Putin has a plan to address that through annexation . . .

Hieronymus of Hesselink wrote:

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Ball Comrade wrote:

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That's a 55% increase in income.

I wonder has it kept pace with the price of goods.

I don't know, but the price of goods didn't seem relevant when saying that they only earn 85 euros a week.

Is Russia the only country in Europe to go through a period of rapid population decline other than our own lovely island here? (admittedly ours was a continuously 120 year slide rather than a 20 year plummet)

Phoebe wrote:

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Hieronymus of Hesselink wrote:

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Ball Comrade wrote:

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That's a 55% increase in income.

I wonder has it kept pace with the price of goods.

I don't know, but the price of goods didn't seem relevant when saying that they only earn 85 euros a week.

Countries where the average person earns a decent monthly salary tend to be much nicer places to live than countries where the average person earns €85 a week.

If the average Russian salary is that low even though the country possesses a stupendously rich upper class, then it's a pretty good indicator that the country's economy is well on its way to delivering a haves/have-nots society that will make Brazil look like Sweden.

You mean in peacetime, right?

I think that is probably right, though Moldova and Belarus may be getting there. It also depends on how one looks at emigration figures.

We had this discussion in the 'careful what you wish for' thread in sport, and the general conclusion was that sportspeople can and do live very nicely in the two big cities but the rest of Russia is a bit grim even for the local oligarch.

I'm relaying the general feeling I get from the Russians I know, and even those who are not 'the children of oligarchs' think that things are getting better and are generally optimistic about the future. As people tend to be in the middle of an economic boom, whether it's built on dodgy house construction or selling commodities.

Putin has also made sure that people who work for the government can be sure that they will get their 85 euros a week, which until relatively recently was by no means certain. that's an improvement in people's material living conditions, whether you think they should be happy with it or not.

That's only the people who work for the government, though.

Why should the plebs be happy with it when the top 1% or 2% are pouring nearly everything into their own pockets?

Hieronymus of Hesselink wrote:

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That's only the people who work for the government, though.

Why should the plebs be happy with it when the top 1% or 2% are pouring nearly everything into their own pockets?

I'm not saying that they should, just that they are.

The state still accounts for a huge percentage of employees, its not something that you can dismiss. Putin is a complete cunt, but he has ensured that the standard of living for the majority of Russians has improved. not enough, of course, but he's better than what went before and that shows in his popularity.

More importantly, how does a professional footballer know how other people live?

'Cos he's a caring, sensitive and empathetic kinda guy.

I mean, aren't they all?

I am amused how Colm, Manchester United propagandist extraordinaire, is so anxious to poo poo this negative story that he goes trawling about the net for charts of rainfall stats in central Europe.

Either a man with a Stalinesque devotion to the duty of propagating all things positive about the club or one with too much time on his hands. I'm not sure which.

Besides, if Vidic did say these things he's not saying he wants to go back and live and work in Belgrade or Moscow anyway. He appears to be saying he wants to live somewhere sunny. He's at the stage in his career where he can seek out and demand quality of employer as well as quality of lifestyle, just as Ronaldo has.

Shit. When did Ronaldo go?

Try reading the last sentence again.

he doesn't really, which is why the interview is clearly a load of bollocks, which paints britain as a grim workshop devoid of humanity where people just don't have the same light of laughter in their life like they do in.....er.....russia. thirty years ago it would have included the lines, "death to capitalism"

this is a comparison of uzice and manchester He is from a grim place that has the same weather as manchester.

dalliance wrote:

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Try reading the last sentence again.

Again?

Who did Ball Comrade used to be?