Recommendation points
Today, not only the authorities, but also the scientific community cannot decide on the methodology of socially fair taxation. Meanwhile, the fortune of billionaires is multiplying, and according to this criterion, Russia is one step away from the leading position in the world. Social programs initiated by the president are not being implemented, of which Vladimir Putin blames his own officials, and any disloyal statements and speeches are persecuted with a vengeance.
Scientists emphasize that in parallel with these deductions, it is necessary to preserve the luxury tax, the development of the regulatory framework for which will be completed, according to the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, no later than November this year..
Deputy head of the institute Dmitry Sorokin said that at present wealthy Russians receive 90% of income from securities, which are taxed not at 13%, as for traditional earnings, but only 9%. Therefore, researchers propose to equalize payment rates for all categories of the population, but taking into account the income per family.
Experts are divided on the cost-effectiveness of introducing a progressive taxation scale for wealthy Russians.
Vladimir Nazarov, an employee of the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, disagrees with the opinion of the employees of the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He believes that the introduction of a progressive taxation scale can lead to a sharp drop in the incomes of wealthy citizens, and, as a consequence, to a decrease in investment activity, which will negatively affect the employment of the population..
How many wealthy people would be affected by taxation on a progressive scale, it is difficult to say, due to the lack of clear criteria for defining the concept of “luxury”. Nevertheless, it is reliably known how many Muscovites and Russians in general do not deny themselves anything, and are unlikely to become poorer from new taxes..
According to the international monitoring agency WealthInsight, Moscow ranked second in terms of the number of dollar billionaires living in it. There are 64 such people in the capital of Russia. The leader of the rating is New York with 70 billionaires, in third place is London, where 54 billionaires live..
131 people live in Russia, whose fortune is estimated at more than $ 1 billion, of which 64 are Muscovites.
64 Moscow oligarchs make up almost half of all billionaires living in the Russian Federation, and there are 131 of them. It is noteworthy that in Moscow, in comparison with other large cities of the world, there are much fewer multimillionaires, that is, people whose fortune exceeds $ 30 million, but does not reach a billion dollars. According to this criterion, the capital of the Russian Federation did not even enter the world twenty. In total, 160 thousand people live in the country, who can boast that they have more than $ 30 million.
Surely, if not billionaires, then certainly people more than wealthy sit in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, the city authorities help them in the form of buying cell phones at the state expense, taking care that the deputies do not incur extra costs out of their own pockets..
Thus, Vitaly Milonov, Chairman of the Legislation Committee of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, was outraged by the Nokia mobile phones purchased from the city budget for the needs of the deputies. The parliamentarian was upset about the pink color of the phone case, saying that it would be more suitable for teenage girls.
In addition, Milonov questioned the need for such a purchase, since he believes that the deputies are financially sufficient enough to purchase a phone for their own money. For reference: earlier, in March 2012, Vitaly Milonov initiated the adoption of a law banning the promotion of non-traditional sexual orientation, as well as pedophilia.
Forgiving Russia
Duma colleagues of the deputies from St. Petersburg in helping wealthy fellow citizens went even further and offered to release all businessmen convicted on economic charges from prison. Thus, Boris Titov, the Commissioner for the Rights of Entrepreneurs, spoke to the State Duma with an initiative at the legislative level to provide for the possibility of amnesty for businessmen who were convicted of economic crimes.
The amnesty is proposed to coincide with May 26 – Entrepreneur’s Day. In the last three years alone, 110,924 thousand people have been convicted under these articles, charged with a total of 53 offenses and currently serving a prison term.
If those convicted on economic charges are amnestied, more than 110 thousand people may be released in 2 weeks..
Perhaps the State Duma will not meet halfway with entrepreneurs convicted of fraud or embezzlement. Pavel Krasheninnikov, head of the Duma committee on criminal, civil, procedural and arbitration legislation, generally supports the initiative, but doubts that it will be used to release the same Mikhail Khodorkovsky, convicted of fraud.
Deputy Viktor Zvagelsky (United Russia) from Boris Titov’s inter-factional parliamentary group said the bill will be introduced in the coming days. Zvagelsky assumes that United Russia will support this legislative initiative.
In Kazakhstan, on the contrary, it is not that they are not ready to release anyone from prison, but they would also be glad to legally shoot their own president. Two public organizations at once spoke in favor of the execution of the presidents of the country, whose age is over 80 years old – the Muslim Committee for Human Rights in Central Asia, as well as the Union of Muslims of Kazakhstan.
It is assumed that if the age limit is violated, the death penalty should be applied to the president. It is proposed to consolidate this norm at the constitutional level. To date, the legislation of Kazakhstan provides for the minimum age for entering the presidency – 40 years, and at the same time does not limit the maximum.
The initiators of the innovations clarify that such a norm should be introduced for all subsequent presidents of the country, but it will not apply to the current head of state, Nursultan Nazarbayev. However, he still has 8 more years to reach the 80-year threshold..
