Posted on 01/03/2015 12:43:13 AM PST by elhombrelibre
Beleaguered Russians rang in the New Year with a special gift from the Kremlin – a cap on the price of their much-beloved vodka. Facing an economy seemingly on the verge of collapse, President Vladimir Putin took steps this past week to ensure that a plummeting ruble would not prevent his country from drowning its sorrows in cheap alcohol.
Russians love a drink. Therefore, it is a brave Kremlin leader who stands in the way of his countrymen’s desire for a reliably inexpensive tumbler of vodka. To this day, Mikhail Gorbachev remains a target for abuse and hatred for the limitations he tried to implement on alcohol consumption. So much for the grand image of reformer and peacemaker that Gorbachev enjoys among many of the intellectual elites in the West.
The fall in the ruble last month and the recent announcement that Russian GDP has contracted over the past year by 0.5 percent has further highlighted the inherent fragilities of Russia’s oil-dominated economy. As Putin continues to wrestle with declining oil prices and the sanctions his government faces over its escapades in Ukraine last year, experts now forecast a further 4 percent contraction in the economy in 2015. The fall in crude oil prices by nearly half, from the $115 a barrel in June, has put enormous pressure on Russia, which until recently was projecting an image of strength around the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
They don’t even care all that much about the bread.
Obama is the worlds best gun salesman and Putin is the worlds best Christian bartender.
True.
Pseudo Christian bartender, I’d say. He believes in a state church subordinated to his whims and only available to buttress the state. It’s statism for the church and a lack of tolerance.
Like Obama, Putin takes advantage of the benighted culture of Russians.
Vodka’s cheaper than circuses...
“Let them eat bread and love it”
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