Annals of the Sham Economy

Kommersant reports:

Rosstat, the state statistics service, published data on industrial development in Russia for the first 11 months of the year on Friday. The end of the year doesn’t look rosy for industrialists. Industrial growth slowed down to 1.5 percent in November, as opposed to 2.9 percent in October. The chief cause of the slowdown of industrial growth this November was a fall in manufacturing from 7.5 percent in October to 2.9 percent in November as compared to the same period of last year. It was manufacturing that pulled industrial growth up in the first half of the year, growing five to seven times faster than mining and creating approximately 2.4 times more added value. In October and November, however, mining experienced growth from 0.6 percent to 2.5 percent. The decline in manufacturing reflects the lower competitiveness of Russian products as compared imports in the course of a year.

Meanwhile, RIA Novosti reports:

Russia’s inflation rate will not exceed 9% in 2006, and GDP growth will be 6.9-7%, the economics minister said Monday. “GDP growth was 6.8% in 11 months,” German Gref said, adding that the figure may be 6.9-7%, depending on the results of December. He said in November that GDP growth was 7.8%, year-on-year. In early December, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry increased the 2006 GDP growth forecast to 6.8%. The ministry has forecast 2007 GDP growth at 6% and inflation at 6.5%.

This clearly illustrates the sham nature of Russia’s economy. There is virtually no growth connected to productivity, but rather only a rise in GDP attributable to the rising price of oil. Meanwhile, inflation continues at nosebleed levels and eats away even those gains. What’s more, the actual inflation rate on the basket of basic good that ordinary people in Russia can afford to buy (people who earn $300 per month or less) is much higher than the general rate of inflation, as La Russophobe has previously documented, meaning that the vast majority of the population continues to live in abject poverty. As reported by La Russophobe, the tiny Baltic nations with no oil or gas revenues to speak of still post higher rates of economic growth than Russia, and it occurs on more significant base to begin with.

Let’s resort to a sports analogy to further explore the dimensions of Russia’s sham economy:

The U.S.’s National Basketball Association has six divisions in two conferences, each with five teams.

As of Wednesday, December 13th, with 20 games having been played, every team in the Atlantic Division had a losing record. The best team in that division was four games below .500 — the worst teams in three of the other five divisions had a better record than the best team in the Atlantic Division. The worst team in the Atlantic Division was the worst team in the NBA, the Philadelphia 76ers — a team so woeful that its star player Alan “the Answer” Iverson simply refused to play with them any more, and is being traded. They had a .250 win percentage.

But you know what? In the wretched Atlantic Division the 76ers were only three games out of first place and an automatic birth into the playoffs. The second-place teams in two of the other five divisions, both with winning records, were further out of first place than the godawful Sixers. So, if you were so inclined (to dishonesty), you could make an argument that the Sixers are actually one of the best teams in the country — despite the fact that they could win nine games in a row and still not have a winning record.

On the whole, to paraphrase W.C. Fields, La Russophobe wouldn’t rather be a sports fan in Philadelphia.

It’s the same in Russia. People (well, Russophile propagandists and Russian stock brokers) tout Russia’s rate of economic growth (5-8% per year) as if it meant something (it’s like talking only about how many games out of first place the Sixers are, as if their division were the only one in the sport). If Russia were America, it sure would. But it isn’t. Russia has an economic base that is less than one-tenth the size of America’s, but it’s population is only one-half as big. That means economic growth in Russia is five times less significant than in America. 5% economic growth in Russia is the equivalent of 1% growth in America, a level that would be viewed as a national crisis and grounds for regime change.

It’s time we stopped being fooled by this gibberish from the Russophiles, which is designed to say our hand of opposition when Russian outrages appear before us, as they regularly do.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Hopeful Signs of Dissent in the Russian Blogopshere

Reuters reports on hopeful signs of dissent in the Russian blogosphere:

Free and open debate has become a rarity in Russia’s media which is mostly controlled by the state or business moguls. In a country where three high-profile journalists have been murdered since 1991, many believe speaking out can cost you your life. So many independent thinkers escape to a virtual space free of vested interests where anonymity goes hand in hand with a worldwide reach — personal online journals or blogs.

“In the West, you don’t need to look for some additional place where you can discuss politics, books, different events,” blogger and sociologist Ekaterina Alyabyeva said. “Civil society is exactly where that happens. In Russia, that doesn’t happen anywhere because our press, our media don’t give their readers an opportunity to talk back.”

