Comparison of live in modern Russia under Putin versus the United States

1. Class Six – Year Five – Fall 2012
Spring 2013
Life in Modern Russia
Adjunct Professor – Joe
Boisvert
Gulf Coast State College
Encore Program

2. Russia on Dangerous Course
• As long as corruption exists on the scale that it does in
Russia today, there is the real and present danger of
weakening the Russian state with many dangerous
potential outcomes.
• Those outcomes range losing control of Russia’s resource
rich eastern region to having Russia’s nuclear arsenal fall
in the hands of unsavory, rogue regimes.
• In other words, while the threat of reverting to Soviet
Union is diminishing with the graying dividing line, there
is a real possibility of losing Russia to something far more
pernicious because of internal Russian weakness. This is
crossing the dangerous red line.

3. Russian Mafia 2012
A World History
Documentary on The
Russian Mafia. Details
from the start of the
Russian Mafia till now. In
1995, from the start of
Russian Mafia over 3
million people were Killed
including Mafia gangs,
politician, Business men
and ever journalist who
figure them out

4. In 1994, Russia's Interior
Minister, Mikhail Yegorov,
estimated that the
number of organized
crime groups had grown
from 785 during
Gorbachev's reign to over
5,000. By 1996, the
number had grown to
almost 8,000. Today, no
one is really sure what the
number has grown to.

5. Russian Mafia Car

6. Here is just a simple comparison of prices
in Moscow and two other Russian cities as
of today:
• Real Estate in Moscow (center): new one-
room apartment is approximately
$1,400,000.00.
Real Estate in Moscow (suburbs): new one-
room apartment is approximately
$600,000.00.
Real Estate in Samara (center): new one-room
apartment is approximately $75,000.00.
Real Estate in Kazan (center): new one-room
apartment is approximately $60,000.00.

7. High Costs of Real Estate in Russian
Cities
• The city which has the most expensive
housing in Russia is its capital.
Actually, Moscow takes the 3rd place
among the cities that have the most
expensive real estate in the world.
Prices for accommodation in Moscow
suburbs are lower than in the center,
but still much higher than in the rest
of the country.

8. Deeply Divided Society
• Even a cursory examination of the social situation in
modern Russia reveals a deeply divided society. An array of
statistics documents the reality of two different worlds that
hardly come into contact with one another. One—the
world of wealth and luxury—is inhabited by an insignificant
minority. The other—the world of social decline and an
arduous struggle for life’s necessities—is inhabited by
millions upon millions.
• Figures showing the distribution of wealth reveal the
glaring nature of this social polarization. According to
government data, the incomes of the very richest members
of Russian society are 15 times those of the poorest—one
of the highest levels of social inequality to be found among
the world’s leading countries. In Moscow, this difference is
53-fold.

9. Below the poverty line
•
According to figures published by the World Bank at the
end of last year, 20 percent of the Russian population
lives below the poverty line, which is defined as a
monthly income of 1,000 rubles (less than 30 Euros, or
$38).
• The great majority of Russian families are teetering on
the edge of poverty. The World Bank has calculated that
an average decrease in income of 10 percent would
produce a 50 percent rise in the poverty rate. The
majority of the poor in Russia are to be found among
working families headed by adults with average technical
professional training, and in families with children

10. Average Income
• At the end of 2003, average monthly income was
calculated at 2,121 rubles (60 Euros/$77 a month),
with those who are employed receiving 2,300
rubles (65 Euros/$83) and pensioners receiving
1,600 rubles (45 Euros/$58). (range 58 to 830
• Those whose income falls below these levels are
defined as poor.
• A second category, those who are badly off, includes
families where per-capita income lies between
2,121 and 4,400 rubles (60-126 Euros/$77-$161). A
significant section of the population can be found in
these two categories. Family Range (77-161)

11. Die Early
• The average Russian man can
presently expect to live only to 58.
That means married women, on
average, are widowed for 15 years.
This is due both to women’s greater
life expectancy and to the younger
age at which women marry.

12. •
The wealthy end of the spectrum
Then there is the other Russia. It finds its personification in
figures like Roman Abramovich, governor of the remote
region of Chukotka (just across the Bering Strait from
Alaska) and owner of a controlling interest in the Russian
oil giant Sibneft.
• He is considered the richest man in Britain, where he now
resides. Two years ago, he acquired the English soccer club
Chelsea for an astronomical sum.
• Russia is ranked third in the world for the number of
billionaires, and thirteenth for having the largest
enterprises.
• Taken as a whole, the fortunes of Russia’s billionaires
amount to nearly half as much as the total value of the
largest Russian enterprises. By comparison, in the US, this
sum amounts to 6 percent.

13. Oil Executive Salaries
• The president of Lukoil gets $1.5
million. If the business achieves
certain goals, he enjoys a bonus
of $2.2 million. The vice president
gets $800,000 annually, with up
to $1.1 million in bonuses.

14. The “New Russians,”
• The “new Russians,” as they are sometimes called,
often live abroad, where they can be found in the
most expensive hotels, clubs and restaurants.
• They possess racehorses, yachts and mansions.
Practically every billionaire has his own yacht and
airplane.
• They particularly enjoy buying expensive antiques
and jewelry, as well as purchasing real estate in
the most expensive areas of Europe’s capitals. A
special attraction for them is London.

15. Skolkovo is a modern Russian center of
research and development and new
industrial zone,

16. Russian GDP

17. American Advertising

18. Modern Russian City

19. Poor Live Differently

20. Typical Russian Dinner

22. New Russia

23. What to Fear
• This fear is not principally founded in the economic or
even the military power that this RSU might assert
globally. The fear is founded in another important but
more subtle lessons from the Cold War: Namely, RSU
might once again become an ideological competitor
and attempt to thwart Western values of democracy
and capitalism.
Modern Russia is a good place. Russians today enjoy
the highest standards of living that they have ever
experienced. Consumer goods and food are plentiful;
barring the strain that rampant corruption puts on the
system, the current economic system is capitalistic.
There is also more political freedom and civic society
empowerment than ever before.

24. Averages do • However true these observations
may be, they are statements
Not Tell the Whole about "averages." For example,
imagine three people who on
Truth average earn $100,000 per year.
• We can imagine this to be a
happy group based on averages,
but we can easily imagine one of
those three earning $300,000 per
year while the other two are
abjectly poor and earn nothing.
The point is that averages
sometimes yield useful
information but often deceive.
So, while - on average - Russians
have better lives than ever
before, the situation is not
universally true for every
Russian.

25. Young Have Different • .
Ideas Than Old
Younger Russians either do not
know the Soviet Union or spent
so little time there that its
existence does not registry with
them meaningfully.
They are used to having open
access to good, seeing Bentleys
and BMWs cruise the streets,
and their peers become wealthy
international tennis stars by
virtue of their talent and work

26. Alcohol Big
Problem

27. Problem with the Young

28. New Diversity of Religion in
Russia

29. New Diversity of Religion

30. Problems With the Elderly

31. Not Enough Aid for Wounded Warriors

32. New Russia to Much Like Old Russia