A report has found that Russia's number of wealthy people fell by 28.5% last year, which is nearly twice as much as the average level across the globe. The World Bank and the OECD have stated that Russia's economy would shrink by approximately 7.9% in 2009, rather than the 4.5% they had earlier predicted. Apparently the delay in launching an anti-crisis plan exacerbated the downturn. The New York Times reports upon how Russia has been one of the countries the hardest hit by the recession. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has reaffirmed that in the next ten years, there will not be 'considerable changes in the structure of reserve currencies in the world'. With debts of $5.4 billion, 'there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern', says steel and coal producer Mechel. The Moscow Times reports on the problems facing coal producers as they struggle to compensate for weakening domestic demand with higher exports. Demand for steel will drop by one quarter his year. Russia has initiated membership talks with the OECD. Sberbank has revealed its only noncorporate shareholder with a stake of more than 1% is ex-Maxi Group owner Nikolai Maksimov.
Today in Russian Business - June 25, 2009
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"A report has found that Russia's number of wealthy people fell by 28.5% last year, which is nearly twice as much as the average level across the globe."
Indeed, the Oligarchs, with few exceptions, leveraged themselves to the hilt. One can only imagine the scale of the financial carnage if the Putin had not broken their political power while he was president, carefully taxed away the energy windfall, and built colossal, safely invested, financial reserves with it.
I don't think the statistics refer to oligarchs, rkka.
The oligarchs never went away, they just became incorporated into the state. I don't think we can look at the theft of Telenor's stake in Vimpelcom as anything less than an executive through the courts on behalf of Mikhail Friedman.
It would be interesting to come up with the total count of how many Russian government officials are billionaires...
Further regarding the reserves - I would agree that this is the smartest thing Russia has ever done with the economy. I'm very glad that Andrei Illarionov came up with the idea and that Kudrin has been able to defend it - with reasonable success - from the kleptocracy.
"Further regarding the reserves - I would agree that this is the smartest thing Russia has ever done with the economy."
Indeed. And doing so required breaking the independent political power of the Oligarchs, to force them to submit to the Russian government taxing away the energy windfall. Some didn't go quietly...
"I'm very glad that Andrei Illarionov came up with the idea and that Kudrin has been able to defend it - with reasonable success - from the kleptocracy."
To even start doing so required breaking the power of the private kleptocracy (yes, there's more than one) that had been so influential during the Yeltsin years.