Today’s bloggers follow the tradition of the Soviet dissidents who found an outlet for their opinions in samizdat, the clandestine printing of anti-government material. The tight control over the media once exercised by the ruling Communist Party collapsed after the end of the Soviet era but Russian President Vladimir Putin has halted and reversed the trend to greater press freedom. The Kremlin has tightened controls on the media, especially the main television stations, and this, combined with its domination of the political scene, has fueled Western concerns that Russia is entering a new period of authoritarian rule.

Putin, who is due to step down in 2008, has said he neither can nor wants to curb media freedom. However, the perception that this is indeed what is happening is driving more and more Russians to the Internet.

Russians are the second-largest group of bloggers on the popular U.S.-based blog-hosting site, livejournal.com. Some 680,000 registered livejournal (LJ) users write in Cyrillic script and are considered mostly Russian speakers.

Alongside debate on government policies, LJ blogs by Masha Gaidar and Ilya Yashin, both well-known leaders of liberal political movements, often advertise protests or debates.

“(Political activists) want to see whether they can manipulate this flexible reality and then transfer it into the actual reality,” Alyabyeva said.

CENSORSHIP FEARS

Unlike more intimate U.S. blogs, Russian cyber-journals often involve thousands of bloggers and focus on issues like politics or literature. “Blogs are a new kind of journalism. It is journalism of opinions rather than journalism of facts,” says 25-year-old blogger Elizaveta Dobkina. Just how dear Russians hold the freedom of expression provided by blogging became clear during the controversy sparked when Russian online media company SUP bought a license in October to become the main provider of LJ to Russian users. Many bloggers have linked SUP’s managers to the government and worried the Kremlin would be able to read and censor their blogs or obtain their personal information from SUP. Such links are extremely difficult to prove in Russia where government transparency is still a relatively novel idea, but the widespread fears exposed an undercurrent of anxiety among those who wish to speak out and challenge government policies.

“One of the strange things about this transaction is that people are making all sorts of wild speculations about it,” SUP director Andrew Paulson told Reuters. An American who has lived in Russia for 13 years, Paulson said Russian LJ had “a unique, gloriously vibrant community very much specific to Russia”. The purchase of the Russian LJ license was aimed at improving services for Russian bloggers by adding features that are available to speakers of other languages to gain more users and boost profits, he said.

But some LJ bloggers remain sceptical.

Is it possible to opt out of this feature?” wrote Russian-speaking blogger aleck. “I just do not want any of my files … being located outside the U.S.” Another blogger, keisinger, said: “I do not wish to get any help from SUP. Is it possible for me to not have anything to do with them?” Dobkina said people were less inhibited online but dangers similar to those facing Soviet dissidents still existed. “It’s very relaxing and very liberating because you feel like no one can find you. “(But) I think it is absolutely clear that given the right technology … anyone can read all posts,” she said. Russia’s secret police service, the FSB, did not reply to a formal Reuters query about their ability to obtain information on Internet users.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

AI Reports Ersenoeva’s Mother has now Also Gone Missing

Amnesty International reports:

Margarita Ersenoeva, the mother of journalist Elina Ersenoeva, who “disappeared” on 17 August, has not been seen since 2 October 2006, and it is believed she may have been abducted or subjected to enforced disappearance. Margarita Ersenoeva had gone to see her mother that day, in the village of Starye Atagi in Chechnya. While she was there, she reportedly received a call on her mobile phone, and told her mother that it was from one of the investigators into her daughter’s abduction, who wanted to tell her some good news. She said this man had told her that he was currently in the same village, and she went immediately to meet with him in the building of the village administration. However, when her family looked for her later that day, they were told that she had not arrived at the village administration and that anyway, nobody there had requested her to come. Following media attention on the “disappearance” of Elina Ersenoeva, and revelations about her marriage to Chechen separatist fighter Shamil Basaev, it was initially thought that Margarita Ersenoeva might have gone into hiding to avoid further persecution of herself and her family. However, it is now believed that she too has been “disappeared”, as she has failed to contact her friends and family.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

AI Reports Ersenoeva’s Mother has now Also Gone Missing

Amnesty International reports:

