Where the asphalt ends

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Our country has long been divided into two states - rich and poor. If we talk about the territory, then almost all kilometers were given to the poor, it is, as it were, the lands temporarily inhabited by the indigenous population, and all the wealth, mineral resources, and the right to manage the territory were given to a small elite. For example, the court gave the ecologist Vitishko three years in prison. He and another activist wrote on the fence of Governor Tkachev's dacha: "This is our land."

The governor, having arbitrarily seized a piece of the coast, closed it with a fence, cut off the inhabitants from the sea. 7, 5 thousand signatures in support of the ecologist were presented at the court session. However, the court refused to attach the signatures to the case. As a result, Vitoshko was sent to a colony, and Tkachev was then appointed minister.

After combining with the property of the current rulers, she barricaded herself from the rest of the people in houses similar to fortresses. They are treated in separate polyclinics, they teach children in elite schools, they don't walk along our streets. It is impossible to meet these princes face to face, you can only see them on a television screen, which they also own. The great M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin noticed that there are legions of those who “speak the language of the state” and have a pie with the government’s filling in their thoughts”.

For some reason, power in the country, during the construction of a new Russia, was taken not by honest people, but by people who had lost their conscience, the smell of profit, became the main stimulus of their soul. They took it impudently, pushing away the conscientious, law-abiding. In their activities, they now make up fraudulent schemes to deceive the population, they lie without a twinge of conscience. The announcement of an increase in the retirement age during the home World Cup, which was supposed to distract the emotions, the anger of the population, is this not a fraud at the state level?

On the covers of fashion magazines, Russia is advertised as a country with a single national spirit, people from rich families dressed in the latest fashion, white-toothed smiles, fashionable hairstyles, they can afford to show off in front of the screen, in magazines, all the media are at their disposal. The country of the poor will only occasionally appear on the news as a crowd with posters of protest or a group of starving people perched on trestle beds. In this way, they are fighting for a piece of bread and, in general, for life, for them it is continuous gray everyday life. Image-makers argue very simply, how can these people become a face for great Russia, and, naturally, once again put wealthy and self-satisfied citizens in the foreground.

To travel to the country of the poor, you do not need to apply for visas, all borders are open, but for some reason no one is in a hurry to explore this space, tours are not ordered here. There is little exoticism here, a rustic language, prematurely withered faces, old-fashioned clothes, and most of these people live where the asphalt ends, you cannot drive a Mercedes. Representatives of the authorities try to bypass these bear corners, if a figure from the center appears in a provincial town, so she is taken from the airport, accompanied by an escort of cars, on an additional traction straight to the building of the local administration. Local residents are no less afraid than militants, they will not kill, but they will tell about a huge number of violations of the law in their area and ask them to sort it out.

The elite fenced itself off from commoners, first of all, within legal boundaries, these people took power in the country and try to prevent people from the popular communities from getting into the governance structures. Many laws and decrees were adopted in an emergency manner. The heads of local administrations are appointed from above, a vertical of power that has taken root under Putin. Envoys from above promote their candidates to municipal assemblies, people dependent on the government, chief doctors, heads of educational institutions, directors of private enterprises. This is facilitated by falsification of elections, and deafening advertising at public expense for these candidates. Recently, deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Rostov Region voted to raise the retirement age. There were 44 deputies, 38 voted for the increase, all from United Russia. In this, as it were, the will of the people, the majority of the general directors, and several of their deputies, as many as 22 directors' votes. And you want this gang of directors, called "United Russia" to support the worker, the common man? They try to cash in, first of all, on the labor of workers, pay them pennies, turn people into slaves, beggars.

