The statement of the day in the Western press: Obama has launched a national cancer initiative and wants the United States to become the country that defeated cancer.
The statements of the day in Russia: Kadyrov declared the opposition to be “enemies of the people and traitors”, who should be put on trial for “subversive activity.” Yakunin said that Putin should “create a ruling elite in the country, similar to the one that existed in tsarist Russia.”
In other words, he and Kadyrov are supposed to become counts and princes, with privileges passed down by inheritance, and drive around Moscow in golden Lamborghinis (instead of the pre-revolutionary “troikas,” three-horse carriages), while anyone who dislikes it is an enemy of the people.
What I mean is that all of today’s pitifully cowardly discussions about the economy at the Gaidar Forum are utterly meaningless.
A politics built on the “rule of the worst” weighs on the economy more heavily than oil prices, on finance more heavily than inflation, and on industry more heavily than high interest rates.
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