Although, according to official figures, it has been going down in recent years, poverty in Russia is still extremely high. The population living in poverty in Russia was 24.5% at the beginning of 2005. In the third quarter of last year it was 14.8%. That represents a drop of 14 million people, leaving however, 20 million still in poverty.
Now, however, poverty levels are expected to start rising again because of rising inflation. Although in the recent period they have increased the minimum wage this has not had any effect, precisely because prices are also going up.
According to official figures, in the fourth quarter of last year the minimum income required to survive was 4005 rubles per month. In Moscow life is more expensive, and the minimum required was 5855 rubles.
Moscow is considered one of the better-off parts of Russia, and yet according to Mosgorstat, the city's statistics office, 23% of Muscovites live in poverty. What this confirms is that income disparity has always been wider in Moscow than elsewhere, with the extremely rich living in the same city as the extremely poor.
In 2007 the richest 10 percent of the Moscow population were 41.6 times better off than the poorest 10 percent (compared to 41.7 times in 2006 and 38.6 times in 2005). Compare this situation to Russia as a whole, where the difference was 16.8 times in 2007, up from 16 times in 2006.
This poverty does not just afflict the unemployed or sick. Some of those living in poverty are employed, but are on very low wages. Vladimir Putin in his new position as Russian Prime Minister has clearly understood that growing disparities between rich and poor can cause social turmoil and has therefore stated that he intends to raise the minimum wage to 4330 rubles on January 1, 2009. In Moscow that would still leave many below the poverty line.
Seventeen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the chaotic rush towards capitalism, this is what Putin has to offer!
