Enduring the Crisis
From Irina Yasina in the Lebanon Daily Star:
Whole regions – the Urals and Mordovia, for example – are stagnant. Moscow, which used to rain gold on the economy, is also suffering, because it, too, depends on natural resources, and its biggest taxpayers – Gazprom, Lukoil, Transneft – are now in bad shape. Indeed, Moscow’s budget has lost about a quarter of its revenues. But, given the tastes and appetites of Moscow’s mayor, you can assume that he will continue to pour what money remains into the city’s building boom. What does not bring in money – roads, schools, hospitals, and kindergartens – will suffer.