Russian Economy General News: #10

GunshipDemocracy wrote:

Putin is confident that Russia will not be difficult to enter the top five most developed economies in the world.

https://tass.ru/ekonomika/6371920

“Regarding the fact that we occupy a worthy place among other industrial powers, is not an easy task, but in general it is absolutely solvable,” Putin said at a meeting with members of the Council of Lawmakers of the Russian Federation. He recalled that for Russia the task is to take the fifth place in the world in terms of the economy, in terms of purchasing power parity. He also stated that the Russian Federation now ranks sixth after China, the United States, India, Japan and the Federal Republic of Germany.

well,  overtaking Germany is fairly simple he should aim for Japan

slasher wrote:Interesting read: Russia Ditches Income Data That Has Slumped for Five Years

Incomes have declined since 2014 amid a rise in retail sales, prompting many analysts to question the reliability of the underlying data. Moscow-based VTB Capital published a three-page research note earlier this month criticizing the outdated methodology and recommending that economists disregard the income data entirely.

interesting indeed. It would be cool some day to see corrected results  

Rising retail sails and income decline is a total contradiction. The 6.8% real income increase for 2018 is fully legitimate and reflects the underlying GDP
growth. This growth is also consistent with the 10-20% growth rates for real income that were to be seen over the last 20 years and which have
resulted in real incomes of Russians increase by a factor of 6 since 1998.

Putin needs to stop listening to Nabiullina. Russia is already in the top five real GDP countries. PPP means real, absolute metric GDP. Using
exchange rates to determine the size of any developed economy is retarded. The GDP does not change size as if it is a one-variable function of the
exchange rate. Only banana republics dependent over 90% on imports have their economies strongly affected by exchange rates. Russia
is one of the bottom countries globally in terms of imports. This fact cannot be ignored no matter what people's experience of Russia in 1990
was.

How can a company located inside the country do this, they should be forced to shut down.

"The biggest Russian glass factory AO “Kavminsteklo” has halted glass bottle deliveries to the Republic of Crimea in order to fulfill US sanctions. This may force Crimean wine producers to halt their work for a period from 2 to 6 months because another large glass bottle producer – “Rusjam” – has no capabilities to secure deliveries for all Crimean wine producers.

Aleksandrs Pavlovs, a recently appointed top manager, of “Kavminsteklo” is of the Baltics (Latvia). He’s well known for his anti-Russian sentiments. Pavlovs, who has spent most of its carrier in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sphere, got his new appointment in early April. Previously, he worked in Minsk, Belarus as a country manager of Danone Russia.

Almost immediately, Pavlovs told AO “Kavminsteklo” employees that the company is freezing any cooperation with Crimean businesses in the framework of the imposed “US sanctions”. He also told his new workers to keep the reason of this decision in secret because it may cause a negative reaction from the Russian government.

However, far from all Pavlovs’ new employees appeared to be persons without principles. Some of them leaked details of this situation to the media. Despite this, the bottle deliveries to Crimea were stopped. No Russian authorities or officials have reacted to this situation so far.

It should be noted that a tourist season is starting in Crimea soon. The tourism makes a notable part of the republic’s annual budget.

The risk posed by the decision of “Kavminsteklo” to halt bottle deliveries to Crimea was addressed by the head of the association of winegrowers and wine-makers “Sevastopol” in a letter to a member of Russia’s Parliament (Duma), Dmitry Belik. This very letter states that “Kavminsteklo” and “Rusjam” are de-facto monopolists in Crimea and described the situation as “critical”. However, issues related to bottle deliveries have appeared just recently.

Russia’s news website RBC conducted a brief research into the situation with “Kavminsteklo”. According to the RBC data, until 2015, “Kavminsteklo” was a part of the international concern “Saint-Gobain”. In 2015, the concern’s business section “Verallia”, which includes “Kavminsteklo”, was sold to the consortium of the US fund “Apollo Global Management” and the French state investment bank “BPI Finance”. At that moment, “Verallia” was the third biggest glass package producer around the world. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) is among strategic investors of “Apollo Global Management”.

One of the biggest Russian glass container producers, which has roots from the Soviet times, is controlled by the Western capital. Nonetheless, “Kavminsteklo” legally is a Russian company that makes billions by exploiting Russian soil and is patronized by officials of various levels. The very same company immediately halted deliveries to its core clients by a decision of the newly-appointed top manager. No formal reasons were publicly provided. De-facto the decision was made by a political-motivated request of the third party.

