As is well known, a State Duma deputy earns 450,000 rubles a month. This is a constant—and justified—source of public outrage.
Really, why the hell should these louts be paid half a million rubles a month? For what? For never even being at their workplace?
For driving in the oncoming lane without being subject to fines? They are of no use whatsoever, and even the laws that earned the Duma the nickname “the rabid printer” are written by the government or the presidential administration, while these dummies merely vote.
But everything in the world is relative, and “huge money for nothing” is relative too.
Take VTB Bank, for example.
A completely bankrupt, useless structure run by thieves and crooks. It survives solely on endless state bailouts. Only recently they were rescued by being given 300 billion rubles “for the Bank of Moscow”. This year, another 214 billion has already been poured into its capital. And now they are once again begging for 200 billion state rubles from the National Wealth Fund, including 70 billion this year.
How do such “successes” affect the salaries of state bankers? Very favorably.
In just the first nine months of this year, the useless crooks on VTB’s management board paid themselves 1.42 billion rubles in compensation, which is higher than in the same period last year.
A crisis and sanctions, you say? That may be your crisis and sanctions. At the state-owned VTB Bank, everything is just fine.
So, returning to the salary comparison: we do not know the exact compensation of an individual board member. We only have the total—1.42 billion over 9 months. Let’s at least calculate the average:
Here we see 11 board members. 1,420,000,000 / 11 = 129 million rubles per person on average.
That is compensation for 9 months, which means roughly 14.3 million rubles per person per month. Or, assuming 25 working days in a month, 574,000 rubles per day.
As you can see, the idle deputies with their 450,000 rubles a month pale into insignificance next to the idle state bankers.
Particularly touching is the presence on VTB’s management board of a young prodigy who clearly made his way in business through sheer talent:
The son of FSB chief Bortnikov, brought straight into this feeding trough on a senior executive post.
Though he is probably the only one actually earning his money. We have filed so many complaints about theft at VTB, and not a single one has been acted on.
Both his daddy and the FSB as a whole stand firmly in defense of the looting of budget funds. For that, 574,000 rubles a day is apparently money well spent.
So there you have it: a story about the relativity of huge salaries paid at our expense to idlers feeding at the state trough. Be sure to tell it to everyone who complains about the crisis, sanctions, and low wages.
Let me also remind you: our bill would punish illicit enrichment by the sons, the fathers, the officials, and the state bankers alike. So support it by casting your vote or by bringing someone you know to vote.