By Jim Heintz
Moscow - Russia’s Foreign Ministry (click here) on Sunday rejected a British claim that Russia was seeking to replace Ukraine’s government with a pro-Moscow administration, and that former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevheniy Murayev was being considered as a potential candidate.
Britain’s Foreign Office on Saturday also named several other Ukrainian politicians it said had links with Russian intelligence services, along with Murayev who is the leader of a small party that has no seats in parliament.
Those politicians include Mykola Azarov, a former prime minister under Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president ousted in a 2014 uprising, and Yanukovych’s former chief of staff, Andriy Kluyev.
“Some of these have contact with Russian intelligence officers currently involved in the planning for an attack on Ukraine,” the Foreign Office said....
Russia has destroyed it's own economy. (click here) It has been only four short years since it reformed it's pension system and Russia can no longer survive in a failing domestic economy.
Until 2005, the life expectancy of the Russian people was below 70 years of age. That is why their pension system existed for younger people. The Russian Duma literally woke up one morning and decided, "Today is the day the Russian people will no longer receive their pensions." So, when Putin starts crying about living standards of Russians, he needs to look at the cause domestically before demanding relationships with other countries.
October 14, 2021
By Holly EllyantImproving Russian citizens’ living standards (click here) is President Vladimir Putin’s biggest concern right now, he told CNBC on Wednesday, offering a rare insight into the preoccupations of one of the world’s most powerful leaders.
“Our main problem, our main issue and goal is to increase the revenues of our citizens,” Putin told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Wednesday. His answer came after being asked what his greatest concern was today, be it inflation, stagflation or the gas crisis in Europe or tension in the South China Sea.
“This is our main challenge ... we need to ensure economic growth and to increase its quality. These are our long-term tasks,” he said.
Putin added that the government was “going to improve the social situation to increase the revenues of our citizens and to deal with the second very important task is the demographic situation. And it entails a lot of social issues, healthcare, education, supporting families with children.”...
The longevity chart below is before the global pandemic. (click here) Russia is still far behind it's peers in longevity. The Russian people are absolutely correct in their dismay of their leaders. They don't receive the same hospital care as their leaders. Putin had an exclusive hospital built for Russian leadership (click here). I have absolutely no doubt this elite hospital falls far from Western standards, but, that only validates the fact that Russia is not a First World country.
Russian leadership anywhere in the world is not an improvement.
