Posted on 02/04/2006 8:29:54 PM PST by neverdem
RUSSIA today is not the same country it was only six years ago, when Vladimir Putin became president. Back then, the country was unsettled, tumultuous and impoverished, but it was free. Today Russia is richer — and not free.
A new model of Russia has taken shape. The state has become, essentially, a corporate enterprise that the nominal owners, Russian citizens, no longer control. Indeed, changes in legislation and limitations on political freedoms have effectively devalued the shares in this company — call it Russian State — that ordinary Russians hold, while an elite class of investors enjoys ever increasing privileges.
State-owned companies have become the assault weapons of this corporate state. Having mastered the main principle of state-corporatism — "privatize profit, nationalize loss" — they have turned to taking over private-sector companies, sometimes at cut-rate prices. Their victims include major industrial companies like Yuganskneftegaz, Sibneft, Silovye Mashiny, Kamov, OMZ, and Avtovaz.
Companies that are still in private hands resemble ever more closely their state-owned siblings. Any request from the state — whether it's a donation to a project or the sale of the company itself to "correct" buyers — is fulfilled. The fate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the chief executive of the Yukos oil company who is now in a penal colony after falling out with the Kremlin, is known to all.
Meanwhile, a guiding principal of Russia's new economic model is selectivity. One company is confronted with the maximum possible (and sometimes impossible) tax bill; another gets unique exemptions. One company is forbidden to sell shares to foreigners; another gets overwhelming state support for such a move (along with financing beyond any limits set by law). One company is not allowed to hire foreign workers; another is encouraged to do so. One set of buyers pays one price; another...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Well, even the professional editors working for IHT use "principal" instead of "principle". Thus not-quite-literate FReepers find themselves in a credentialed company. It is encouraging.
I recently read that Moscovites made 3 times more than the average Russian. How such disparities exist escapes me.
Cost of living might be much greater in Moscow.
As well as quality of education. A potato farmer usually has fewer career choices than a scientist or a businessman.
Moscovites live in the third most expensive city in the world. One would expect them to make more money.
Cost of living is higher but its not abot that. There are simply far more oppurtunities and far greater international presence in Moscow.
My wife has a masters in Civil Engineering, her education is actually higher than mine and she's younger.
I think it is important to note that Andrei Illarionov was not picked by Putin for the job as advisor, but was in that position when Putin took office.
Yes, that's what I was getting at in part. Russians are very educated. Less that 1/2% of their population is illiterate. They also have more cities with a million plus people than the US. (That may not include the metropolitan areas, as it doesn't seem Russian cities really have suburbs like we do in the US.)
That's why it kind of amazes me that Muscovites make that much more than everyone else. When you have more than a dozen cities with one-million plus people, you'd think things would be spread out more evenly.
The international opportunities does make sense, though.
(Also interesting that high wage salaries here--doctors, for instance--are among the lowest paid workers in Russia. Really, that doctors are paid so little relative to others in any more modern society kind of amazes me.
Why does that surprise you ? IT IS WHERE GOVERNMENT IS. Government is a leech that sucks the blood out of the body and engourges itself with it. That is why the area around WASHINGTON DC IS SO PROSPEROUS. That is why COLUMBUS OHIO is way more prosperous than anywhere in OHIO. That is why Austin TX is doing well.
So the average person in DC makes 3 times more than the person in Pittsburgh or Nashville or San Diego? The average person in Columbus makes 3 times more than the average person in Toledo?
That's the scale we're talking here. I see how Russia is a more limited and less diversified economy, but all the same, it's a bit odd to have two major cities far outearning other major cites.
(and yeah, I gather you're (half) joking on the government leach analogy. I don't see how this disparity can exist for long outside of government. Too many other larger cities capable of creating competition.)
Actually, I am not. I don't know where you live but drive around the DC suburbs and around annapolis and then go somewhere else. Ditto for columbus ohio.
Per capita income in DC metro is probably twice what it is in Pittsburgh. Columbus is probably 50% higher than in toledo.
=I think it is important to note that Andrei Illarionov was not picked by Putin for the job as advisor, but was in that position when Putin took office.=
I've heard that Andrew Illarionov is place-hunter.. he's found out that the Democratic party of the USA has confidence of success on the next presidential election and gather new team for their policy in Russia.. perhaps Illarionov has changed political orientation and get a move on that team..
=Per capita income in DC metro is probably twice what it is in Pittsburgh. Columbus is probably 50% higher than in toledo.=
It is newly for me though I would like to know underlying reasons..
As for the Russia.. we observe money transference from the provinces towards Moscow.. A lot of governmental decisions deprived local authorities' budgets of huge money which were transferred either to state budget or to Moscow' one. Along rough estimate, perhaps 90% of money WHOLE RUSSIA circulates in "Moscow" (as in state also in Moscow budgets). "Moscow" always was "collective concept" in the USSR when all money in the beginning should be collect in "Moscow", after every republic (town, village etc.) will get own portion in accordance with the State Budget! The same order we can see in the Putin's reign. Where is difference?
Only government could allot money in the USSR.
Now, government plus various mafia clans do the same in Russia.
We can see many erection of new buildings in any Russian town. Be aware, any building has own master even if an erection making for money of state budget. We can reveal names of governmental officials (new workshop build in a biggest plant of my hometown for the PERSONAL money of minister Gref) also somebody from Moscow mayor Louzhkov's mafia clan and so on…..
up to local officials and their relatives (recently, wife of mayor purchased biggest market in my hometown).
I know that Russian minister of transport is owner one of Russian insurance companies.
Thus we observe effect a merger the MAFIA and the STATE in Russia.
I recently read that Moscovites made 3 times more than the average Russian. How such disparities exist escapes me.==
It is more about twice not trice. As the programmer I earn in Moscow approx. 2 times more then my acquitance from provicia.
IMO the reason of that is Moscow is the center of goverment. But I have to note that the cost of living is higher in Moscow too.
Illarionov lost all credibility in that article when he tried to paint Khodorkovsky as a victim. BTW, Kommersant is a Berezovsky publication.
ping
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