In any another large country around the world – the US, EU states, China or India – this would not be possible. However, all seems to be possible in Russia.

Similar approaches were used against Russian strategic enterprises, especially defense enterprises, in the 1990s. Such enterprises were gained via an illegal takeover or bought for a mere song by investors affiliated with Western sponsors. Then, they were intentionally led to a bankruptcy or stopped deliveries to internal Russian clients using various justifications. These approaches allowed to eliminate a notable part of the post-Soviet industrial potential. It seems that concerned parties have decided to repeat this successful case of combating Russia.

Today is April 25. The problem with bottle deliveries has been delivering for a third week in a row. Russian authorities have undertaken no measures against the legal entity or its top manager.

In a much more debatable situation, US authorities pushed for a detention of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and deputy chair. The Huawei top manager was arrested in Canada’s Vancouver on December 1 under the US request. She remains detained. Multiple Russian citizens also remain detained in the US under various pretexts. If one takes into account the US behavior, Russian authorities must detain Pavlovs immediately over his deliberate attempt to damage Russia’s state interests."


https://southfront.org/how-to-bring-russia-to-its-knees-simply-acquire-her-amazing-turn-in-the-sanction-war/

Yes, authorities should kick down the door to this company.  But then again, it is the companies right to sell to whom they want.  I believe stuff like this does happen in the United states one way or another.  If it gains enough attention, then I imagine government will act.

In the mean time, this may mean developing new glass plants in Crimea and other parts of Russia to meet the demand. Hopefully the decision of this new company makes them collapse and forced to sell.

miketheterrible wrote:Yes, authorities should kick down the door to this company.  But then again, it is the companies right to sell to whom they want.  I believe stuff like this does happen in the United states one way or another.  If it gains enough attention, then I imagine government will act.

In the mean time, this may mean developing new glass plants in Crimea and other parts of Russia to meet the demand.  Hopefully the decision of this new company makes them collapse and forced to sell.

I just read the article. I believe southfrount went down a strange path. There are way too many pessimistic articles depicting Russia in a negative way. Furthermore there are a lot of ukrainians working in the southfront team (they admitted it last Sunday when they wrote an article celebrating the comedian success at the election). I am not sure that they are completely honest in their work.

Anyway, one should be a moron to compare the situation in the 90's with the current one. I do not know how the current owners acquired the ownership of this company, if there were irregularities that have been overlooked they will find them now. Putin has allowed many people that in the 90's acquired companies in a not too transparent way to keep them, not be able to fight against all of them and also because at that time many companies were at least kept operative that way. He put however some conditions for the people that got rich that way: paying taxes in russia and continuing investing in the companies, and absolutely stay away from.media business.and politics.

If the owners of this company are creating problems to the supply to Crimea stopping abruptly the delivery in a market in which they cannot be replaced easily in a short time I can imagine that they will be prosecuted.and the companies will be put in a "controlled administration" and.eventually sold under market value to some friends of the government that is already under US sanction and will continue supplying its products to Crimea.

Rodion_Romanovic wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:Yes, authorities should kick down the door to this company.  But then again, it is the companies right to sell to whom they want.  I believe stuff like this does happen in the United states one way or another.  If it gains enough attention, then I imagine government will act.

In the mean time, this may mean developing new glass plants in Crimea and other parts of Russia to meet the demand.  Hopefully the decision of this new company makes them collapse and forced to sell.

I just read the article. I believe southfrount went down a strange path. There are way too many pessimistic articles depicting Russia in a negative way. Furthermore there are a lot of ukrainians working in the southfront team (they admitted it last Sunday when they wrote an article celebrating the comedian success at the election). I am not sure that they are completely honest in their work.

Anyway, one should be a moron to compare the situation in the 90's with the current one. I do not know how the current owners acquired the ownership of this company, if there were irregularities that have been overlooked they will find them now. Putin has allowed many people that in the 90's acquired companies in a not too transparent way to keep them, not be able to fight against all of them and also because at that time many companies were at least kept operative that way. He put however some conditions for the people that got rich that way: paying taxes in russia and continuing investing in the companies, and absolutely stay away from.media business.and politics.

If the owners of this company are creating problems to the supply to Crimea stopping abruptly the delivery in a market in which they cannot be replaced easily in a short time I can imagine that they will be prosecuted.and the companies will be put in a "controlled administration" and.eventually sold under market value to some friends of the government that is already under US sanction and will continue supplying its products to Crimea.

