putin’s war against Ukraine has led to the deterioration of the quality of life in russia in almost all parameters. Western sanctions have driven russian industry into a deep crisis, as a result of which prices are rising for literally everything, кussians’ incomes continue to decrease, and the number of poor people is increasing.
Despite the deterioration of the economic situation, the country’s authorities assure that “life in russia is improving every day.” Thus, at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects of the russian federation, putin stated that the poverty level in the country has allegedly decreased, and the incomes of people with minimal earnings have increased by almost a third.
Usually, when the russian authorities need to mislead their own people, the controlled rosstat gets involved.
Reports of the State Statistics Service of the russian federation prove that 15.3 million or 10.5% of the population live below the poverty line. And even these impressive numbers do not correspond to reality. In fact, the number of the population of the russian federation living in poverty is much higher than the growth statistics show.
In order to at least somehow reduce the terrible state of well-being of russians, the kremlin resorts to the usual methods of manipulation. The method of forming the minimum consumer basket is determined by rosstat as the cost of the minimum set of products (6,772 rubles), multiplied by 2, that is, other expenses should fit into the amount of 13,545 rubles. Such an assessment is biased and manipulative. Thus, according to independent surveys, 48,000 russian families claim that their income is not enough to ensure the physiological minimum consumption of products (6,772 rubles per person) and pay utilities, taxes, interest on loans, etc.
According to the data of the All-russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, due to the reduction in income, every third russian began to significantly save on food and buy less high-quality and expensive products. Instead, sales of such cheap products of dubious quality as instant noodles soared this year (for each resident of the russian federation, more than 14 packages of noodles were sold this year, or more than 2 billion pieces in total). 33% of residents of the russian federation also reduced expenses for the services of hairdressers, beauty salons and the purchase of imported medicines.
In addition, as rosstat admits, their statistics do not include the incomes of the richest russians. According to the Swiss bank Credit Suisse, 1% of the population of the russian federation owns 60% of all national wealth, including financial assets and bank deposits, and their wealth is continuously growing.
Taking this into account, it turns out that the actual costs are less than 13,545 rubles. observed in 29.3 million or 20.2% of russians. And if we consider the poverty line to consume products worth less than 6,772 rubles, then 34 million (23.4%) russians fall into this zone. A similar situation is observed with the calculation of the incomes of russians. In order to artificially reduce the level of poverty, even what people grow on their homesteads is now added to it in the russian federation.
☝️ It is interesting that in 2021 rosstat tried to apply the Western method of calculating the poverty level, which is significantly different from the russian one. For example, in the USA, the cost of the minimum grocery set is multiplied not by 2, but by 3, which is more in line with reality. But it turned out that this approach leads to a significant increase in the number of poor in the russian federation – 65 million (45%) russians remain below the poverty line. Therefore, in 2022 rosstat was forced to return to the old methodology.
In the pessimistic forecasts of the experts of the International Monetary Fund for 2023, there is a fall in the gross domestic product (by 3.4%), a significant increase in the inflation rate (by 7.5-12%), the cost of products, fuel, utility bills, transportation, passenger flights, and this against the background of an almost doubling of spending on the army and security forces and a real decrease in social support. Due to the drop in revenues from oil exports and increased spending on the war in Ukraine, russia’s federal budget deficit in 2022 was a record $56 billion. The deficit of the state budget in 2023 is predicted by the kremlin at the level of 2% of GDP, but, as the Bloomberg agency points out, this forecast is manipulative, because it is based on an oil price of $70 per barrel, which no one in russia is currently paying.
That is, in a situation where russia has become the world leader in social injustice, where the poor are getting even poorer and the rich are getting richer, the number of poor people will only increase and it will be increasingly difficult to hide this through manipulation of growth.
❗️Despite the assurances of the authorities, during the year of the war in Ukraine, the quality of life for most russians significantly deteriorated. The fall in living standards against the background of the partial mobilization announced by putin in September is a hidden catalyst for civil disobedience, which sooner or later will explode and “demolish” the kremlin regime.
