Paul
Goble
Staunton, September 27 – Statistics
are notoriously unreliable especially in the case of the Russian Federation
where the questions that are asked and the answers that are given quite often
reflect political calculations of one or another kind rather than being a
mirror of what is in fact taking place.
But on some occasions, these
figures, especially when one takes in more than one, provide useful guidance as
to the shape of Russia at the present time.
Today, there have been five such statistics; and both singly and
together, they help to adumbrate what Russia is and even more what it is likely
to become:
·
The
amount of wealth held abroad by Russian oligarchs and businesses is
approximately equal to the amount of wealth retained inside the country,
according to Moscow economists and World Bank experts (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2018/09/26/77962-strana-neravenstva).
·
The
number of political prisoners in the Russian Federation has risen from 35 three
years ago to 183 now, according to the Memorial human rights organization (memohrc.org/ru/reports/sergey-davidis-rossiyskie-politzaklyuchennye-v-2018-godu-situaciya-i-tendencii).
·
Russians
by a margin of more than three to one say that having good leaders is more
important than having good laws (ng.ru/editorial/2018-09-26/2_7319_red.html).
·
More
than eight out of ten Russian villagers say they are unhappy with the state of
Putin-optimized health care in their locales (takiedela.ru/news/2018/09/27/karta-dostupnosti-medpomoshi/).
·
The
number of Russians who say they are prepared to take part in demonstrations
against the government’s program to raise pension ages has fallen “sharply,” while
a new poll finds that almost half think the country is moving in the right direction
(thinktanks.by/publication/2018/09/27/opros-chislo-rossiyan-gotovyh-k-pensionnym-protestam-rezko-poshlo-na-ubyl.html
and ng.ru/politics/2018-09-27/3_7320_opros.html).
No comments:
Post a Comment