TASS journalist Vandenko did an absolutely brilliant interview with Putin. I mean that sincerely, without irony. It turned out to be a very strong series.
It has answers to every question. For example, you read the new episode and get a complete answer to this one: is it true that, as long as Putin remains in power, we will keep getting poorer and poorer, while the economy falls further and further behind developed countries?
Of course it is. The man has been running the country for 20 years, and his views on economics are those of a major in the OBKhSS (the Soviet department for combating theft of socialist property and economic crimes) in 1982.
In fact, even worse. The major was never taught anything at police academy, but this one is a prominent monetarist. Kudrin, Kuzminov, and Mau taught him. He targets inflation. In every interview, it’s all about “macroeconomic stability.”
But scratch the Milton Friedman veneer on any United Russia member, and out come Comrades Zaikov, Slyunkov, Vorotnikov, and the rest of the official Soviet functionaries.
Trade-schmade. Stalls-schmalls. Kiosks and all that sort of thing.
Business, in this view, means having Rosneft and around it “hundreds of small enterprises.” In other words, it’s like when some guy goes for a fish pedicure in Thailand, puts his feet into the tank, and those tiny little fish busily nibble away at them. The man enjoys it, and the fish get fed.
That, apparently, is how things are supposed to work between I. I. Sechin and the rest of the country as well. Only preferably without the traders. If there are to be cooperatives, let them be research-and-production ones. Or innovative ones. That’s better than traders with their little kiosks.
Give it a few more years and Putin will drive the country so deep into the ground that it will eventually affect the size of the pensions received by children born during Putin’s presidency.
By the way, congratulations to Yandex on appointing as head of its public foundation the lady who ran the campaign headquarters of this great economist.
Now everything will happen. Venture-schmenture and all that. Just try to do a little less petty trading, okay? Instead of opening things like “Lavka” and reselling groceries, it’s time to launch projects like “Yandex. Engine Part” and “Yandex. CNC Machine Tool.”
People