Down and Out in Russia

• Share

Thursday, Jan. 31, 2002
Back in the 1970s, Russian author Vladimir Voinovich wrote in The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Soldier Ivan Chonkin, his satirical novel on Soviet life: "Things on the collective farm were turning out bad. Well, not really all that bad, one could even say fine, but worse and worse every year."

President Vladimir Putin lauds Russia's industrial growth of 5.7% over the past year. Official statistics, released earlier this month, claim 5.9% growth in average income. Listening to these accounts on state-run TV, I should feel comforted. But once I go shopping, or start paying my bills, I'm beginning to feel like Putin and I live in two different countries. The government estimates 2001 inflation at 18.6%. But the real costs of living have gone far beyond that. As of the beginning of this year, prices started climbing further. The monthly rate for home telephones has gone up by 15%. Retail prices for print media and books are expected to go up by 50 to 60%. Railway tickets have gone up by 30%. Air fares are going up by at least 12%. Food prices are skyrocketing.

The government has trumpeted a victory over electricity, fuel and transportation monopolists: they wanted tariff hikes of over 40%, but the state drew the line at 16% for rail shipping, 20% for electricity, and 20% for natural gas. But the impoverished population will hardly be able to afford even those increases. Shipping tariffs last year grew by 38.6% anyway, even as the government sought to curb the monopolists' appetites. Who can guarantee that Russian Premier Mikhail Kasyanov will keep the monopolists within the set limits this year?

What hurts the most is the sharp increase in drug prices — up to 25%. Even before the latest rises, 40% of the population could not afford drugs. Many an elderly citizen is doomed. Putin ordered pensions raised by 6.5% as of next month to make up for new drug prices. But with an average pension of $42 per month, this pittance will hardly buy even a tranquilizer to soothe the desperate. Nor is the source of funding for this gesture clear. Putin expressed his concern over the growing prices. Russians reacted sarcastically, as is their wont. As a popular joke has it, a Russian tells his friend: "Putin ordered to have inflation stopped. Answers the friend: 'No, he ordered to have it arrested, and locked up."

This week, Muscovites started receiving a marvelous letter from municipal authorities. They offer those of us who enjoy monthly income of $270 per person to start voluntarily paying 100% rates for the currently subsidized utilities. After six months, however, the new rates will become compulsory. The experience of other cities, where this system has been already tried, proves that people with lesser income have to pay full rates anyway in the long run.

Full-rate utility bills for an average family of five living in a tiny two-bedroom apartment amount to some $100 a month. Official statistics cite an average Russian salary of a suspciously high $106. Even if this figure were true, paying the bills in full will reduce the average salary to the value of half-dozen bottles of cheap vodka.

This week, Kasyanov also lauded his government's economic achievements. He emphasized that salaries from the budget are now paid on time. However, says Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Boris Nemtsov: "They do not pay salaries to teachers and doctors in 37 [of the 89] regions of Russia. Who will raise the problems of these despondent people in the absence of private TV?" Not only teachers and doctors fare so poorly. This week, long-unpaid coal miners in the Rostov region announced an indefinite strike as of February 2. The shadow of strikes that blocked Russian railways back in 1998, further wracking the fragile national economy, looms over this country again.

Back in 1935, Stalin told the congress of collective farm shock-workers: "Life has become better, life has become happier." This slogan, particularly cynical in the wake of the collectivization campaign that caused mass famine and killed millions, was promptly echoed by the people: "Our necks have become thinner, our stomachs emptier."

"Tangible elements of stability have appeared," said Putin in his New Year address to the nation. Putin's stability is proving as illusory as Stalin's happiness.