Gerard Depardieu now Russian

[RussiaPrussia]

This is very naive and your maths are crude and way off. Don't mean to burst your bubble but St Petersburg's GRP per capita is only 385,600 roubles, around 12,800 US Dollars (2011 est.) (source) and although this is still very good and above average for Russia it's far below western standards.
Khanty-Mansi AO produces 53% of Russia's hydrocarbon resources(source) so it's no wonder the GRP would be so high compared to the rest of Russia. This mostly benefits the kleptocrat in the Kremlin and his Gazprom buddies but no doubt the oil and gas employees get paid relatively well by Russian standards. Good if you have the skills necessary to relocate and work there, everyone else is left out.
GDP itself isn't a good indicator for living standards. Russia produces a lot of gas and oil but only a little of the revenues will go to the workers salaries. Most go to building gazprom, funding the budget (high levels of corruption and wasteful pet projects too) and syphoned off by Putin and his oligarchs.

this is so typical if the US has a high gdp its legitime that its rich, if russia is argued ehhh its just a few oligarchs.

[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/GINI_retouched_legend.gif[/IMG

But fact is russias gap of wealth distribution is smaller than the US, not so small like other european countries but also not far away from japan as you can see at the gini map.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...72rank.html#uk

USA gini 45.0 2007 before the crisis

Russia gini 42.0 2010 after the crisis

UK gini 34.0 2005 before the crisis

but here is the thing if you look at european countries gini statistics they are way outdated. They all were made before the 2009 crisis as you can see in the cia list. Its much likely that european countries are probably just as bad or maybe even worse than russia, and the US is probably even more worse as they also made a statics before 2009.

And clearly you can see the source i posted that this 6 regions produce half of russias gdp as a whole and you just pick the weakest region out which is not even 5 million people of the total 30 million these regions have (my source only counts the saint petersburg town not leningrad oblast). I made the data my self as its very easy to do so ounce you know that these regions contribute that amount of russias gdp. And note that i used nominal gdp so if i would use ppp these six regions would have a gdp per capita of 50,250 US dollars, higher than the USA, while the remaining 113 million have a higher gdp per capita than brazil.

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/...isplay=default

And yes gdp per capita is the only valued source you can compare living standards. As i mentioned the gini data is outdated for most of the countries and in general its harder to do such statistics meaning they cant be done every year like worldbaks or imfs gdp data. So its pointless even to debate about that as you use the typical oligarchy cliché about russia rather than proven statistics for russia and other european countries.

[Serpent Mist]

this is so typical if the US has a high gdp its legitime that its rich, if russia is argued ehhh its just a few oligarchs.

Who mentioned the USA?

But fact is russias gap of wealth distribution is smaller than the US, not so small like other european countries but also not far away from japan as you can see at the gini map.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...72rank.html#uk

USA gini 45.0 2007 before the crisis

Russia gini 42.0 2010 after the crisis

UK gini 34.0 2005 before the crisis

but here is the thing if you look at european countries gini statistics they are way outdated. They all were made before the 2009 crisis as you can see in the cia list. Its much likely that european countries are probably just as bad or maybe even worse than russia, and the US is probably even more worse as they also made a statics before 2009.

If Russian wealth is so fairly distributed then why are 13% of Russians living below the poverty line? Why is the minimum wage 4,600 roubles ($155) a month? source

And clearly you can see the source i posted that this 6 regions produce half of russias gdp as a whole and you just pick the weakest region out which is not even 5 million people of the total 30 million these regions have (my source only counts the saint petersburg town not leningrad oblast). I made the data my self as its very easy to do so ounce you know that these regions contribute that amount of russias gdp. And note that i used nominal gdp so if i would use ppp these six regions would have a gdp per capita of 50,250 US dollars, higher than the USA, while the remaining 113 million have a higher gdp per capita than brazil.

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/...isplay=default

You could do the same with any country, if you cherry pick regions with the highest grp in any country you can skew the reality of the wealth of that nation too. Yugra produces over half of Russia oil production yet only 1.5 million people live there, so it's pointless using GDP per capita as a measure of wealth of the people. Most of the oil wealth will go to Moscow or syphoned off by management, not the people of Khanty mansk themselves.

And yes gdp per capita is the only valued source you can compare living standards. As i mentioned the gini data is outdated for most of the countries and in general its harder to do such statistics meaning they cant be done every year like worldbaks or imfs gdp data. So its pointless even to debate about that as you use the typical oligarchy cliché about russia rather than proven statistics for russia and other european countries.

I've been sourcing my statistics in every post i've made for everyone to corroborate thank you. Also the oligarchy is not a cliche. Look when Putin took out Khodorkovsky et al he didn't take out the oligarchs like it was portrayed in Russia. He just took out the oligarchs who wouldnt work for his interests and replaced them with his own people.
Russia might look "rich" on paper but the reality is more like this for much of Russia

Like a middle eastern country Russia uses its natural resources to cover up the true picture of most of Russia, they become too comfortable in the huge returns that they fail to invest in the future. If Russia had a program of paving the roads all over Russia instead of spending hundreds of billions to build an army they can show off to the west, can you imagine how it would change Russia? Better roads will make the transportation of goods and capital around the country more efficient. A welfare program like in Europe would lift most of those Russian living in poverty out of the poverty line.
The Russia you see is possible with good management of the state but it's not the Russia there is today. Russia's natural wealth could be used to build an infrastructure that becomes self maintaining rather than reliant. The unfortunate thing is that by the time Putin leaves office Europe will have reduced its dependance on Russian gas, and thus most of Russia's foreign income too, and any hope of building a large efficient infrastucture will be gone. Plus who is to say whoever comes after Putin will be any better?

