Yuri Kobzar22:52, 30.08.24
Russians living on $200-400 are offered so much money to be sent to the front that they are unable to resist the temptation.
In an attempt to destroy Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has created a strange economic model in Russia , in which it is more profitable for Russians to die at the front than to live and work. This is written by the French newspaper Le Monde .
As the publication notes, the Kremlin is trying with all its might to attract new volunteers to be sent to the front line. They are trying to lure them with huge cash payments that come from the federal and regional budgets.
In July, Putin decided to double the monthly salary of contract soldiers participating in the “SVO” from 195,000 rubles to 400,000 rubles ($4,400). This is ten times more than the average salary of Russian military personnel in peacetime.
Added to this is a one-time bonus of 1.2 million rubles ($13,000) paid for signing a contract. This tax-free income comes with various privileges for servicemen and their families, including preferential mortgages, admission to the country’s most prestigious universities without entrance exams, a comfortable pension, and social status.
And if such a volunteer dies at the front, his family will receive a cosmic, by Russian standards, 11 million rubles (more than 120 thousand dollars). True, the amount here depends greatly on the region.
“A strange economic model has emerged, according to which a dead Russian earns more for his family than a living one. In fact, if a man decides to go to war and dies between 30 and 35, that is, at the age when he is most active and in the best shape of his life, his death will be more “advantageous” from an economic point of view than his future,” writes Le Monde.
As Russian economist Vladislav Inozemtsev, who now lives in the United States, notes, this method of recruiting cannon fodder is new to Russia. In the past, soldiers were recruited with tales of patriotic duty, or by simple coercion. Now, the average Russian, who earns an average of $200-400, faces a colossal monetary temptation, which often outweighs the risks.
One of the side effects of flooding the population with money is abnormal “growth” of the economy, which is maintained at an elevated level of consumption. This leads to the so-called overheating of the economy, when prices rise rapidly due to the inability to satisfy the huge demand – the country’s production capacity is exhausted.
Economic situation in Russia
As UNIAN wrote, Russia has been engulfed by a wave of high inflation . Due to the overheating of the economy, prices are rising “on a continuous front” – for food, gasoline, services, industrial goods. The draconian refinancing rates from the Russian Central Bank, introduced many months ago, cannot stop the growth of prices.
Former Polish Prime Minister Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is convinced that the overheated Russian economy will collapse as soon as the war is over . Since Russia’s current “prosperity” is based on huge budget injections into military production and payments to the military, as soon as the need for such expenditures disappears, many enterprises will be left without orders, and millions of people will be left without work.
(C)UNIAN 2024