Here’s my explanation for why there is so much poverty in Russia, in three photos and one beautiful video. Swipe through. 2. There is a huge loss-making bank in our country. It’s called VTB. It’s like a black hole. It constantly demands state support, gets it, and then demands more. The bank is plagued by monstrous corruption and terrible management. I’m reading in the newspapers right now that the bank’s profit has fallen fourfold. The head of VTB is Andrei Kostin. 3. There is also a TV host in our country who works for a huge loss-making state television channel. She is pretty, but talentless. Hardly anyone watches her interviews, neither on TV nor on YouTube. The host’s name is Nailya Asker-zade. 4. So where will state banker Andrei Kostin read the news that his bank’s profit has fallen fourfold? The most comfortable place for him to do that is on the deck of the yacht "Sea&Us"—a luxury vessel he bought as a gift for his girlfriend, state TV host Nailya Asker-zade, for 4 billion rubles. That’s the whole explanation. Two people. Both living off taxpayers’ money—your money. Neither provides the slightest benefit to society. But they bought themselves a yacht for 4 billion rubles. That is precisely why Kostin and Asker-zade have so much money, and you do not.