[Zashchishchayushchiy]

Interesting, I live in the Russian provinces, and I don't see poverty around, where are these 13%, poor roads and infrastructure? And this is one of the reasons why I do not believe Western ratings.

[RussiaPrussia]

Who mentioned the USA?


If Russian wealth is so fairly distributed then why are 13% of Russians living below the poverty line? Why is the minimum wage 4,600 roubles ($155) a month? source


You could do the same with any country, if you cherry pick regions with the highest grp in any country you can skew the reality of the wealth of that nation too. Yugra produces over half of Russia oil production yet only 1.5 million people live there, so it's pointless using GDP per capita as a measure of wealth of the people. Most of the oil wealth will go to Moscow or syphoned off by management, not the people of Khanty mansk themselves.



I've been sourcing my statistics in every post i've made for everyone to corroborate thank you. Also the oligarchy is not a cliche. Look when Putin took out Khodorkovsky et al he didn't take out the oligarchs like it was portrayed in Russia. He just took out the oligarchs who wouldnt work for his interests and replaced them with his own people.
Russia might look "rich" on paper but the reality is more like this for much of Russia

Like a middle eastern country Russia uses its natural resources to cover up the true picture of most of Russia, they become too comfortable in the huge returns that they fail to invest in the future. If Russia had a program of paving the roads all over Russia instead of spending hundreds of billions to build an army they can show off to the west, can you imagine how it would change Russia? Better roads will make the transportation of goods and capital around the country more efficient. A welfare program like in Europe would lift most of those Russian living in poverty out of the poverty line.
The Russia you see is possible with good management of the state but it's not the Russia there is today. Russia's natural wealth could be used to build an infrastructure that becomes self maintaining rather than reliant. The unfortunate thing is that by the time Putin leaves office Europe will have reduced its dependence on Russian gas, and thus most of Russia's foreign income too, and any hope of building a large efficient infrastructure will be gone. Plus who is to say whoever comes after Putin will be any better?

Again you post only wealth distribution for russia not for other european countries like uk. Uk is also very poor by your defitinion only rich place is london. The poverty line is 14% of which have below 60% the regular median income.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty...United_Kingdom

So you say european countries will be less dependent from russia, but you know what?? Russia is getting less dependent on europe, it uses liquid gas facilities in the far east to supply countries like japan, south korea and the rest of asia. There is an oil pipeline for china and two gas pipelines for china and south korea are also negotiated. As well as the blue stream pipeline for turkey which is already finished.
And it seems gazprom is going into transition to become an oil company as gas prices drop.

http://theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68965

Second you say that putin just replaced his oligarchs with his own. You dont even know the meaning of oligarchy. Its when private companies and other rich people control the politics. But rosneft and gazprom belong to the state. It means they work not only for their own profits but also to the public.

http://rt.com/business/news/russia-s...atization-043/

In fact russias economy belongs almost 50% to the state now. So how it is supposed to be oligarchy if 50% belongs to the public??
And its true russia spends a lot for arms and its army. There is something like 600 billions us dollars for modernization which are to be spent in a decade not immediately. And russia spends 70 billion $ annually for for its military the third largest military budget in the world which is very much for its smaller economy.
But here is what you and other westerners fail to realize. Whos spending? The state. And who belongs the arms industry. The state. So who gets the money? The state. The russian government is just paying itself to make weapons for its army as almost all defense companies in russia are owned by them. And Russia is the second largest arms exporter in the world, they exported 15 billion dollars worth of weaponry to other countries meaning 20% of their budget was backed up by that in 2012. Its also one of the most completive manufacturing industry in russia thats why the state spends so much and it kind of makes sense as most innovations like the internet or gps were invented first for military porpoise.

And third this was you also dont get is that, despite so many things are spent for the military is the fact that russia has just 10% debt of their gdp. Now compare that to uk 70%, germany 80% and america over 100%. Or any country which you think has a better welfare system than russia. They all make a lot of debt and have higher taxes. Russia on the other hand has 13% flat tax some of the lowest taxrate in the world. So how does russia manage to finance its budget by such low taxes. Its because like i mentioned above the state has a greater share of the economy making there the money. If russia would be debted like the west then you could argue that the government is robbing the people but it isnt.

Not to mention about all the other money the state has the 4th largest foreign reserves its like 530 billion dollars as well as other social funds.

And russia has social welfare, i dont know how much but there is definitely some degree of free healthcare and other things. And russian mothers get for every second and following child 10,000 €.
http://translate.google.com/translat...265381462.html

Show me any example similar in the west.

Russia is not perfect but its not an easy country, its the biggest country worldwide and cant guarantee everyone a living standard like in moscow yet, plus their demographics problems. But if you look where russia was 10 years ago and where it is now in comparison to the other european countries progress the same period, the russian governments isnt so bad as you think.

[Onur]

Now he became an honorary Chechen citizen too!;



Look at what the idiot Kadirov says; "everyone is drawn into Russia, no one can escape from US", like he is supposedly russian himself?! These people are still living in Soviet mindset, thinking like the world consists of Russia alone.

[RussiaPrussia]

Now he became an honorary Chechen citizen too!;



Look at what the idiot Kadirov says; "everyone is drawn into Russia, no one can escape from US", like he is supposedly russian himself?! These people are still living in Soviet mindset, thinking like the world consists of Russia alone.

hes a rational chechen and except that his people and all people of russia belong to this great nation, youre just a hater.

[Pure ja]

it is interesting that he is dressed in traditional mordovian costume

So, no russian then. Yet

[♥ Lily ♥]

The move to Russia was due to tax evasion as he didn't want to pay wealth taxes in France under the previous French president.