russian’s richest oligarchs.
And if the rumors are true, the Black Sea manse isn’t Putin’s only palace. He enjoys 20 palaces, four yachts, 58 aircraft, and a collection of watches worth £400,000, according to a scandalous dossier drawn up by a former deputy prime minister in 2012.
“In a country where 20 million people can barely make ends meet, the luxurious life of the president is a brazen and cynical challenge to society from a high-handed potentate,” Boris Nemstov wrote in the document, according to the Telegraph.
Here's the yacht "Graceful," apparently belonging to Putin, docked in Sochi in 2015.
The Telegraph story also describes “a little-known three-storey residence near Saratov, on the Volga river south-east of Moscow, has German chandeliers and Italian furniture, and features a billiard room, a winter garden, a pool and sauna.”
Perhaps we'll never know. Unlike Donald Trump, Putin has publicly downplayed his net worth. "It's just chitchat, nonsense, nothing to discuss," he has said, according to Bloomberg View columnist Leonid Bershidsky. "They picked it out of their noses and smeared it on their pieces of paper."
But he does not deny a certain level of priceless holdings, according to New York Times reporter Steven Lee Myers' book The New Tsar. "I am the wealthiest man not just in Europe but in the whole world: I collect emotions," Putin has said. "I am wealthy in that the people of Russia have twice entrusted me with the leadership of a great nation such as Russia. I believe that is my greatest wealth."
SOURCE 2.
Additional links:
-More news reports on the increasing poverty in Russia in the last few years is here, here, here, here, and here.
-Oxford Handbooks Online is a series of handbooks providing peer-reviewed research articles in various fields. They have one handbook on the Russian Economy and one particular chapter is titled, "Poverty and inequality in Russia".
-The World Bank's page on Russia discusses the Russian economy.
OP: Gross.
Does anyone think we'll get Russian government trolls, I wonder, since this is a critical post?