The initiatives of the Union of Muslims of Kazakhstan have always been distinguished by their originality. So, earlier the organization proposed the sale of brides through the organization of appropriate tenders, the purchase of the head of the Ministry of Sports abroad, as well as the state trial of Adolf Hitler.
In 2011, the leader of the union, Murat Telibekov, intended to run for president of the country and applied to the Central Election Commission for a deposit in the form of material resources. At the same time, the candidate attached a list of collateral items, which, among other things, included saxaul, prostitutes, slaves, drugs and chicken legs.
Payback for someone else’s promises
It is unlikely that such a punishment, as suggested in Kazakhstan, will threaten the Russian leadership. In Russia, by tradition, the people treat the head of state sparingly and forgive him a lot. Nevertheless, the failure to fulfill the promises made at the inauguration of Vladimir Putin is evident – many of the instructions of the president elected last year remained unfulfilled.
The failure of the presidential and government apparatus was once again confirmed during a meeting held on May 7 by Vladimir Putin. After a year has passed since the inauguration, the President summed up the results, during which the issues of the implementation of the “May decrees” were considered, involving measures to improve the situation in the housing and communal services, the education system, healthcare and social policy.
The burden of carrying out presidential initiatives fell on the government. Putin has already resorted to disciplinary measures against the heads of departments who did not ensure the full implementation of the President’s May initiatives. So, in September 2012, the heads of the Ministry of Regional Development, the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Labor were reprimanded. Later, Oleg Govorun, Minister of Regional Development, resigned from his post..
On the eve of the meeting, there were reports in the media referring to “informed” sources that Dmitry Livanov (Ministry of Education and Science), Veronika Skvortsova (Ministry of Health) and Maxim Topilin (Ministry of Labor) would receive reprimands for the year. Nevertheless, despite the rather tough style in which Putin held the May 7 meeting, there was no particular criticism of specific officials.
The presidential “May” initiatives, the implementation of which took a whole year, have not yet been implemented, which Vladimir Putin accused the government of.
The President spoke about the slow pace of approving roadmaps designed to regulate the issues of access of medium and small enterprises to participation in public procurement, as well as improve the quality of state regulation..
The president was also not satisfied with the course of the development of pension reform measures. Putin has set a deadline for the government until the fall of this year to hold public hearings on this issue. By the way, the head of the Ministry of Labor, Maxim Topilin, still had to listen to Vladimir Putin’s remark that the minister referred to the president’s instruction to postpone the implementation of the pension reform. According to Putin, in fact, he did not give such an order and called the minister’s explanation “a transfer of arrows”.
Vladimir Putin paid special attention to the weak financial security of the Far East development program. The President specified that until 2020 it was ordered to allocate 3 trillion rubles for the development of the Far Eastern regions, while the Ministry of Finance approved allocations in the amount of 296 billion rubles.
Officials have previously cited reasons such as unrealistic deadlines, especially in terms of creating a rental market for residential real estate within 6 months. In addition, they pointed to the inconsistency and impossibility of fulfilling instructions, for example, in terms of ensuring the growth of financial investments, while the budget is being reduced or providing large families with land plots in Moscow..
In response, the head of state advised to be creative in the implementation of tasks. The President instructed the ministers to develop a development plan for the industry under their jurisdiction and agree on it personally. According to the government, as of early May, 73% of the president’s instructions given to him on the day of the inauguration have been fulfilled.
Despite the fact that Vladimir Putin did not draw any organizational conclusions based on the results of the meeting, the next day, May 8, Vladislav Surkov, deputy prime minister, was dismissed from his post. It is reported that he did this entirely of his own free will. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Dvorkovich will temporarily fulfill Surkov’s duties. According to the head of the press service of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, Putin signed a statement by Surkov in the light of the assessment of the implementation of the “May” decrees.
On the eve of his dismissal, Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov came into conflict with the Investigative Committee, but the presidential administration denies this connection.
Peskov separately stressed that the departure of the Deputy Prime Minister from the post is in no way connected with the sensational “absentee skirmish” between Vladislav Surkov and the representative of the Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin regarding the criminal case opened over the embezzlement at Skolkovo.
Thus, the senior vice-president of the fund, Alexei Beltyukov, is accused of embezzling funds in the amount of 750 thousand dollars, which he handed over to State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev for allegedly lectures abroad. Surkov questioned the validity of the charges at the London School of Economics.
In response, Markin responded with a publication in Izvestia, where he transparently hinted that an official of any country who criticizes his own law enforcement agencies while abroad is unlikely to hold on to his post. In turn, Vladislav Surkov called the article of the IC representative “graphomania”.
Dissent at gunpoint
The Russians themselves have already given an assessment of the work of the power structures even without the weighty opinion of Vladimir Putin. According to the results of a survey conducted by the Moscow analytical center of Yuri Levada from April 19 to 22, during which 1.6 thousand respondents were interviewed, it turned out that the activities of United Russia are aimed at protecting the interests of rich people – this is the opinion of every third respondent.
44% had a strong opinion that membership in the United Russia makes it possible to use administrative resources for personal gain. For the first time since 2011, the majority of respondents (51%) said they agree with the opinion of Alexei Navalny, who believes that United Russia has gathered thieves and crooks under its roof. 52% said that the entourage of Russian President Vladimir Putin is concerned only with issues of personal enrichment.
After the publication of the social survey data not in favor of United Russia, the analytical center of Yuri Levada was accused of working for foreign states.
A few days after the publication of the results of the survey, the media spread information that the Levada Center is a foreign agent, that is, it is engaged in political activities on behalf of and at the expense of foreign countries.
In the press, South Korea, Poland, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States appear as sponsors of the center; in the period from December 2012 to March 2013, the organization received almost 4 million rubles from these countries. Such information was allegedly announced by an unnamed media source in the Prosecutor General’s Office, which is dealing with the case of the analytical center..
Official comments of law enforcement officers on this matter were not received. The lack of such information was reported in the center itself. Nevertheless, in April it was reported that the prosecution authorities intend to check the activities of the Levada Center and that its management has already been familiarized with the notice of a future check.
The management of the center should not worry too much about this. Organizations that have nothing to do with political activity have already been accused of working for the interests of foreign states..
Thus, the Muravyevsky nature reserve (park for sustainable nature management), located in the Far East, 53 kilometers from Blagoveshchensk, was recognized as a foreign agent. The reserve is known for nesting on its territory of the Red Book bird species – the Far Eastern and white stork, Daurian and Japanese cranes..
Prosecutors revealed that the reserve is funded, among other things, from the International Crane Fund, and scientists from China and the United States are taking part in scientific projects related to the park. Earlier, there was a no less curious case – in April a foreign agent named the fund for helping patients with cystic fibrosis (Istra, Moscow region), since the charitable organization received financial assistance from the UK. However, shortly thereafter, the status of a foreign agent was revoked..
At the same time, according to the testimony of the same foreign public organizations, the pressure of the Russian authorities on the press has already reached its peak. On May 3, Reporters Without Borders unveiled a new list of states where media freedom is being infringed.
The compilers of the list comment that pressure on the press has increased in Russia, and since 2000, 29 journalists have been killed in the country. Freedom House (USA) also published its rating on World Press Freedom Day. Russia took 176 place there out of 196 countries, falling into the category of states “not free” for journalists.
Russia is still considered a state all over the world where the rights of the press disloyal to the authorities, as well as opposition forces, are illegally infringed.
According to The Financial Times, today there is a real threat of the seizure of the information space of the Internet by governments practicing repressive management methods..
The publication emphasizes that one of the main reasons for the strict control of the media is the desire to suppress large-scale manifestations of corruption in power circles, as well as the need to intimidate opposition forces and individuals. In addition, the Russian Federation is included in the “Index of Impunity”, compiled by the New York Committee for the Protection of Journalists.
The distribution of positions in the rating is carried out according to the principle of the ratio of the number of unsolved cases of murders of journalists to the number of the country’s population over the past 10 years. Russia ranked ninth, the position has not changed since last year. As of last year, 16 murders of press representatives were not solved in the Russian Federation, in the current year – 14. Iraq has become the world “leader”, where 93 murders of journalists remained unsolved in 10 years.
According to the testimony of independent foreign public figures, along with total censorship, the struggle against active dissent is cultivated in the Russian Federation. An international working group began to study the events that took place on Moscow Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012. Experts will assess the actions of both sides – protesters and security forces.
The members of the commission will analyze the nature of the speeches in the square and the adequacy of the actions of law enforcement officers. The findings will be supported by the case if it is considered in the Strasbourg court. The group, which began work on April 29, consists of representatives from the United States, Great Britain, Moldova, Poland, Ukraine and Kazakhstan..
The check was initiated by the human rights organizations Article 19, International Civil Initiative for OSCE, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. To date, Russian law enforcement agencies are investigating the activities of 28 people related to the riots on Bolotnaya Square, 2 people have already been convicted.
It is possible that the commission’s conclusions will contain objective data and facts, but this is unlikely to help in any way to correct the situation with the ignorance of democratic values in Russia. As long as the powerful state apparatus directs all its efforts not to improve people’s lives, but to extinguish any hotbeds of popular discontent, in Russia everything remains unchanged..
What are some specific failures of the presidential program and how has Russia’s lack of democracy impacted its progress and development?
What specific examples can you provide of the failures of the presidential program, and how has Russia’s transition to a democracy been hindered?
What specific failures have been observed in the presidential program, and how has Russia’s lack of democracy impacted its governance?