So there we were, sitting in the office. Working quietly, bothering no one.
Then suddenly—noise, commotion, applause, confetti, champagne bottles popping open, and the clinking of coins.
Well, that’s almost exactly how it happened. It turned out the celebration was over at our RosPil (an anti-corruption project monitoring government and state-company procurement). In their wonderful spreadsheet, where they log all the contracts awarded to the ACF’s favorite, Arkady Romanovich Rotenberg, there is, naturally, a box with the grand total.
And that box showed a wonderfully round figure.
One. Trillion. Rubles.
A TRILLION, for crying out loud, A TRILLION. The spreadsheet does not cover the entire Rotenberg business empire—only Stroygazmontazh, which is 100% personally owned by this buddy of Putin’s.
So it is a legal fact, a medical fact, any kind of fact you like: we, the multinational people of the Russian Federation (as the Constitution puts it), have ordered one trillion rubles’ worth of goods and services from Uncle Rotenberg.
This is, of course, an outstanding achievement by Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. It takes real skill to funnel that much money to your friend in full view of the entire country. Where else is that even possible?
I couldn’t resist and recorded a celebratory video:
I assume you may not even grasp how much a trillion is. It’s such a wild number that it’s hard to tell whether it’s a lot or a little on a national scale.
Here is a breakdown of the 2017 federal budget from the state news agency RIA Novosti.
In other words, a trillion is twice the federal government’s annual spending on education.
Three times annual spending on healthcare.
Eleven times more than total annual spending on culture and cinema.
Why, that is about what we spend on national defense in a year (1.1 trillion rubles)—the same amount we paid this man in contracts.
We should start listing each of Putin’s friends as a separate line item in the budget. Maintaining them costs more than the transfers many federal regions receive—regions where millions of people live.
This marvelous figure clearly shows what modern Russia exists for: to enrich Putin and his friends. That is the state’s true primary mission. And it is being carried out brilliantly.
Who else is talking about this during the election campaign?
No one.
So help me talk about it, if the fate of this trillion concerns you even a little.
Share this video. Add your signature to support my nomination. Chip in a little money for the campaign.