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As ratings drop, Putin defends record, says better life awaits Russians - Reuters
Putin's been 'bigging' his part up. Even saying things like 'it's better than it was in the '90's'. Reminds me of Harold Macmillan. 'Real incomes' have apparently been falling for years, with the biggest fall in '16, but they're now starting to recover, with 'National Projects' due to boost living standards which should be felt this year and next year:
Putin's been 'bigging' his part up. Even saying things like 'it's better than it was in the '90's'. Reminds me of Harold Macmillan. 'Real incomes' have apparently been falling for years, with the biggest fall in '16, but they're now starting to recover, with 'National Projects' due to boost living standards which should be felt this year and next year:
Don't worry about your hardships Boxer. At least it's not like it was in the '90's and they don't have to rely on international help:“It’s true that real incomes have been falling for several years,” responded Putin. “The biggest fall was in 2016, but now incomes have gradually started to recover,” he said, blaming past volatility in energy markets.
A major public spending programme called National Projects would boost living standards, he said: “The results of this should be being felt this year and next year.”
It would appear not all citizens agreed with his views. Some asking when he was leaving. Others asking what's the point of the annual tv appearance if nothing has changed. Reference to being in power longer than Brezhnev and yet Russians still live in poverty (apparently):The Russian leader reminded voters that for all their problems they were better off now than in the 1990s, before he came to power, when the Soviet Union’s collapse sent incomes plunging and caused mass unemployment.
“We do not have anything like in the 1990s when wages could go unpaid for half a year,” said Putin.
“We do not have inflation that back then was over 30 percent, we do not have debts which went through the roof at that time, we do not depend on the International Monetary Fund. On the contrary, our gold and foreign currency reserves are rising, they have exceeded $500 billion and keep going up.”
The former Finance Minister is clearly out of step when saying there was the risk of a 'social explosion' if poverty levels weren't cut:Some Russians used Thursday’s session - broadcast live with some questions flashed on the studio screen - as an opportunity to criticise the Kremlin chief.
Though not put to Putin directly, some of those questions asked when he’d leave office, another what the point of his annual TV appearances was if nothing improved, while another complained Putin had been in power long than Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and yet Russians still lived in poverty.
The sharp tone reflects what pollsters say is deep disenchantment about the economy’s prospects.
Anyway, all is well as the state pollster has now 'massaged' the figures. Trust in Putin was 31.7%. It's now 71.7% after introducing a new methodology of canvassing opinion after the Kremlin questioned earlier findings:Former finance minister Alexei Kudrin, now head of the Audit Chamber, said on Sunday he was concerned about the risk of “a social explosion” if poverty levels were not cut, a comment the Kremlin criticised at the time as emotional.
In a sign of Kremlin nervousness, Russia’s state pollster last month introduced a new methodology for canvassing opinion after the Kremlin questioned its earlier findings. They had shown trust in Putin falling to 31.7% - its lowest in 13 years.
Under the new methodology, VTsIOM, the state pollster, showed public trust in Putin surging to 72.3%, a figure it said dropped slightly this month to 71.7%.