--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> What's happening outside of Moscow?
>
I'm no expert and don't travel much -- though I spent week before last in Rostov-on-Don, which looked pretty happening to me. And it is hugely difficult to estimate things because practically the whole "middle class" gets paid under the table in the shadow economy, plus the _really_ shadow economy (bribes, graututies, and so forth) is immeasurable. But here's my guesstimate.
Russia is over twice the size of the continental US. You can fit all of India into Yakutia (pop. 100,000). So clearly talking about "the economic situation in Russia" is highly geographically variable. Certainly Moscow is by far the wealthiest place -- it's got 75% of the money! According to an article I read a couple of years ago, average per capita regional domestic product in Moscow is 40 times (!!) that in Ingushetia. The Mountain Republics (Chechnya, obviously; Ingushetia; and Dagestan) have staggering unemployment rates, 70-80% -- the Dagestani government gets 90% (!!) of its budget from Moscow. This is because of the terrorism there, and probably a prime reason _for_ the terrorism.
The popular wisdow is the Moscow is by far the wealthiest place, then St. Pete. then Yekaterinburg, Rostov and a few other cities, then the rest of the urban centers. Living standards in rural areas are very very low.
My roommate is from Yaroslavl (pop. of about 200,000 if I remember correctly), which is a few hours' drive from Moscow. Like almost everybody else she knows from there, she has moved to Moscow partly for financial reasons. Here she earns about 3 times what she would doing comparable work in Yaroslavl.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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