Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 27 -- More than a
quarter of all factory equipment in Russia today was installed before 2000 and
some of it even before 1991. As a result, these machines are wearing out and
even if they remain operational less productive and competitive than more
modern ones, according to a new report by Aleksey Kudrin’s Center for Strategic
Development.
The 188-page report (csr.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Doklad_promyshlennye-moshhnosti.pdf) which was released yesterday has already sparked
much discussion in the Russian media. (See, among others, rufabula.com/news/2017/01/26/retarded,
.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5889D046ACAC0
and znak.com/2017-01-26/sem_grafikov_rasskazyvayuchih_o_modernizacii_promyshlennosti_v_putinskuyu_eru.)
Its industry-by-industry details are
fascinating: Among the worst branches in terms of the introduction of new
machinery, for example, are chemical works and metallurgy, two areas on which a
modern economy depends, where the average age of equipment in many plans has
reached 20 to 25 years.
But the basic conclusion can only be
this: Over the last 17 years, the Putin regime has value stripped the country,
relying far too heavily on existing equipment and not investing in new while taking out as much wealth
as possible, a strategy that has
enriched Putin and his entourage but at the expense of Russia and its future.
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