/ world today news/ Bloomberg discovered Russia somewhere in a parallel reality. The material describes how, in connection with the ongoing special operation in Ukraine, economic pressure is increasing not only on the state budget, but also on business, so that everyone has to shrink, and the time of the oligarchs, the so-called “dividend aristocrats”, “is passing. . In fact, this is what the top managers themselves, who were interviewed by the publication, say. What is Bloomberg writing about and what is the situation in reality – Kannune.ru found out.
“The (Russian, b.c.) government is already considering one-time taxes on some big companies to help boost revenue that has been cut by tightening sanctions and other restrictions, and businessmen said they expect the Kremlin to increase demands for financing, from what is produced to how much it costs,” Bloomberg wrote in the article.
Of course, reading this for an ordinary Russian is extremely surprising, because there are almost no examples when big business would donate something for the needs of a special operation, for its part, the state in every possible way denies any possibility of reviving some analogue of the State Commission for planning, at least to meet the needs of said mobilization or to implement critical import substitution projects.
However, there are also businessmen and oligarchs who have left the country and fear that their businesses will be nationalized or absorbed by “more loyal” competitors who remain in the country. And this has been said several times, apparently the oligarchs have such great fears.
However, Vladimir Putin is against nationalization, as is the entire financial block of the government, so the second option is more likely. But even here, not everything is so calm – sanctions and increasing pressure on business led to the fact that everyone had to shrink, so the oligarchy is already “a thing of the past”.
“According to top managers, the way of life known as ‘dividend aristocrats’ – businessmen who in recent years lived richly off the huge profits of their companies – is gone forever,” the Bloomberg authors are sure.
Is that correct? If it really became difficult with dividends, they became not always predictable, then the oligarchs themselves remained, but as the same top managers said, now they cannot use their connections in the ministries to lobby for interests and business projects.
Economist and member of the State Duma Mikhail Delyagin partially agrees with Bloomberg’s conclusions, but the general picture is different:
“If there are no dividends, there is no dividend aristocracy. At the same time, the funds accumulated by the oligarchs allow them to both maintain influence and launch new projects. Therefore, to say that the time of the oligarchs is over is a very naive statement or designed to divert attention from the real problems of Russia, which are only related to the rule of the oligarchy.”
In other words, the material gives the impression that everything is being taken away from them, times have changed and they are no longer the same corrupt nouveau riche they were in the early 1990s. That is, it is possible and even necessary to build business with them, especially for Western partners.
But this impression is deceptive, Mikhail Delyagin is sure, who believes that the target audience of such statements are the Russian authorities, “so that they don’t think of pinching the oligarchs, because they are already the poorest and most pitiful,” says the expert.
Economist Vasily Koltashov partly agrees with this:
“They complain that they were pressured, but they just don’t understand the era. A new era has begun, the essence of which is that you can save a fortune, run a successful business, develop companies, but you have to be in the orbit of your country. “
“And if you, if you want to constantly have something of her, to destroy and corrupt it, if you want to constantly betray her by making deals with the Americans or anyone else, then you can only complain that you are treated unfairly. Which is what we see,” he continues.
It is important to note that all the complaints of the oligarchs and top managers are only related to the context of the special operation and the last economic year, this is not observed even in the era of Covid. But if you look at their position in the context of 30 years of reforms, the picture is quite different.
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Economics Abel Aganbegyan in his research concludes that only the “highest group” has gained from 30 years of transformation:
“For half of the population of Russia, the level of real income has decreased compared to the Soviet period, for 30% of the percentage it has remained at the same level, and for the upper group, for 20%, the level of income has risen significantly.”
However, as experts are sure, these data should also be reconciled and possibly recalculated in a way that is more negative for society. So, Mikhail Delyagin recalls that, first of all, it is necessary to take into account changes in public free funds.
During the Soviet Union, about half of the consumption of the citizens of the USSR was free consumption, paid for by public consumption funds, starting with cheap rents and electricity. And directly it looked like free or almost free trips, pioneer camps and so on.
If we ignore the liquidation of public funds, then the comparison is incorrect. And secondly, it is necessary to take into account not only the level of consumption, but also the level of the quality of life – how much is the loss of security worth.
“In the Soviet Union, you didn’t have to buy an iron door, the door of your apartment could not be locked at all, because no one would enter it,” says the famous economist.
“Now an iron door is the minimum. That is, the price of an iron door is an additional expense that did not exist in the USSR. Security costs must be deducted from income growth, and not only for the richest, but also for the poorest Delyagin explains.
The expert concludes that if we take into account all these adjustments, it may turn out that after the reforms, not 20% of the population turned out to be profitable, but only 5% or even less, whose complaints are broadcast by Bloomberg.
“They are under tension between the poles and would like to prosper between them – between the Russian state and the American or British state and the European Union, which has joined them as a periphery, but they cannot,” summarizes Vasily Koltashov.
“And for them, what is happening now is a real catastrophe. They do not understand what is happening, they painfully perceive their forced inclusion in the agenda, for example in support of the SVO. They do not understand that nothing can be turned back,” he believes .
Translation: SM
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
#era #dividend #aristocrats #Russia #oligarchs #crying