I have noticed the bias too.

This company is probably making a rational choice which reflects its income dependence. It likely makes most of its money via exports. This is good
for Russia so there is no reason to shut them down. The reality today is that Uncle Scumbag and his minions can impose his will through sanctions.
Crimea should be serviced by other Russian companies. Russia has a very diversified economy and no particular company like this is some sort of
critical element.

This is a chance for a smaller company to grow. Or just bring the product to the mainland via the bridge and fill the bottles there.

If they want to stop sales to Crimea to prevent sanctions from the US, then they are an enemy agent and should have tariffs on all their products sold in Russian markets and those tariff generated funds can be used to pay for subsidies for other glass manufacturers to fill the gap.

I would add that often glass and plastic bottling companies often get gobbled up by large companies... we had a few independent drink companies like L&P (basically a lemon drink like sprite or 7up) that were bought up and taken over by the cocacola company... those that werent were swallowed up by the pepsi competition...

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-25/workers-suspect-us-conspiring-bankrupt-russias-largest-commercial-vehicle-plant

An example of US racketeering via sanctions.

Putin needs to act and fast. Gaz needs to be secured by imposing punitive import tariffs on US-associated trucks and vans.
US-associated vehicle companies must be regulated in the Russian market to make sure Gaz does not go bankrupt. It should
be taken out of Deripaska's hands and transferred to some other holding not affected by US sanctions terror.

It is simply unacceptable to let US scumbags get away with their dirty tricks. No fecking NATO based company should
be allowed to make any money in Russia if Russian companies are put under threat of bankruptcy.

kvs wrote:https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-25/workers-suspect-us-conspiring-bankrupt-russias-largest-commercial-vehicle-plant

An example of US racketeering via sanctions.  

Putin needs to act and fast.   Gaz needs to be secured by imposing punitive import tariffs on US-associated trucks and vans.
US-associated vehicle companies must be regulated in the Russian market to make sure Gaz does not go bankrupt.   It should
be taken out of Deripaska's hands and transferred to some other holding not affected by US sanctions terror.

It is simply unacceptable to let US scumbags get away with their dirty tricks.   No fecking NATO based company should
be allowed to make any money in Russia if Russian companies are put under threat of bankruptcy.

Deripaska is the same criminal that allowed the aircraft building company Aviakor in Samara to go bankrupt.

I believe there are enough reasons to nationalize the companies and all the assets of this "businessman".

Rodion_Romanovic wrote:

kvs wrote:https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-25/workers-suspect-us-conspiring-bankrupt-russias-largest-commercial-vehicle-plant

An example of US racketeering via sanctions.  

Putin needs to act and fast.   Gaz needs to be secured by imposing punitive import tariffs on US-associated trucks and vans.
US-associated vehicle companies must be regulated in the Russian market to make sure Gaz does not go bankrupt.   It should
be taken out of Deripaska's hands and transferred to some other holding not affected by US sanctions terror.

It is simply unacceptable to let US scumbags get away with their dirty tricks.   No fecking NATO based company should
be allowed to make any money in Russia if Russian companies are put under threat of bankruptcy.

Deripaska is the same criminal that allowed the aircraft building company Aviakor in Samara to go bankrupt.

I believe there are enough reasons to nationalize the companies and all the assets of this "businessman".

I mostly agree. But nationalization is not the optimal option. Gaz should be put into bankruptcy and its ownership
transferred to others who are not as exposed and disloyal as Deripaska. Bankruptcy does not require dissolution
of a company.

Nationalization is too disruptive in such cases. By contrast, oil, gas and minerals should be considered as state
property and their extraction as licensed activity.

kvs wrote:

Rodion_Romanovic wrote:

kvs wrote:https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-25/workers-suspect-us-conspiring-bankrupt-russias-largest-commercial-vehicle-plant

An example of US racketeering via sanctions.  

Putin needs to act and fast.   Gaz needs to be secured by imposing punitive import tariffs on US-associated trucks and vans.
US-associated vehicle companies must be regulated in the Russian market to make sure Gaz does not go bankrupt.   It should
be taken out of Deripaska's hands and transferred to some other holding not affected by US sanctions terror.

It is simply unacceptable to let US scumbags get away with their dirty tricks.   No fecking NATO based company should
be allowed to make any money in Russia if Russian companies are put under threat of bankruptcy.

