Which is More Disturbing? Russians Can’t Afford Shoes or the Kremlin Won't Admit It?

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 3 – On Monday, the Russian State Statistical agency, Rosstat, released a major study showing that 79.5 percent of Russian families now face significant difficulties in purchasing goods of first necessity. Among the report’s findings was that more than a third of Russian families cannot afford to buy two pairs each of seasonally appropriate shoes.

            But as disturbing as that is given Russia’s pretensions to be a modern country with a developed economy, perhaps even more disturbing was the Kremlin’s reaction. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said he couldn’t comment on the data and awaited an explanation (mk.ru/politics/2019/04/03/kreml-ne-poveril-chto-u-rossiyan-net-deneg-na-obuv.html).

Why, he asked rhetorically, was Rosstat talking about shoes, “why was in specifying a third, and where did these figures come from?” Such language suggests he either didn’t know about these numbers, a sad possibility, or that he felt he could bully his way through by issuing a non-denial denial, an even worse one.

            The figures Rosstat came up with in this study are truly disturbing.  Collectively, they specified that at present 79.5 percent of all Russian families – that is, nearly four out of five – are experiencing difficulties in purchasing the most necessary products for themselves (rbc.ru/economics/03/04/2019/5ca35e979a7947004fecc392).

            At the very bottom of the income pyramid, 14.7 percent of all Russian families – one in every seven – say that they currently have “major difficulties” in making necessary purchases. As bad as these figures are, they are slightly better than those the statistics agency reported from a similar survey in 2016.

            But even so, things remain tough for most. Just over half of all Russian families – 53 percent – said they cannot come up with the money for any unexpected needs such a fixing a problem with their housing, purchasing longterm durables, or meeting unexpected medical expenses.

            Ten percent of families cannot purchase meat, poultry or fish for a meal at least every other day, and 21.1 percent of all Russian families cannot afford to purchase fruits throughout the year. And what may be especially troubling: every fourth Russian family can’t afford to invite guests to family celebrations like birthdays.

            In addition, 49.1 percent said they couldn’t now afford to take a week’s vacation in the course of the year, and 11 percent said they couldn’t afford medicines they needed. These troubling figures, Rosstat suggested, reflect an 11 percent decline in the real incomes of Russians since 2014, the year Putin occupied Crimea.

            Most governments would acknowledge the problem and suggest the government is trying to do something about it, but the Putin regime, ostrich-like when it comes to the suffering of ordinary people (but not that of the wealthy), simply shoots the messenger by suggesting that it really doesn’t believe that the statistics gathered by its own agency are true.