Yuri Pronko: Why I decided to break with the liberal opposition
Chesnokov:
Hello people. May 9 is approaching, and with it, a beautiful new tradition is approaching. The immortal regiment, which will be supported not only in the cities and villages of Russia, but now in many other countries of the world. Nevertheless, doubts are expressed in certain circles - is it necessary to go to the Immortal Regiment and why is it needed at all? This is what we will talk about with our guest, TV presenter of the channel "Tsargrad" Yuri Pronko. Hello Yuri.
Pronko:
Hello.
Chesnokov:
The fact is that in these very Internets there is a very curious text under the following heading: “The Pronko Incident. How a well-known liberal radio host became an ardent conservative and monarchist. And this text compares the statements of my esteemed guest, for example, from 2012 on Facebook: “The opposition has applied for a march of millions in Moscow, I will go, and you?” Next is April 2016. Again Pronko's statements, but diametrically opposite. “I am turned inside out by the so-called dissenters, who are pouring streams of dirt on their country, on the holy Russian church, on the Immortal Regiment.”
Yuri, these are the metamorphoses that would do honor to the Golden Ass - this is a novel by such a classic of ancient literature, if anyone does not know - what are they connected with?
Pronko:
In fact, I thank you for this message. And the KP radio station - for the opportunity to answer. Because you have cited only one of the many publications that have appeared in recent days, weeks. No, in fact, it was not I who changed, but those people who self-proclaimed themselves the opposition, who called themselves liberals, who actually had nothing to do with either liberal theory or liberal practice, have changed. So, you know, it's actually a very easy question, because I get asked that a lot. I am a person who at one time, to put it mildly, helped a certain circle of so-called oppositionists; and I'm not beating my chest here, it's true: there were years when I did a lot for these people. And at that time, colleagues who consider themselves independent journalists were afraid to invite them to their broadcasts, they openly told me that after these broadcasts you would be closed, you would not be allowed to work, etc. As you can see, I worked after high-profile broadcasts, and after high-profile memes that came to life ... [it is believed that the expression "Party of Crooks and Thieves" became widespread after the debate on the air of Yuri Pronko's author's radio program in early 2011 - approx. ed.]
Chesnokov:
With Navalny you had an interesting broadcast.
Pronko:
Yes, this is one of them, by the way. There were a lot of different people, who, by the way, some of them are sitting now. And some are free, but this is also a very interesting situation: some are sitting, others are free, while those who are free, as I understand it, are not concerned and not puzzled by those who are in places not so remote, but that’s not the point important. Although this is also important - it characterizes people.
So, I have not changed, I emphasize once again, but the situation and people have changed. Behind last years I see what a massive drift the so-called opposition has taken place not in the direction of real polemics with the authorities, not in the direction of real politics, but in the direction of loud statements. And, in fact, everything, and no more politics, and no more dialogue. These people do not want to live in Russia. These people do not associate themselves with Russia. I know these people. Most of them are even listeners of Komsomolskaya Pravda, I know them personally.
And what have I seen all the last years? These are tubs of slop that poured on all opponents, regardless, by the way, whether they are monarchists, whether they are red, or white. There is a kind of tracing paper on which these people live. Now, if you do not correspond to this tracing paper, to this stencil, then you begin to be, at least, an enemy or an opponent. So, thinking, at some point I could not realize what was happening. Because people have really changed. And the answer turned out to be very simple. They do not associate themselves with Russia. The louder you scream, the more hysterically you scream, the more slop you pour - on the government, on its politics, on the country - the higher the likelihood that you will receive a green card or a residence permit. And I know specific examples, specific people who brought the situation to this hysterical level and now they live in the West.
Chesnokov:
Well, since you've started, can you name these people?
Pronko:
These people are actually all on Facebook. In the Internet. Moreover, some of them tried to present their departures as some kind of political pressure.
Chesnokov:
How is the result of that?
Pronko:
Yes. bloody regime. Well, bullshit. Because when you start even a little, not just to dig, but to scratch the surface a little like this, you will find out - one son has been living in America for a long time, the other has a wife living in Paris for a long time. And so on. Do you know what private courses were in demand in neighboring Ukraine?
Chesnokov:
Maybe an English course?
Pronko:
Polish language courses. Here! In every regional center of Ukraine there are courses, and not just one, but several, namely the Polish language. All these talks about freedoms, human rights, etc. - how did they end? The final torn apart of the neighboring economy, its collapse, in fact, is this decoy that the European Union periodically holds before the Ukrainians - I mean the abolition of the visa regime. And here again there are talks about what it is ...
Now, returning to your question, I can honestly say that it was a difficult stage in my life, because I am not going to change my country. I have my Fatherland and I pronounce it without pathos. I'm not going to leave Russia. These people, I affirm, do not bind their fate and do not intend to live here. Look where their children study... By the way, in this regard, they are absolutely no different from individual representatives of the bureaucratic community. These are the berries of one field. For me, both are the same, Edward. I have not changed in relation to power, I still formulate topics and questions to which I demand clear answers. But I don't intend to support more people who do this to their own country.
Chesnokov:
Yuri, I correctly understand that you are an economist and when you criticize the economic course of the current government, you criticize it based on certain knowledge. What are your claims?
Pronko:
Let's separate the professional view from the philistine. In a good sense of the word. Each of the listeners of radio "KP" has already felt the full-scale economic crisis that has occurred in the country. I affirm that it is man-made, that it was created by precisely those people who are now in the financial and economic bloc of the government and their predecessors. Again, I will not hide it, I know these people personally. But it's not about personalities. In the end, each of us can manage this or that process - we are on the radio, on television, each radio listener in his place performs a certain functional duty. So, these people do not fulfill their functional duties. We look, for example, at the policy of the Central Bank of Russia. In the Constitution, in the main law of the country, the duty of this regulator to control and in every possible way contribute to a stable financial situation in the country is prescribed. Are we watching her? No. For a year, all our listeners have seen this highest volatility in the foreign exchange market. In Russian, a big difference between what you saw and what happened a year later. By the way, the situation is stabilizing, and you should be perfectly aware that there are people, there are beneficiaries who, to put it mildly, have earned quite a lot on these fluctuations, on this volatility.