Deripaska is the same criminal that allowed the aircraft building company Aviakor in Samara to go bankrupt.

I believe there are enough reasons to nationalize the companies and all the assets of this "businessman".

I mostly agree.  But nationalization is not the optimal option.   Gaz should be put into bankruptcy and its ownership
transferred to others who are not as exposed and disloyal as Deripaska.   Bankruptcy does not require dissolution
of a company.  

Nationalization is too disruptive in such cases.    By contrast, oil, gas and minerals should be considered as state
property and their extraction as licensed activity.  

In this case rusal, and probably aviakor should be nationalised and for GAZ, well they could do.something similar to what I was suggesting a couple of posts above.

Thet is, put the company in a "controlled administration" and eventually sell it under market value to some patriotic businessman that is already under US sanction and keep a.sort of "golden share" (e.g 30%) in state property.

In addition, they should disinvest most of their activities in the US.

kvs wrote:

Rodion_Romanovic wrote:

kvs wrote:https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-25/workers-suspect-us-conspiring-bankrupt-russias-largest-commercial-vehicle-plant

An example of US racketeering via sanctions.  

Putin needs to act and fast.   Gaz needs to be secured by imposing punitive import tariffs on US-associated trucks and vans.
US-associated vehicle companies must be regulated in the Russian market to make sure Gaz does not go bankrupt.   It should
be taken out of Deripaska's hands and transferred to some other holding not affected by US sanctions terror.

It is simply unacceptable to let US scumbags get away with their dirty tricks.   No fecking NATO based company should
be allowed to make any money in Russia if Russian companies are put under threat of bankruptcy.

Deripaska is the same criminal that allowed the aircraft building company Aviakor in Samara to go bankrupt.

I believe there are enough reasons to nationalize the companies and all the assets of this "businessman".

I mostly agree.  But nationalization is not the optimal option.   Gaz should be put into bankruptcy and its ownership
transferred to others who are not as exposed and disloyal as Deripaska.   Bankruptcy does not require dissolution
of a company.  

Nationalization is too disruptive in such cases.    By contrast, oil, gas and minerals should be considered as state
property and their extraction as licensed activity.  

Whats the problem with nationalizing Gaz? Did you forget it was state property before it was privatized under Yeltsin era neo-liberal shock therapy. The neo-liberal Russophobic magazine, 'The Economist', labeled it the best 'managed' auto company in Russia, which is cryptic language for it was great at siphoning money out of Russia and in to Western banks. Besides Oleg Deripaska's was a two-timing rat, who was playing footsie with the Russophobic Western establishment prior to 2016, and was siphoning money out of Russian and evading taxation in Russia hiding money in Cyprus, using it as a tax haven....and now his Western 'friends' stabbed him in the back....plus this isn't some arbitrary nationalization from out the blue sky, there's external actors who want to completely shut it down. Russia should ask the Volkswagon group to sell it's shares at a reasonable (low) price, or have its shares taken if it doesn't cooperate.

magnumcromagnon wrote:

kvs wrote:

Rodion_Romanovic wrote:

kvs wrote:https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-25/workers-suspect-us-conspiring-bankrupt-russias-largest-commercial-vehicle-plant

An example of US racketeering via sanctions.  

Putin needs to act and fast.   Gaz needs to be secured by imposing punitive import tariffs on US-associated trucks and vans.
US-associated vehicle companies must be regulated in the Russian market to make sure Gaz does not go bankrupt.   It should
be taken out of Deripaska's hands and transferred to some other holding not affected by US sanctions terror.

It is simply unacceptable to let US scumbags get away with their dirty tricks.   No fecking NATO based company should
be allowed to make any money in Russia if Russian companies are put under threat of bankruptcy.

Deripaska is the same criminal that allowed the aircraft building company Aviakor in Samara to go bankrupt.

I believe there are enough reasons to nationalize the companies and all the assets of this "businessman".

I mostly agree.  But nationalization is not the optimal option.   Gaz should be put into bankruptcy and its ownership
transferred to others who are not as exposed and disloyal as Deripaska.   Bankruptcy does not require dissolution
of a company.  

Nationalization is too disruptive in such cases.    By contrast, oil, gas and minerals should be considered as state
property and their extraction as licensed activity.  