Margarita Ersenoeva, the mother of journalist Elina Ersenoeva, who “disappeared” on 17 August, has not been seen since 2 October 2006, and it is believed she may have been abducted or subjected to enforced disappearance. Margarita Ersenoeva had gone to see her mother that day, in the village of Starye Atagi in Chechnya. While she was there, she reportedly received a call on her mobile phone, and told her mother that it was from one of the investigators into her daughter’s abduction, who wanted to tell her some good news. She said this man had told her that he was currently in the same village, and she went immediately to meet with him in the building of the village administration. However, when her family looked for her later that day, they were told that she had not arrived at the village administration and that anyway, nobody there had requested her to come. Following media attention on the “disappearance” of Elina Ersenoeva, and revelations about her marriage to Chechen separatist fighter Shamil Basaev, it was initially thought that Margarita Ersenoeva might have gone into hiding to avoid further persecution of herself and her family. However, it is now believed that she too has been “disappeared”, as she has failed to contact her friends and family.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

AI Reports Ersenoeva’s Mother has now Also Gone Missing

Amnesty International reports:

Margarita Ersenoeva, the mother of journalist Elina Ersenoeva, who “disappeared” on 17 August, has not been seen since 2 October 2006, and it is believed she may have been abducted or subjected to enforced disappearance. Margarita Ersenoeva had gone to see her mother that day, in the village of Starye Atagi in Chechnya. While she was there, she reportedly received a call on her mobile phone, and told her mother that it was from one of the investigators into her daughter’s abduction, who wanted to tell her some good news. She said this man had told her that he was currently in the same village, and she went immediately to meet with him in the building of the village administration. However, when her family looked for her later that day, they were told that she had not arrived at the village administration and that anyway, nobody there had requested her to come. Following media attention on the “disappearance” of Elina Ersenoeva, and revelations about her marriage to Chechen separatist fighter Shamil Basaev, it was initially thought that Margarita Ersenoeva might have gone into hiding to avoid further persecution of herself and her family. However, it is now believed that she too has been “disappeared”, as she has failed to contact her friends and family.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

AI Reports Ersenoeva’s Mother has now Also Gone Missing

Amnesty International reports:

Margarita Ersenoeva, the mother of journalist Elina Ersenoeva, who “disappeared” on 17 August, has not been seen since 2 October 2006, and it is believed she may have been abducted or subjected to enforced disappearance. Margarita Ersenoeva had gone to see her mother that day, in the village of Starye Atagi in Chechnya. While she was there, she reportedly received a call on her mobile phone, and told her mother that it was from one of the investigators into her daughter’s abduction, who wanted to tell her some good news. She said this man had told her that he was currently in the same village, and she went immediately to meet with him in the building of the village administration. However, when her family looked for her later that day, they were told that she had not arrived at the village administration and that anyway, nobody there had requested her to come. Following media attention on the “disappearance” of Elina Ersenoeva, and revelations about her marriage to Chechen separatist fighter Shamil Basaev, it was initially thought that Margarita Ersenoeva might have gone into hiding to avoid further persecution of herself and her family. However, it is now believed that she too has been “disappeared”, as she has failed to contact her friends and family.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

AI Reports Ersenoeva’s Mother has now Also Gone Missing

Amnesty International reports:

Margarita Ersenoeva, the mother of journalist Elina Ersenoeva, who “disappeared” on 17 August, has not been seen since 2 October 2006, and it is believed she may have been abducted or subjected to enforced disappearance. Margarita Ersenoeva had gone to see her mother that day, in the village of Starye Atagi in Chechnya. While she was there, she reportedly received a call on her mobile phone, and told her mother that it was from one of the investigators into her daughter’s abduction, who wanted to tell her some good news. She said this man had told her that he was currently in the same village, and she went immediately to meet with him in the building of the village administration. However, when her family looked for her later that day, they were told that she had not arrived at the village administration and that anyway, nobody there had requested her to come. Following media attention on the “disappearance” of Elina Ersenoeva, and revelations about her marriage to Chechen separatist fighter Shamil Basaev, it was initially thought that Margarita Ersenoeva might have gone into hiding to avoid further persecution of herself and her family. However, it is now believed that she too has been “disappeared”, as she has failed to contact her friends and family.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Yet Another Medical Scourge in Russia: Drug-resistant Tuberculosis

The International News reports:

