Bilan
29th December 2008, 11:02
Russia is feeling the effects of the global financial crisis. But, as unrest grows throughout the country, the government remains silent.
Most Russians know what the crisis is doing to neighbouring Ukraine. Almost daily, Russian state-controlled television broadcasters deliver fresh news about the country's political chaos: the collapse of its economy, growing public anger and increasing calls for the resignation of the president.
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/images/assets/16777405
Russian riot police
Tough measures
But the same television viewers are getting little or no news about what's happening in their own country. Not that that is helping to allay fears. Recently, the riot police turned out in Vladivostok, on the far eastern edge of the country, to crack down hard on a peaceful protest against the drastic increase of import taxes for foreign cars. The increase will take effect from January and is intended to boost the ailing Russian car industry. But hundreds of thousands of people living in or near Vladivostok are people who earn their living trading in second hand Japanese cars and the increase is going to hit them hard. And millions of other Russians won't be able to afford the cars that are imported. When the riot police lashed out, they went for both the demonstrators and the journalists attempting to film events. More than sixty people were arrested, among them several camera crews. A cameraman from Japanese state television saw his camera smashed to pieces, while an older photographer who said he felt unwell was refused medical treatment. The tenor of the entire action was one of intense intimidation.
Putin's resignation
One significant detail worth noting was that the riot police deployed in Vladivostok came from the Moscow region and were flown more than 6,000 kilometres to clamp down on the unsanctioned demonstration. The fact that the average TV viewer in the rest of Russia never saw any of this has only strengthened the protestors' rage. New protests look likely. But what's also new is that at similar demonstrations there are now more and more calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Until recently, that was a cry limited to no more than a number of small opposition groups.
The deployment of the Moscow riot police is an unmistakeable sign that the Russian leaders are nervous about the social unrest tightening around them, even though it's a subject scarcely mentioned in public. Everywhere in Russia factories have been standing still for weeks and, in some cases, even months. Workers are being sent home on unpaid leave or simply aren't being paid. A substantial wave of fresh unemployment looks more than likely as 2009 rolls around.
Mass unemployment
The effects of the financial crisis are most alarming in the so-called ‘mono cities', cities in which the majority of the labour force is employed by one factory or in one branch of an industry. If the production in such a city stagnates, then its unemployment could shoot up as high as eighty percent. In Izjevsk, in the Urals, where the engineering works are standing still, several thousand people have taken to the streets to protest against the closure and the higher prices for gas and light. In Siberia, miners recently went on a short hunger strike because they'd received no wages in months. In Ivanovo province, a number of textile factories have closed their doors indefinitely. In Nadvoitsy, in the Republic of Karelia, the aluminium factory has shut down.
Production figures for the past few months offer little hope of improvement. In some sectors, industrial production has dropped dozens of percentage points in just a year. Some economists are talking of a full-blown catastrophe
An admission
At the Interior Ministry in Moscow, people are worrying about the increasing economic malaise. Shortly before Christmas, a deputy minister admitted for the first time that the crisis could "destabilise" the country. Whether the ministry is preparing more tough police crackdowns, or whether it wants to evade responsibility for them, is not entirely clear.
What's characteristic, however, are the words of parliamentary speaker Boris Gryzlov, leader of the United Russia party and a former Minister of the Interior himself. After the dispersal of the demonstrators in Vladivostok, Mr Gryzlov said that "every violation of the law needs to be punished: that's the sign of a strong state." It was a comment not too gratefully received in Vladivostok, a city that also happens to be Mr Gryzlov's place of birth.
source (http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/region/europe/081227-russia-crisis-mc)
Most Russians know what the crisis is doing to neighbouring Ukraine. Almost daily, Russian state-controlled television broadcasters deliver fresh news about the country's political chaos: the collapse of its economy, growing public anger and increasing calls for the resignation of the president.
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/images/assets/16777405
Russian riot police
Tough measures
But the same television viewers are getting little or no news about what's happening in their own country. Not that that is helping to allay fears. Recently, the riot police turned out in Vladivostok, on the far eastern edge of the country, to crack down hard on a peaceful protest against the drastic increase of import taxes for foreign cars. The increase will take effect from January and is intended to boost the ailing Russian car industry. But hundreds of thousands of people living in or near Vladivostok are people who earn their living trading in second hand Japanese cars and the increase is going to hit them hard. And millions of other Russians won't be able to afford the cars that are imported. When the riot police lashed out, they went for both the demonstrators and the journalists attempting to film events. More than sixty people were arrested, among them several camera crews. A cameraman from Japanese state television saw his camera smashed to pieces, while an older photographer who said he felt unwell was refused medical treatment. The tenor of the entire action was one of intense intimidation.
Putin's resignation
One significant detail worth noting was that the riot police deployed in Vladivostok came from the Moscow region and were flown more than 6,000 kilometres to clamp down on the unsanctioned demonstration. The fact that the average TV viewer in the rest of Russia never saw any of this has only strengthened the protestors' rage. New protests look likely. But what's also new is that at similar demonstrations there are now more and more calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Until recently, that was a cry limited to no more than a number of small opposition groups.
The deployment of the Moscow riot police is an unmistakeable sign that the Russian leaders are nervous about the social unrest tightening around them, even though it's a subject scarcely mentioned in public. Everywhere in Russia factories have been standing still for weeks and, in some cases, even months. Workers are being sent home on unpaid leave or simply aren't being paid. A substantial wave of fresh unemployment looks more than likely as 2009 rolls around.
Mass unemployment
The effects of the financial crisis are most alarming in the so-called ‘mono cities', cities in which the majority of the labour force is employed by one factory or in one branch of an industry. If the production in such a city stagnates, then its unemployment could shoot up as high as eighty percent. In Izjevsk, in the Urals, where the engineering works are standing still, several thousand people have taken to the streets to protest against the closure and the higher prices for gas and light. In Siberia, miners recently went on a short hunger strike because they'd received no wages in months. In Ivanovo province, a number of textile factories have closed their doors indefinitely. In Nadvoitsy, in the Republic of Karelia, the aluminium factory has shut down.
Production figures for the past few months offer little hope of improvement. In some sectors, industrial production has dropped dozens of percentage points in just a year. Some economists are talking of a full-blown catastrophe
An admission
At the Interior Ministry in Moscow, people are worrying about the increasing economic malaise. Shortly before Christmas, a deputy minister admitted for the first time that the crisis could "destabilise" the country. Whether the ministry is preparing more tough police crackdowns, or whether it wants to evade responsibility for them, is not entirely clear.
What's characteristic, however, are the words of parliamentary speaker Boris Gryzlov, leader of the United Russia party and a former Minister of the Interior himself. After the dispersal of the demonstrators in Vladivostok, Mr Gryzlov said that "every violation of the law needs to be punished: that's the sign of a strong state." It was a comment not too gratefully received in Vladivostok, a city that also happens to be Mr Gryzlov's place of birth.
source (http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/region/europe/081227-russia-crisis-mc)