By Tsarizm Staff | March 20, 2020
Russian President Vladimir Putin used to be a communist, and Russian news outlet ‘The Bell’ reports he has a natural ‘distrust’ of business, calling the profession ‘so-called business’ in a recent interview with Russian state news agency TASS.
- In the interview, the TASS journalist asked Putin if he sees entrepreneurs as “swindlers by definition”. Putin answered that “there are certain reasons for [thinking like] this, because all so-called business in the 2000s was tied to trade”. “So a trader is a swindler?” the journalist inquired. “Yes,” Putin replied.
- Russians think differently. A total of 80 percent of those polled by Levada Center believe small and medium-sized business is good for the country, and 59 percent feel the same way about big business. Both figures are at 17-year record highs. It is young people and wealthy Russians who have the most positive view of business.
- The main problems for business in Russia are high taxes, corruption and a lack of start-up capital. Pressure from law enforcement is also an issue: 50 percent of those polled believe interest from the authorities means an attempt to solicit a bribe or seize an asset.
- This is not the only contradiction between Putin’s view of the economy and that of ordinary people. In the same interview [2] (Rus), Putin said 70 percent of Russians are middle class, which he defined as those earning over 17,000 rubles ($200) a month. This led to a wave of bewilderment on social media: even by Russian standards, 17,000 rubles is not a lot of money, wrote The Bell.
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This piece originally appeared on Tsarizm.com [5] and is used by permission.