Another mining accident has occurred in the same region where up to 90 miners perished last weekend; this time two workers from the Aleskeyevskaya coal mine remain missing.  Yulia Latynina commented both acerbically and astutely in today’s Moscow Times on how the discrepancy between owner and worker is felt most acutely in times when disaster strikes, and this discrepancy can be palpable enough to ignite social unrest:

The problem is that Russian miners earn about 67 percent less and pay double the amount for food than their counterparts in the West.

Why does food cost so much in Russian stores? The high prices reflect the direct cost to the economy caused by extortionists, who have multiplied and earned record profits during the Putin years. Like other large, profitable companies, Evraz must pay Putin’s bureaucrats large bribes and kickbacks to stay in operation, and these heavy “corruption taxes” are built into production costs at Raspadskaya.