Even Well-Off Russians are Cutting Back on Entertainment Spending, Sociologists Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 8 – Russian incomes having fallen for five years in a row, not only the poor but also those who are doing relatively better are dramatically cutting back on their spending for entertainment, eating out, and purchasing bakery goods, things that they had relied on to brighten their lives, Andrey Nalgin says, citing the findings of sociological studies.

            Such spending, the Russian analyst says, is one of the most elastic categories and is the first to be cut back when incomes fall. That better off Russians are cutting back on it now is worrisome (a-nalgin.livejournal.com/1678137.html  reposted at newizv.ru/news/society/08-04-2019/hlebom-edinym-zhiteli-rossiyskih-gorodov-otkazyvayutsya-ot-razvlecheniy).

            According to the Initiative Media Agency, Nalgin relates, urban Russians have cut back on their entertainment spending either altogether or by shifting from more expensive alternatives to cheaper ones, like visiting coffee shops instead of restaurants or watch films on television rather than going to the theater (kommersant.ru/doc/3925632).

                They are even cutting back on spending for I-phones, statistics show.