Such personnel will never solve the problems and needs of residents. They will suppress, prohibit, take bribes, kickbacks, draw up fake contracts. There is no control over them. There is no one to complain to, magistrates and federal judges, prosecutors, without the consent of the population, are also made out by acquaintance in the same power department of personnel. It is difficult to break through this defense against the common people. Humiliated and insulted people, finding no protection in their remote corners, write to the president, turn to him as to God. There are millions of complaints to this waiting room, and they are sent back to those they complain about. In the 90s I was in charge of the public reception of the Moscow Helsinki Group. I have a friend, a human rights activist, Boris Kudashkin, fortunately for us, he was then working in the president's office. One call from him to some mayor, peer, and the issue was resolved immediately, a labor conflict was settled, a police hit was exposed, an apartment and a room were urgently allocated to a person. This bureaucratic brotherhood is afraid of a vote from above, but no one gives it, so the officials are self-willed.

Reforms in our country are, first of all, creating a happy, prosperous life for our elite. Here are Russia's successes over the past three years. 2016 - the number of billionaires is 77 people, their total fortune is 284 billion dollars. 2017 - the number of billionaires is 96, they scooped up $ 386 billion. 2018 - the number of billionaires is 102 people, they have already lathered 411 billion dollars into their pockets. And not only the oligarchs live well with us, there are also managers in state-owned companies. Herman Gref's annual salary is 519 million rubles a year. Igor Sechin - 361 million rubles, and Alexey Miller as much as 699 million rubles. In the first six months of this year, our industrial kings have withdrawn $ 21 billion from the Russian Federation. They hide the stolen money from Russia in foreign banks.

In civilized countries, a progressive tax has been introduced, the rich pay much more from their incomes than other citizens, up to 50 percent. I was in Finland, I saw an unusual meeting near the parliament building. The rich demanded tax cuts, stood with posters: "Down with the Robin Hood government."

In our country, on the contrary, at the spring session of the State Duma, projects for the introduction of a progressive tax were put forward four times, all of them were rejected by the party of the rich, United Russia. As before, we have a flat scale, when a cleaning lady with 10 thousand rubles and an oligarch pay a tax of 13 percent from their billions.

Oligarchs have already become familiar with their moneybags, but how everything looks at an ordinary factory. As it was said at the FNPR trade union congress: “At the same enterprise, the gap in wages between top managers and employees can reach a hundred or more times. Specific figures are hidden by the management under the pretext of commercial secrets."

President Putin, who arranged for their friends in bread jobs, many of them became billionaires, over and over again now starts talking about social problems for the rest of the population. Most likely, this is an ostentatious interest, as a part-time student, without touching the audience, he tries to discern problems at a distance. Promises a breakthrough in the economy, and, in the meantime, factories are closed, the number of jobs is reduced.

This is how our poor live, who also work. Talking about her life, Svetlana from Krasnodar Territory, she is forty-four years old, works as a senior librarian. I came to the library right after college. 20 years of experience, vast experience and a salary of 8300 rubles.

“My husband teaches at the university, receives a little more than 14 thousand. We have two sons who are schoolchildren. My dad is very sick, my husband and father, and my mother are also very sick. Their pensions are scanty. The puzzle endlessly torments me: what to buy - medicine for the elderly, shoes for children, pay off part of the rent debt, buy decent trousers for my husband? I haven't thought about myself for a long time. Honestly, I have been wearing blouses-skirts for ten years, when I bought cosmetics - and I don’t remember.

My husband believed for a long time that we would still be able to get out of poverty. And now it has gone out, goes to work through force, the children are always dissatisfied, their parents do not crawl out of their illnesses. The dacha helps out, if not for she would have perished from hunger long ago.

I have no prospects. Before the head. I will not reach the library, because our manager is my age. The work itself is not easy, there is a lot of scribbling, plus we divided the rates of the cleaner and the janitors, wash the floor, we break off the ice. I crawl home a little alive. Frankly, I don’t see how my life can change. Yes, and I'm used to it. What I'm worried about is the future of my sons. With horror I think that they are about to enter somewhere, but what if they are paid? We definitely won't be able to pull it off.

