|
|
|
|
Rich-poor gap widening in Russia
By Vladimir Radyuhin
The richest 10 per cent of Russians earn 15 times more than the poorest 10 per cent, according to government statistics for the first three months of this year. The Russian Academy of Sciences estimates that the difference in incomes has already reached 20 times over and keeps growing. During the past three years the country's GDP grew by 20 per cent and per capita incomes by 32 per cent. Economic growth has helped reduce the number of the poorest, but has also made their misery look more crying.
What was an egalitarian socialist society 10 years ago is a capitalist nation of glaring social contrasts today. In per capita GDP Russia ranks somewhere in the fifth dozen, next to Mexico and Lebanon, but its head count of billionaires is the fourth highest in the world, according to Forbes magazine. The list of the country's super rich last year included 17 billionaires, which put Russia behind the U.S., Germany and Japan, but ahead of Canada. The number of Russian billionaires would be still higher if all companies felt the need to open their books to attract foreign investment. Almost all of Russia's billionaires are involved in the oil and other commodity industries privatized during a chaotic transition from socialism to "wild capitalism'' in the 1990s.
Their wealth has grown thanks to high world prices, while the country's economy shrank by over a half and the vast majority of the population sank in abject poverty.
A dozen mega tycoons today control 70 per cent of the Russian economy, while thirty million Russians, or one in five in a country of 145 million, survive on less than $2 dollars a day, below the official subsistence line. Moscow, the moneybag and showcase of Russia's new capitalism, is bursting with conspicuous consumption. The shopping area in the city has tripled in a single year, as Europe's leading chains, such as the French Auchan, German Metro Cash&Carry and Swedish IKEA rush in to meet the booming demand. Moscow sells more top-priced Western cars than any other city in Europe. The newly opened Bently showroom sold out Russia's 2003 quota (biggest in Europe) of 25 Continental GTs costing upwards of 230,000 euros a piece during the first two months of the year. Daimler Chrysler AG has temporarily stopped accepting orders for its $400,000 Maibach model after the Moscow waiting list crossed 100. For the third year running Moscow has been awarded the dubious honour of being the most expensive city in Europe and the second most expensive city in the world after Tokyo.
The Russian capital is an island of wealth in an ocean of poverty. Average per capita incomes in Moscow are 4 to 16 times higher than in most other regions of Russia. Teachers, scientists and doctors across the county survive on a salary that is just enough to pay for a meal in many Moscow restaurants.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Galina Karelova, last week revealed that 70 per cent of Russian families with children live below the poverty line.
Millions of Russians feed on what they grow on their vegetable gardens: the President, Vladimir Putin, at a recent press conference cited what he called `incredible' statistics, according to which tiny household gardens account for 80 to 90 per cent of vegetables grown in Russia.
Asked what he felt ashamed of Mr. Putin replied without hesitation: "The poverty of Russians, poor standards of living, low incomes. All Russians have the right to live better.'' In this year's state of the nation address last month Mr. Putin set the task of doubling the country's GDP over the next 10 years.
Click
Here for complete research in PDF
format
|Salvation in the Major World Religions|
Development of Religion and Worship in India
|Aryans|
|Avatar| |Bhagavad Gita| |Brahmin
Samaj Circular| |Brahmana & Sramana| |Casteism
in India's Society| |Cycle of Birth| |Distortion
of History| |Early Buddhism| |Early
Civilizations| |Evidence in the Indian Scripts|
|Hinduism| |Indus Valley
Civilization| |Islam| |Jainism|
|Mahayana Buddhism| |Monism|
|RSS Circular| |Significance of
Sanskrit| |Syncretism| |Trade
Relations of South India from 1st c. AD| |Varnashrama
Dharma| |Vedic Religion, Vegetarian or
Non-vegetarian?| |Vishwa Hindu Parishad| |Voices
in India|
|View of a Certain Brahmin in Singapore|
|Response to a Brahmin from Singapore|
The
Christian, the Bible and the Church
|The Mark of a
Christian|
|A Warning| |Apostasy
in the Early Church| |Development of Papal Power|
|New Age Movement| |Nun's
Nightmare| |Reformation Movement| |Reliability
of the Bible| |Restoration Movement| |Rise
of Denominations| |Spiritual Mapping| |Spread
of Denominations| |Staines Martyrdom| |Standing
in the Gap| |The Early Church|
|Issues for Christians & Missions to Think
About|
Violations of Human Rights
|A Pogrom|
|Anjana Mishra's Story| |Brahmin
Samaj Circular| |Communal Harmony| |Communalism
//s (Coimbatore & Mumbai)| |Hindutva| |Hindutva
Politics| |Nun's Nightmare| |PUCL
Report| |RSS Circular| |Signs
of our Times| |Staines Martyrdom| |Taproot
of Racism| |Terrorism in Tamil Nadu| |Vishwa
Hindu Parishad| |VHP and Charity| |Web
of Terror| |Voices in India|
Is Conversion Violence on Hindus and Hinduism?
Recent
Strategies of Communal Forces in India
|Vedic
Valley Theory| |Holes in Vedic Valley Theory|
|Conversion is Violence on
Hindus| |Religion
by free choice|
|Is the Pope a Hindu?|
|Horseplay at Harappa|
A
Bible Prophecy Concerning America?
|Is America,
the Great Whore in Revelation?|
|Stand in the Gap| |Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare|
Visitor's Response
|1| |2|
|3| |4| |5|
|6| |7|
|View
of a Certain Brahmin in Singapore| |Response
to a Brahmin from Singapore|
Last Days Harvest Ministries