Former Soviet republics and China head the global list for prevalence of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB), a study to be published in The Lancet on Saturday says. After a survey of 76 countries, researchers led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 424,000 cases of MDR TB occurred in 2004. China, India and Russia accounted for half of these cases. MRD-TB accounted for one per cent of worldwide cases of tuberculosis on average. Kazakhstan had the highest prevalence, with 14.2 per cent of TB cases having MDR strains, followed by the Tomsk region in Russia (13.7 per cent), Uzbekistan (13.8 per cent), Estonia (12.2 per cent), Liaoning province in China (10.4 per cent), Lithuania (9.4 per cent), Latvia (9.3 per cent) and Henan province in China (7.8 per cent). In September, the WHO had issued an estimate of 450,000 new MDR TB cases out of around nine million new TB infections. MDR TB is defined as a strain that thwarts at least two of the most potent first-line antibiotics, including isoniazid and rifampicin, that are conventionally used to treat TB. They are precursors to extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains. XDR TB is a newly-discovered mutation of the TB germ than not only defeats the first line of drugs but the second line too, leaving doctors with a shrinking, preciously hoarded arsenal of medications. XDR TB has triggered a scare in South Africa, reaping a mortal harvest among patients who are co-infected with the AIDS virus. MDR TB is mainly caused by misuse of antibiotics, in which a patient fails to complete the full course of drugs. His or her symptoms disappear but a reservoir of germs remains that are capable of mutating, eventually reviving the disease in the patient and also potentially infecting others.

Russia is already ill-disposed to address its burgeoning AIDS crisis, and seems to prefer instead to view HIV infection as a sign of a defective person that Russia is well rid of. Obviuosly, unlike China, the Russian population is not nearly vital enough to sustain the ravages of yet another unchecked disease, and Russia is also widely speculated as a ripe target for a bird flu outbreak.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Novaya Gazeta says Scotland Yard has its Men

Novaya Gazeta, as translated by David McDuff, says that Scotland Yard has its men in the Litvinenko killing, namely former KGB agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dimitry Kovtun.

Until November 1 Litvinenko had left no traces of radiation anywhere.

Kovtun began to leave traces of polonium in Hamburg on October 28.

Before his meeting with Litvinenko, Lugovoy stayed in room 441 of the Millennium Hotel, where very strong traces – the initial traces – of polonium-210 were found.

The radiation “tail” followed Alexander Litvinenko only after his meeting with Kovtun and Lugovoy in the bar of the Millennium Hotel. And it was there that a cup which had been strongly contaminated with polonium was found.

Kovtun was questioned a second time by Scotland Yard and is supposedly undergoing treatment for radiation poisoning himself (but this has not been confirmed by Western sources).

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

In Russia, Corruption goes Right to the Bone

The Lex Libertas blog has a scathing indictment of the Russian system of higher education, which it depicts as fundamentally corrupt from stem to stern. It appears in full below.

La Russophobe would take issue, however, with a couple of points in the text. The author claims that Russian high school is much better, and that “the average Russian high school senior would easily wipe the floor with an average American senior in a discussion on any given topic, from literature to history to science.” Though he acknowledges that this means nothing since higher education is unable to turn this raw material into a polished finshed product and Russia continues to languish in poverty, it’s simply not accurate to claim that Russia exceeds America in all areas of secondary education. In math and science, Russia is better, but not good enough to “wipe the floor” with America. In critical thinking and creativity, Russia lags far behind, creating legions of robotic students who are utterly predictable even down to their handwriting. And to say that Russians know their history well is laughable; if they did, would they have elected a proud KGB spy as their president?

The author also tries to mitigate the blame placed on students by noting that many teachers are fundamentally corrupt. But, as the author acknowledges, that flows from their outrageously low salaries, and where is student action to raise them? Until it is in evidence, the students are accountable for that condition as well.

One might argue that Russian post-secondary education is actually good preparation for Russian life, which is itself fundmentally corrupt (as many international studies have clearly shown). But obviously it is impossible to build a successful society upon a criminal culture, and this culture clearly goes right to the bone in Russia. Not until it is uprooted will there be any hope of progress.

Most Russians will claim that their education system is far superior to the American one. If we are talking about high school, then they are absolutely correct. The average Russian high school senior would easily wipe the floor with an average American senior in a discussion on any given topic, from literature to history to science. There are several reasons for this.

First, Russia follows the European school of thought when it comes to education. Pupils are meant to be imbued with a large body of knowledge. Americans don’t have this background and subsequent repositories of information. Second, American schools have succumbed to the touchy-feely hippy paradigm that children are fragile, and we shouldn’t damage them by hurting their feelings. Making standards and expecting students to meet them only sets them up for failure and gives them low self-esteem. Russians don’t care how you feel about your results on the exam. If you do poorly, you suffer the consequences. Interestingly, Russian youth often tell me that the smart people are actually well-liked in Russian high schools. In American schools, of course, they are the social rejects. Being smart is a curse, and you would do well to try and hide it. If you show any interest in learning whatsoever, you are completely shunned. It’s difficult for me to comprehend, but apparently Russian high schools aren’t like that.

