For the fifth year in a row, Russian citizens have had less in their purse in 2018. According to official statistics, real incomes fell by 0.2 percent compared to 2017, Russian media reported today.
Putin had promised „positive trend“
President Vladimir Putin told reporters in December that there was a „small but positive trend“ in disposable income. „According to the latest information, 0.5 percent is expected.“ He has declared higher incomes and less poverty to be the key objectives of his tenure until 2024.
Not even in the economically difficult 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union had there been such a long decline, said the analyst Kirill Tremasov of the newspaper „Vedomosti“. After years of growth, real income shrank for the first time in 2014, when Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and sanctions were imposed by the EU and US. At the same time, low oil prices and a lack of economic reforms are the reasons for the Russian economic crisis.
Although the population supports Putin’s course, growing poverty as a result is not willing to accept it, said political scientist Abbas Galljamov. The Kremlin boss was re-elected in 2018 with a record result. After that, however, raising the retirement age had struck people’s trust in their presidents a blow.