Here is another family of poor people: “I am sitting with a small child in a one-room apartment with my mother. She works two jobs to pay the rent. But all the same, there is not enough money to pay for heating and water, so the owner of the apartment we are renting threatens to kick us out into the street. And this despite the fact that we found the cheapest accommodation in the village.

I still cannot get a job, because the child has weak immunity and doctors do not recommend giving him to kindergarten. It happens sometimes, there is even nothing to eat. Then I ask for a loan from friends so that at least a child can buy food. For two years now, I definitely don’t buy clothes for myself, but my friends give things to the child. In general, I have been in debt for about two or three years. It happens that people give 100-500 rubles, for me this is already a serious help. Well, my son's father also pays child support.

There are about 21 million people in Russia whose incomes are below the subsistence level. This is 13.8 percent of the total population. They, too, can tell the same sad stories about their lives. 10% of respondents say that they do not have enough money even for food, another 29% cannot raise money to buy clothes. In fact, this is the level of poverty, not even poverty.

The army of the poor is growing. In Kineshma, Ivanovo region, the last weaving and spinning mill went bankrupt. Some were assigned to work in a nearby town, but most of the weavers would remain on the street. The majority now have a pension of 9-10 thousand rubles, and a communal apartment for a kopeck piece in Khrushchev is 6-7 thousand, and we still live.

There are many things in Western countries that our commoners only dream about in their dreams. Salaries, pensions are many times higher than ours, in order to protect their labor rights, strikes are allowed, you cannot fire an activist without the permission of the trade union. Here is the latest news from those parts. Public transport has become free in Estonia. In Berlin, from August 1, fees for kindergartens were canceled. At that time, in our country, gasoline prices went up, VAT was raised, and they want to raise the retirement age.

In the 90s, I visited the USA with a delegation of free trade unions. Active workers were gathered for a meeting with us. The black woman got up and began to talk about herself. A divorced woman, three children, works on an assembly line. I asked her, with whom does she leave the children when she goes to the conveyor? She looked at me as if I had fallen from the moon: "As with whom, the state gives me a nanny."

Compared to our leaders, the modesty of many rulers of other countries is surprising. Arrived on a charter flight, to our FIFA World Cup President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. When she became president, she sold a presidential plane and 35 executive-class Mercedes that serviced officials. All the money was returned to the treasury. She cut her salaries in half for herself and the ministers. The minimum wage has been increased from $ 400 to $ 540. Expenditures on education, social sector and medicine began to grow by 3 percent per year.

Here, we know, Angela Merkel. She lives in an ordinary apartment building, her apartment is on the fourth floor. At the entrance to the house there are ordinary wooden doors. Merkel refused the service apartment, considering it an excess.

There are no super-guards, snipers and special forces near the house, there is only one police squad on duty, who keep order around. Trams run right under the Chancellor's windows. Merkel goes shopping herself, to a nearby supermarket, accompanied by two security guards. Angela Merkel does not own yachts or luxurious palaces for recreation. They are not provided to her and according to the position.

Compared to Merkel's apartment, our Vladimir Putin has 20 palaces, villas, and residences at his disposal. 9 palaces appeared during his reign. For comparison, the US President has only 2 residences. The palaces of Putin amaze the imagination with the luxury of the interiors, the surrounding lands, the number of servants.

Our president is served by 8 aircraft and 2 helicopters. He has a mini-flotilla worth about 3 billion rubles at his disposal. The maintenance of four luxurious ships costs hundreds of millions of rubles annually.

Here is a luxury yacht, purchased in early 2011. Designed to receive 11 guests and 12 crew members. The length of the yacht is 53.7 meters, the interior design was developed by a famous designer. On the yacht there is a wine cellar, a wardroom with a panoramic view of the sea, a SPA pool with a waterfall.

And this is all against the background of poverty, millions of our citizens, and in clear contradiction with the content of our Constitution, the guarantor of which is the President, but for some reason does not guarantee, which says: "The Russian Federation is a social state, the policy of which is aimed at creating conditions that ensure a dignified life and free human development."