Moscow Responds to Growing Income Inequality by Changing How It is Measured

Paul Goble

              Staunton, May 5 – Instead of taking measures that will actually reduce growing income inequality among Russians, Moscow has responded in the first instance by changing the way statistics about that are gathered and presented to make comparisons more difficult and the situation look better than it is, Maksim Blant says.

              In 2025, income inequality in the Russian Federation rose to the highest level it has been since 2007. Putin promised to change that, but the greatest change his government has made is to modify the way his government processes data about that, the Radio Liberty analyst says (svoboda.org/a/zagnatj-dzhini-v-butylku-kak-vlasti-boryutsya-s-neravenstvom/33750448.html).

              It has redefined the Gini coefficient in ways that make comparisons with the past in Russia more difficult and at the same time make it far more difficult to compare with the situation in other countries, Blant says.  And he suggests that if Russia doesn’t meet the income equalization goals it has announced, Moscow will do the same again.

              Consequently, he continues, however defensible the changes in how the Gini coefficient is calculated in Russia may be – and there are reasons to see the new method as improved on a standalone basis – the ways this change will hide what is really going on are likely to be far more important at least politically.