Posted on 03/06/2015 5:40:02 AM PST by elhombrelibre
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed three new decrees into law that will slash government salaries — including his own and that of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev — by 10% from 1 May.
The government has also announced plans to cut the number of government officials by 5% to 20%.
The measures are part of the government's emergency plan to address collapsing revenues due to the fall in global oil prices and economic sanctions imposed on the country. Crude oil is currently trading around $60 a barrel but the federal budget was based on oil prices of $100 a barrel, leaving a big black hole in the state's finances that needs to be plugged.
The news comes a week after Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov asked parliament to approve spending 3.2 trillion rubles (£34 billion) from the Reserve Fund, one of Russia's sovereign wealth funds, as part of his so-called anti-crisis plan. That figure is more than half of the value of the fund and well in excess of the 500 billion rubles that the government had initially planned to draw down.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Big deal, neither can the country formerly known as the United States of America, we are trillions in the red
Yes but our president is the smartest man in the world and he knows that if we just keep spending more and more then pretty soon it will get all better!!
Yeah, yeah. I know this is a lesson in Margaret Thatcher's philosophy on Socialism but is there anybody in government or non-talk-radio media who will let the opportunity to trash the flat tax go by?
NO!, I say. Which makes me wonder, "Why did I aks the question in the first place if I already knew the answer?"
I see Executive Order # 1 for the next Republican president. Hey, I'm allowed to have dreams too . . .
Yes, it is a big deal.
In what way is it a big deal, pray tell, government doesn’t give a rip about stealing from the citizens.........
Russia doesn’t own printing presses like the US?
We haven’t been able to meet our bills for decades. Why is this an issue for them and not us? Just continue the deficit spending.
Is that the only frame of reference you possess to examine current events?
A blessing, which the congress rountinely abuses, becasue the US Dollar is the world's currency reserve and exchange.
Is what the only frame of reference I possess to examine current events? Splain, genius.
All is not well in Putinland. Not only does he have to cut government salaries back but he is facing increasing outrage over the rising number of dead Russian soldiers being returned to their families from Ukraine.
Add to that Ukraine is increasing it’s army by 250,000. If Russia is cut off from SWIFT it will be a blow that places Putin squarely against the oligarchs who supported the invasion to increase control of the gas supply to Europe.
The Soviet Union fell apart when unable to issue paychecks to bureaucrats.
Putin is a dictator, what does he care? Russians will do what he tells them to do or he will kill them, that simple.
See: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/salaries-in-moscow-rise-to-1200-per-month-as-wage-growth-slows/509472.html
Actually this is a positive development, as his support troops are now likely to begin turning on him.
I think we’re still far from that. Most Russians, it seems, are quite content to get drunk and live life under a dictator.
The Russkies are one of the main troublemakers in the world today.
There's been speculation that one of the motivations behind the Saudis allowing the price of oil to plummet was neutering the Russkies...cut the petrodollars coming in.
This will make them less able to invade their neighbors to reassemble the old USSR, and less likely to try to blackmail the EU over natural gas.
The old USSR was brought down over finances...they ran out of money.
Yes, it's a big deal.
I don’t understand how that relates to US having deficit spending and Russia cannot.
That was possible in the old days when everyone suffered. Now that many have had a taste of the good life, it’s not that simple. Add the internet and Putin has less options.
Initially Putin had the support of Russians for the “transgressions” in Ukraine, Now that reality has set in, his support is no where what it was. People are getting a whiff of the old days with the fall of the ruble. They don’t like it.
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