Keep in mind that this all applies to high school. I received my Master’s at one of the most prestigious universities in all of Eastern Europe, Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU). It is President Putin’s alma mater, and always raises an eyebrow when name-dropped. Though, sometimes, older people won’t recgonize it unless you use its old title, Leningrad State University (LGU). In fact, as part of his KGB duties, Putin was in charge of vetting the foreign students at LGU. Along with bad food, boring professors, and departmentally sponsored parties at nightclubs, cheating is a time-honored tradition at Russian institutions of higher learning.

What only a few intrepid Americans have accomplished in cheat sheet mastery is second nature for Russian university students. Almost every student that I know makes these cheat sheets (шпаргалки – shpargalki), and the amount of info that they cram on tiny pieces of paper is awe-inspiring. Though the better students will often claim that they make them “only because doing so helps you study for the test and memorize the notes,” which is undoubtedly true. As I was writing this entry, a friend instant messaged me that she was preparing for an upcoming exam, by making shpargalki. The students are brazen about making them, and the professors all know. In fact, they probably had them when they were students. When walking around the faculty on exam day, on the ledge of every window are discarded shpargalki from the day’s exams. I was once sitting at the faculty cafeteria, which is in the center of the building and a main stop for professors and students, and saw two girls preparing their cheat sheets for the upcoming exam. They were doing a field test run-through, slipping the tiny papers into any part of their clothing that would both contain them and provide easy access during the exam – pockets, sleeve, cuffs, etc.

The most creative was when she slid the paper into her bra. And yes, extremely low-cut tops, especially if well-endowed, are appropriate attire for exams. In addition to cheating on exams, an enormous number of students copy class papers from the internet. I’m sure that it happens in the states, but here it seems almost everyone does it. I can’t tell you how many times a shocked student will ask, “you mean you actually write the paper yourself!?!?” In fact, often they’ll download something and turn it in without ever actually reading it. They’re not too afraid of getting caught, usually the professor doesn’t read the paper either. Just so I don’t pour all the blame on the students, though they are certainly deserving, some of the professors have their own version of cheating. University professors often make only a couple of hundred dollars a month. This is clearly not enough to live on. Some make up for it by teaching at multiple universities, others by working side jobs as consultants in various fields. Still others decide to fleece money from their students. Some will straight up allow you to give them money for a good grade. It doesn’t happen during the exam, of course, but beforehand. This option is for those who want to take the easy way from the start.

For the students who don’t want to bribe, but try to study their way to a good grade, some professors can pressure them using the exam system itself. If you fail an exam, you are allowed to retake it within the same finals period. A friend once failed the first time, and upon arriving on the assigned day for the retake, was told by the professor that she had to pay an administrative fee. She asked where to go pay, and the professor responded that there was no need to take time and go to the office. If she would give him the money, he would take care of it for her. Unhappy, but aware of what was going on, she grudgingly handed over the cash.

In fact, this bribing even goes beyond the professor to some of the administrators. At the state university, there are two kinds of students. Paying students (платники – platniki) and scholarship students (буджетники – budzhetniki). Those on scholarship don’t have to pay tuition, get a free place in the dorm, and a monthly stiped (pathetically small, around $30 a month). In order to enter a Russian university, you have to take an entrance exam. In theory, the people with the highest scores on the exam are given scholarships. The proportional number of these spots vary by the faculty to which you are applying. My faculty, International Relations, has a relative low number of scholarship students, whereas the Eastern faculty has a higher percentage (Asian languages and cultures, think the old usage of the word “Orient”). Several people, however, have told me that everyone pays something. Even many scholarship students probably paid someone along the way to get on the scholarship list.
Don’t get me wrong, Saint Petersburg State University is a fantastic center of higher learning. Some of the best and most intelligent professors of my academic career taught in the Master’s program. The majority of students from SPBGU that I met are at least as smart, and many smarter, than people at my own alma mater, UCLA. That said, cheating is an endemic and systemic problem at all Russian educational insitutions, in a way unimagined in the US. As with many things here, the main problem is that the people just don’t care to change it. They all know it’s a bad system, but it’s always been this way, and what can one person do?

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !