New rules of the game from Putin and explanations from the head of the Central Bank

Why you can’t pay big salaries

Last week, Putin took part in the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. The “sharks of capitalism” are very worried that the state will begin to return to the people everything they have acquired through backbreaking labor. Ostap Bender sent the book “Capitalist Sharks” to the underground millionaire Koreiko as intimidation. The first sentence in the book read: “All major modern fortunes have been acquired in the most dishonest way.” But this is true, by the way.

Photo: Global Look Press

So, at the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the President of Russia very politely and carefully explained the new rules of the game.

Yes, taxes on the rich will increase, but this system will be stable for a long time, so as not to create a nervous environment — get used to it.

There is no deprivatization, but under one very important condition. “Recently, law enforcement agencies have opened a number of cases to return some assets to state ownership. “I would like to emphasize: this is not about revising privatization, but about cases where the actions or inaction of the owners of enterprises and property complexes cause direct damage to the country’s security and national interests,” Putin said. And one more thing: “The responsibility of business, its strategic view also consists of working for the public good, when corporate policy includes projects in the field of education, healthcare, infrastructure, charity, programs for the environmental well-being of cities and villages, regions and territories are also one of the priorities.” It's simple — you work for the country, and not just for your own pocket — here are guarantees of the inviolability of your assets.

All this is probably good. But the shaman has three hands.

At the same time, the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said that in Russia “there is enough money for high salaries,” but the growth of household incomes will lead to negative consequences for the economy. “For this money there will not be enough goods and services at old prices,” Nabiullina said. “That is, prices will rise.” I’m generally silent about tightening the screws on mortgages. It turns out that decent wages and affordable housing — and these are the drivers of demographics, the basis of national conservation, which Putin tirelessly talks about — are dangerous phenomena for the economy. Is our economy being built for the sake of economy? But in whose interests then? Economy for the people or people for the economy?

Again, by the way. Sociologists of the Levada Center (recognized as a foreign agent) conducted a survey in 2021 and found that 49% of respondents would prefer that Russia had the Soviet political system that existed before the 90s of the last century (18% of respondents are satisfied with the current political system ). 16% would like Russia to have democracy modeled on Western countries. And if we talk about the economic system, then 62% of survey participants were in favor of a system based on state planning, 24% — in favor of a system based on private property and market relations, 14% could not choose. In what direction do you think the SVO changed these indicators?

Even this week, Biden signed a law on the allocation of military assistance to Ukraine. Even those Western publications that shape public opinion and have been broadcasting about “Russia’s strategic defeat on the battlefield” now have no doubt that this will do nothing but prolong the agony of the Kyiv regime. And more or less sane politicians too. And the insane ones, of course, jump. For example, the Lithuanian Ambassador to Sweden Linkevicius (former head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) deigns to “joke”: “If someone has not yet taken a photo on the Kerch Bridge, you still have time.” In RuNet they don’t go out of their way to talk: “If someone hasn’t taken a photo against the background of a map of Europe, on which Lithuania still exists, you have a little time.”

Picking, but not one should naively think that the SVO is an episode. This is exactly what “began.” This means that in other areas, fundamental changes are inevitable. Otherwise you won't survive.