This is really a major project. It will involve tens, and more likely hundreds, of thousands of people. And I very much hope you’ll appreciate it and help us.
The idea behind the project is simple: wages.
In Russia, people are simply underpaid. In countries with a level of development comparable to ours, the same work is paid better. And it does not cause any hyperinflation there either (despite what some charlatans who call themselves “economists” like to scare us with). On the contrary, inflation there is lower than in Russia.
There is the price of electricity, the price of oil, and the price of labor. All of this should be determined by the market, through competition. But in Russia, markets are monopolized. The state controls 80% of the economy, and oligarchs control almost all the rest. Small and medium-sized business is tiny and barely survives.
Look up the Wikipedia article on “Monopsony”: Russia’s labor and wage market is practically a textbook illustration of the concept. Especially in the regions, but for public-sector workers even in Moscow too—there is only one employer:
Monopoly always breeds corruption. Perhaps the most important form corruption takes in our country is the suppression and underpayment of wages. In fact, this is, for example, the main reason Russian oligarchs are so rich and why their wealth is growing even now, in a falling market.
If Potanin, Usmanov, and Mazepin paid their workers decent wages in line with what similar enterprises abroad pay, they would have far fewer billions—but people in Krasnoyarsk, Berezniki, and Stary Oskol would be living MUCH better.
If public-sector workers were paid the wages Putin promised them in his May 2012 decrees, there would be less money left for all sorts of nonsense like state television, Italian villas for Solovyov, outrageously lavish apartments for Shuvalov, billions spent on “searching for extremism on social media,” and plain old embezzlement.
So the fight for higher wages is a fight against corruption. Just from the bottom up.
Who wages this kind of fight in normal countries?
Labor unions.
A teachers’ strike in California has just ended. They agreed on a 6% pay raise and smaller class sizes—and only then did they go back to work.
And are there independent unions in Russia?
Yes. They are literally called the “Federation of Independent Trade Unions.” In every election they support United Russia (the ruling party), and recently they also backed raising the retirement age.
In other words, Russia’s official unions are a special kind of organization devoted to selling out working people’s interests to officials and oligarchs.
There are honest, militant unions, such as the Doctors’ Alliance, with which we cooperate, but there are very few of them.
I thought about this for a long time and realized where we can begin such a broad movement. I want to help everyone at once, to involve every kind of organization. Workers at factories owned by oligarchs. Drivers and sales clerks—the two most common professions in the country. But the first step has to be very clear, and it has to be in an area where the state, as employer, cannot argue with us legally, politically, or morally.
Public-sector workers and those very same May decrees.
Did you know that in Russia there are 11 categories of workers—about 6 million people—whose wages are not supposed to be set arbitrarily by the employer, but are tied directly to the average wage in their region?
That is the essence of Putin’s May decrees, his main campaign promise and his sacred cow.
Every region has an average wage figure, calculated by Rosstat (Russia’s federal statistics agency).
For example, right now it is 82,498 rubles in Moscow, 59,289 in St. Petersburg, and 36,427 in Sverdlovsk Region.
All wages for workers in the categories listed in the image above are supposed to be calculated as either 100% of the regional average or 200% of the regional average.
So, the average wages in Moscow should be:
Doctor: 164,996 rubles
Nurse: 82,498 rubles
Teacher: 82,498 rubles
University lecturer: 164,996 rubles
Researcher: 164,996 rubles
Kindergarten teacher: 82,498 rubles
In St. Petersburg:
Doctor: 118,578 rubles
Nurse: 59,289 rubles
Teacher: 59,289 rubles
University lecturer: 118,578 rubles
Researcher: 118,578 rubles
Kindergarten teacher: 59,289 rubles
In Sverdlovsk Region:
Doctor: 72,854 rubles
Nurse: 36,427 rubles
Teacher: 36,427 rubles
University lecturer: 72,854 rubles
Researcher: 72,854 rubles
Kindergarten teacher: 36,427 rubles
Here you can look up any region and any profession.
Some people may earn more—fine.
Some people may earn slightly less.
But no one should be earning dramatically less.
I know what you want to say when you look at these numbers:
- it’s all lies, nobody gets paid that much.
Exactly. That is the whole point. It was promised. And they reported that it had been fulfilled.
But in reality, everyone is paid much less. Outside Moscow, this is practically universal.
Here, at least take a look at this RBC study on the subject. But everyone stays silent.
We see three problems:
- people are being deceived and underpaid;
- people do not even know what salary they are entitled to;
- people are afraid and do not know where to begin in defending their rights.
Say you are earning 35,000 rubles, but you should be getting 62,000. You understand the problem. You really need those missing 27,000 rubles, which are already allocated in the budget. What are you going to do? Where do you start?
Most likely, first you will need a lawyer to explain where and how to file a complaint. Then a journalist to tell everyone how you are being robbed. Then a politician to go after the governor. Then a lawyer again to explain how to create a union. Then a journalist again. And so on.
So here it is: https://union.navalny.com/
Behind this interface is a system that will first tell you what your salary should be.
Behind this thing are lots of lawyers drafting complaints.
Behind this thing is a union that has backed the campaign.
Behind this thing are a whole bunch of YouTube channels, one of which has 2.5 million subscribers, while another has more than 700,000.
Behind this thing are 42 offices across the country.
This is a fighting tool in the struggle for the promised wages of 6 million people, of whom at least 4 million are definitely being underpaid.
I want to stress that the project is non-political in the sense that no one here is required to like me or dislike Putin.
If a governor is carrying out the May decrees and paying what is required, we praise them. If not, we go after them hard. If they start paying after we went after them, we praise them again.
In other words, we act exactly the way a normal union should act.
“And what’s in it for you, Alexei? Using public-sector workers for PR?” you ask me with a sly squint.
My answer is completely sincere:
I am a politician. A politician represents the interests of a certain group of people and works for them, hoping to earn their support. You know me well as a politician who for many years has worked for the group “people unhappy with corruption.” And I have earned a certain amount of support from them—from you.
Now both I and our entire team will work honestly for the group “public-sector workers who are being deceived and underpaid.” And as the project grows, for the group “people who are paid less than they should be.” We want to earn support from that group, yes.
It’s all straightforward and fair. We do the work, you judge it. If we serve your interests better than the others do, then we count on your support.
We will need help. At this stage, the project has 6 million intended recipients.
Can I reach every one of them myself? No.
Can I send each of those 6 million people this post, this video, and most importantly this link with your help? Absolutely, yes.
There is no nurse or lecturer in Russia who doesn’t know someone who reads this blog or subscribes to our videos.
So in theory, we can do it; now we need to make it happen in practice.
So send the link to every public-sector worker you know. At the very least, they will be curious to compare their real salary with the one officials claim they are being paid.
This is the first step. There is more to come, and it will get more interesting. Join us and support us. The Beautiful Russia of the Future won’t build itself.