Vladimir Putin's Russia is a country full of contradictions. Russia has seventeen billionaires, while a third of the population lives in officially defined poverty. One can find barefoot gypsies begging at Moscow train stations with a mobile phone attached at the hip. At the same time, the State Duma has churned out new legislation on just about everything under the sun, but not enough law to protect a billionaire finding himself sitting behind bars barefoot and without a mobile telephone. On the other hand, according to The VTsIOM public opinion center, 80% of Russian citizens describe themselves as 'middle-class.' What the jailed billionaire, Platon Lebedev, and the impoverished 'middle class' have in common is the role both play in Russia's 'accessory political economy.'
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