Whats the problem with nationalizing Gaz? Did you forget it was state property before it was privatized under Yeltsin era neo-liberal shock therapy. The neo-liberal Russophobic magazine, 'The Economist', labeled it the best 'managed' auto company in Russia, which is cryptic language for it was great at siphoning money out of Russia and in to Western banks. Besides Oleg Deripaska's was a two-timing rat, who was playing footsie with the Russophobic Western establishment prior to 2016, and was siphoning money out of Russian and evading taxation in Russia hiding money in Cyprus, using it as a tax haven....and now his Western 'friends' stabbed him in the back....plus this isn't some arbitrary nationalization from out the blue sky, there's external actors who want to completely shut it down. Russia should ask the Volkswagon group to sell it's shares at a reasonable (low) price, or have its shares taken if it doesn't cooperate.

Good private owners are better than bureaucrat owners. Government culture, and I know this from first hand experience, is not
optimal for managing companies. There is too much process (do nothing activity) and too little accountability. In spite of all
the lip service about conflict of interest and fairness and the associated regulation red tape, one gets the opposite and Kafkaesque
result. Russia is lucky it has a "tyrant" like Putin who can cut through the layers of BS and override the parasites. The same
applies to private ownership. It can properly run a company and ensure its success when a bunch of incompetent government
chimps can't. The fact that Yeltsin's corrupt comprador regime dished out Soviet industry to corrupt businessmen does not make
Gosplan the only option and there is plenty of evidence of this since 1999. Russia does not need to reproduce all of Venezuela's
mistakes. Enough with the social engineering and clean up the pro-NATO rot. That is what Putin has been doing and successfully.

Chances are, they are waiting for it to go bankrupt so that they can consolidate the factory, get it running again under new management. Not first, nor last. Because if that happens, Russian gov or conglomerate of business would get it at pennies to the dollar.

I just remembered how Putin treated Deripaska in 2008


https://youtu.be/48Kk7kobMQY

Recent example of my view was both Kurganomash and Uralvagonzavod. Both faced bankruptcy couple years ago. Both were being touted as "done for" and "Russia won't be able to make tanks anymore".  Ended up after bankruptcy, Rostec took all assets for next to nothing, combined it, now turned it into a profiting business.

Rostec I believe owns assets of GAZ now o think about it. They themselves keep posting about Gazell next.

Let's not forget that they are also part of Sollers group.  Which is a very large group with multiple manufacturing locations.  So chances are, GAZ will get bought out and consolidated after it declares bankruptcy.

Edit: OK so some mistakes I made.

GAZ is not part of Sollers.

Rostec only owns shares in a engine making company that supplies for GAZ and others.

But since the plant is so large and makes products for a Niche market, they wont give up GAZ. At least not till it is bankrupt and purchased for pennies.

Many here probably remember the Western narrative that the state's share of GDP has massively increased since 2000/2008/2012 due to Putler being evil, or whatever. According to some estimates, it would be as high as 70% (which btw sounds totally ridiculous).

h/t Anatoly Karlin's Twitter:

The whole "thread" (it's short):
https://twitter.com/IikkaKorhonen/status/1123685878591832064

According to a recent study, published in March:

The size of the Russian State has not increased much in the last few years, but its economic footprint remains significant. Concretely, the state's size increased from about 32 percent of GDP in 2012 to 33 percent in 2016, not far from the EBRD's estimate of 35 percent for 2005-10.

This is different from the mainstream narrative, which contends that the state's size doubled in the last decade.

However, a deep state footprint is reflected in a relatively high state share in formal sector activity (close to 40 percent) and formal sector employment (about 50 percent).

That reminds me of the BS propaganda about "increasingly authoritarian Russia/Putin," which incidentally is THE Western narrative on Russia in a nutshell. It has been repeated over and over and over again.

According to the Western MSM, when did all that begin exactly? Over ten years ago? So shouldn't Putin already be a dictator of a totalitarian country at this stage? What the hell is he waiting for? (And yes, I realize many idiots really think that describes modern day Russia somehow accurately, but I'm not even going there...) Man, this guy is amazing, he puts Trump in the White House, but he does a really bad job at being a dictator of his own country!

(Now of course one could argue that Russia has become more authoritarian, but objectively 1. that's not necessarily a bad thing at all and 2. the change has been modest, at most.)

The claim of increased authoritarianism requires proof. It is patently not self evident.

1) Yeltsin operated as a dictator. He used the obsolete Soviet legal system without reform and people
were sent away to penal colonies for stealing food to eat. They did this thanks to his quisling policy
of "shock therapy" that resulted in the collapse of the GDP by over 50%. A super depression.
During Yeltsin's rule, the media was dominated by corrupt gangster oligarchs who were like giant
maggots consuming the Soviet corpse. Plenty of journalists died during this time including clear
cases of political motives (e.g. the head of ORT). But I heard not a peep about these deaths and
the brutality of Yeltsin's rule in the NATO MSM.

2) It was Putin who introduced all of the legal reform in Russia. This includes the introduction
of juries in trials and probation. Thanks to Putin's reforms, Russia's position as having close to
US levels of incarceration dropped substantially. About 180,000 prisoners were released and this number
has effectively increased since then. What's "golden era" Yeltsin's excuse for doing f*ck all? You
will note how the NATO MSM never brings up this aspect and instead focuses on the "mistreatment" of
gangster oligarchs.

3) Putin succeeded in cleaning house and saving Russia from collapse through oligarch rot (see Ukr-land).
The NATO MSM cast the legal action against criminals such as Khodorkovsky and Berezovsky as "persecution"
of "dissidents". The Orwellian propaganda character of the NATO MSM coverage of Russia is clear and is
brazen. The NATO MSM insinuates that the fleeing of corrupt oligarch Gusinsky abroad is proof that the
Russian MSM is "unfree". This is pure BS since his media properties were run to conform to his personal
political agenda. Much like Ruppert Murdoch's media properties. The notion that Randolf Hearst style
media ownership is "freedom" is grotesque. It is worse than state propaganda since it has the false
veneer of "independence". Today, Russia has a much wider spectrum of media than NATO. The NATO MSM
lies that Russians only see state media and are only exposed to Putin's propaganda. The reality is that
Russians have pro-NATO newspapers and a TV news channel. There is simply no equivalent of this in NATO.
RT tries to be "balanced" and even so it is suppressed.

There is lots of propaganda in NATO that Russians are being denied internet access. This is a total
lie and Russia has nothing like the controlled Chinese internet. The current attempt to prevent Russia
from being cut off from the global internet by the USA which controls vital internet infrastructure
(e.g. nameservers and domain registration) is being twisted into sounding like some sort of Chinese style
control attempt. I say, put up or shut up and show a single instance of Russians being denied access to
all the NATO fake stream media sites (e.g. CNN).

4) The NATO MSM, in true Orwellian fashion, presents the electoral controls on fringe parties as total suppression
of pluralism. So things such as a 5% support margin for having seats in the legislature and signature requirements
for participation in the presidential election are cast as removal of choice. Naturally, that fringe parties
do not get legislator seats in the west even if they have 10% of the vote is omitted. Fringe parties also do
not get equal time in the MSM in the west but similar asymmetry in Russia is proof of Putin's tyranny. BTW,
thanks to full bore NATO support for Russian fringe parties (the ones that NATO always wails about not winning),
they actually get more MSM coverage than even mainstream Russian parties. They are given the mystique of forbidden
fruit which boosts their vote numbers. If they can't win even after all of this soft power aid, then GTFO
with bitching about Russian oppression. Russian voters are clearly deciding who they want without any coercion.

It is also grotesque how a two-party regime (the USA), is the source of so much bile about "lack of choice"
in Russia which routinely has 5 or more candidates running for the presidency. And these candidates are
independent unlike the two that run for president of the USA.


So I see an improvement in the level of freedom of Russians since the 1990s. Putin's promise of sanctification of
the rule of law has been fulfilled. The gangster oligarch days of the 1990s are gone. But NATO propagandists are
trying to make it look like there was no corruption under Yeltsin and that it was Putin and "his oligarchs" who
drove up corruption in Russia. This is totally unreal and utterly lacking in any empirical evidence. The vast
Russian majority can see the changes over the last 20 years. Any perception of "more authoritarianism" in Russia
since 1999 is due to pure propaganda nonsense.

regarding the Belarus being dickhead thread, this bit was interesting:

http://thesaker.is/lukashenko-declares-a-gas-war-on-russia-after-putins-free-loan/

Against the background of a recently received loan, the phrase “became brazen to such a degree” looks somewhat ambiguous. In fact, Minsk decided to raise the stakes, threatening the same things that Ukraine had repeatedly blackmailed Russia with interruptions in energy transit.

And in order to emphasize the painfulness of such measures for our country, Lukashenko even emphasized that oil is the main export commodity of Russia. That is, covertly called our country a “gas station” (phrase that John McCain once used.) He probably got the phrase from his American ‘partners.’

Although, by the way, last year, in monetary terms, non-primary exports from Russia overtook raw materials, reaching $235 billion.

https://sdelanounas.ru/blogs/119604/

Import substitution. April 2019. Implemented 25 projects.

From June 2015, according to the site "Sdelanounas" and other resources in Russia implemented more 1221 of the project import!

*****

June 2015 — 23 project.

July 2015 — 18 projects.

August 2015 — 24 project.

September 2015 — 33 project.

October 2015 — 35 projects.

November 2015 — 38 projects.

December 2015 — 28 projects.

January 2016 — 29 projects.

February 2016 — 22 project.

March 2016 — 37 projects.

April 2016 — 23 project.

May 2016 — 40 projects.

June 2016 — 44 project.

July 2016 — 52 project.

August 2016 — 53 project.

September 2016 — 47 projects.

October 2016 — 58 projects.

November 2016 — 26 projects.

December 2016 — 64 project.

January 2017 — 21 project.

February 2017 — 25 projects.

March 2017 — 15 projects.

April 2017 — 27 projects.

May 2017 — 18 projects.

June 2017 — 15 projects.

July 2017 — 19 projects.

August 2017 — 24 project.

September 2017 14 projects.

October 2017 — 15 projects.

November 2017 — 21 project.

December 2017 — 27 projects.

January 2018 — 16 projects.

February 2018 — 16 projects.

March 2018 — 28 projects.

April 2018 — 23 project.

May 2018 — 26 projects.

June 2018 — 18 projects.

July 2018 — 16 projects.

August 2018 — 19 projects.

September 2018 — 29 projects.

October 2018 — 20 projects.

November 2018 — 29 projects.

December 2018 — 24 project.

January 2019 — 13 projects.

February 2019 — 23 project.

March 2019 — 28 projects.

Russia went to 6th, yet is 2nd largest exporter. It spent less than China, France, India, and Saudi Arabia, obviously USA, but it does not explain how Russia gets more equipment than these countries even if it spends less...


hmmm maybe PPP? Gee I'm not sure! (sarcasm)

At the current exchange rate you get 65 Rubles for 1 $. Now let´s suppose for a minute the western banksters would change that rate to 1:30. In the same second the russian military expenditure would double, at least in Dollar terms. And the whole west would cry about the evil russians preparing an aggression.

https://tass.ru/ekonomika/6413829

Siluanov: Russian non-oil exports in 2019 could reach $160 billion

MOSCOW, may 8. /TASS/. The Russian government predicts that exports of manufactured goods from Russia to 2019 will reach $160 billion, $9 billion more than in 2018. The first Vice-Premier, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at a meeting of the presidential Council of the Russian Federation for strategic development and priority projects.

"It is planned to increase non-oil exports in the current year to $9 billion by last year. And the total amount will reach $160 billion," - said Siluanov.

He noted that in the framework of the national project "international cooperation and exports" launched the program of support of producers that implement a corporate program of increasing the competitiveness. "The program gives you access to preferential financing of export projects. Commercial rates for banks participating in this program, reduced by 4.5 percentage points, attracted more than 1.5 thousand potential participants of the program", - said Siluanov.

Also in the framework of the national project adopted the law on VAT refunds in the export of services by analogy with the export of goods. "This will reduce the burden for companies exporting services, including transport companies, IT companies", - emphasized the first Vice Prime Minister.

He recalled that the national development of the Russian Federation in the sphere of economy include Russia's entry into the five of leading world economies, achieving growth rates above the world and the creation of highly productive export oriented sector.

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The Federal customs service in January-April increased payments to the Russian budget by 9.2%

The Federal customs service (FCS) of Russia in January-April 2019 increased transfer to the Federal budget by 9.2% compared to the same period last year — up to 1,824 trillion rubles, follows from the message of the FCS.

"In the four months of 2019, the amount of Federal budget revenues administered by the customs authorities, 1.824 trillion rubles", — stated in the message. A year earlier, the volume of transfers amounted to 1.67 trillion rubles.

Including in April, TCF listed in the budget 514,6 billion rubles (growth in annual terms by 8.1%).

Development in Russia outside of St. Petersburg and Moscow.