For example, look at the founders and owners of the Moscow Exchange. Who is the forming element of the exchange rate? If the Central Bank stepped aside and, as Ms. Nabiullina says, their main topic is now inflation targeting - let me explain, the inflation rate, which, for example, at the beginning of the year or at the end of the previous one is indicated, for example, 4% - it must be executed by end of next year. If the inflation target is not implemented, the board of directors and the entire staff of the Central Bank resign. Have you ever seen this?
I return to the Moscow Exchange - look who are the beneficiaries there? This is a private institution. I'm not against private business, it doesn't matter to me whether it's large, medium or small. But private business cannot shape the monetary policy of an entire state. And that is exactly what is happening right now. Because it is on the Moscow Currency Exchange, in the currency section, that the level of fluctuations, that level of the ruble against the dollar, against the euro, which we have on a daily basis, is determined, and based on these data, the Central Bank approves its official exchange rate. Who is the chairman of the board of directors of the Moscow Exchange, do you know?
Chesnokov:
Not aware.
Pronko:
Alexey Kudrin.
Chesnokov:
Even so?
Pronko:
Yes. Alexei Kudrin received a very serious reward following the results of the past year. That is, the country simply needs to know its heroes. You must understand that you do not live in an airless space, you live in a space where there are specific interests, where a conflict of interests arises periodically and where people, hiding behind this or that political, by the way, such tinsel, earn very serious money. Answer me the question, why is the Minister of Economic Development of Russia, Mr. Ulyukaev, meeting with the US Ambassador? Explain what such a great need is for a person who is responsible for economic development in a country to meet with the ambassador of this state? At the same time, messages about the topics of their conversation are veiled. Periodic trips of the minister of the financial and economic bloc to various summits with very incomprehensible goals. After all, we all must be well aware that the same International Monetary Fund is the Rothschild fund. This is what you need to know. You need to know history. All these funds, which institutionally seem to be like global institutions, actually have beneficiaries. That is, specific individuals, citizens who receive, to put it mildly, a certain remuneration for this. The same is true for the Moscow Exchange.
Chesnokov:
100 years ago, Professor Milyukov, speaking from the rostrum of the State Duma, threw his famous accusation: “What is this - stupidity or betrayal?” In this particular case, maybe this is not a betrayal, but still incompetence?
Pronko:
No, it's definitely not stupid. I am not ready to agree with the second thesis. So, to formulate it harshly on the air. But it's definitely not stupid. This is a very cynical calculation. I will give you one more example so that you understand what is happening in the country. Two examples. Statement not by the economist Pronko, not by the journalist Pronko, but by the state corporation of the deposit insurance agency. This is the regulator that is designed to compensate ...
Chesnokov:
I would say mega-regulator.
Pronko:
- … yes, as a result of the bankruptcy of one or another financial institution. So here is the DIA statement. Bankers withdrew 550 billion rubles from deposits from banks.
Chesnokov:
For what period?
Pronko:
In a year. Over the past year.
Chesnokov:
And is this an official statement? So they admit it?
Pronko:
This is ASV. You and I can now go off the air, and I will show you ...
Chesnokov:
I believe you.
Pronko:
80% - again, the statement of the DIA - these are criminal schemes. Scary numbers! There's a million, many people can't imagine.
Chesnokov:
Yes, many and a hundred thousand cannot imagine ...
Pronko:
And half a trillion rubles? 550 billion - 80% of these are criminal schemes. Once again - the statement of the state corporation "Deposit Insurance Agency". I, like you, was knocked down, despite the fact that I am a professional economist, I was in shock. But I began to figure out where such a figure came from. Here are two banks that are on everyone's lips; their bankruptcy brought in 400 billion. One bank is pure crime, generally pure crime. I had a conversation with one of the lobbyists of the banking community, I asked him - what are you doing? You will bring down everything that can be brought down. And he told me that back in the days of the previous chairman of the Central Bank, Ignatiev, he expressed a desire to send a group from the Central Bank of Russia to this bank, which went bankrupt. If the listeners have a desire, I think you will find it - I think that the newspaper itself wrote about it, and the radio also talked about it ...
Chesnokov:
But you don't mention the name of the bank, do you?
Pronko:
No, I can name. Vneshprombank. 240 billion.
Pronko:
Moreover, the money of very serious people disappeared there. Not ordinary, so to speak, not ordinary. So I can’t stand it when they say “ordinary citizens”, because I immediately have a question - “complex” is that, with a third ear, a third eye and a tail behind, or what? However, it is not ordinary citizens of Russia who lost money there.
And the second bank is Probusinessbank. 120 billion. Do you see the order of the numbers? The total is almost 400 billion. And 150 billion losses that were withdrawn, according to DIA officials or DIA employees, to other institutions. That's all. I have a question - Ms. Nabiullina and the company, I mean the Bank of Russia, as with daily transactions - banks hand over a daily balance, that is, any transaction - so you went and bought bread with a plastic card, your transaction was immediately displayed in the balance of that the bank that is your card issuer. Here is every transaction ... 550 billion - how can you not notice?!
Chesnokov:
I do not know how.
Pronko:
Here is the answer to your question.
Chesnokov:
Well, do the governments in the economy bloc know how or do they not know how, do you think?
Pronko:
There, firstly, there are different levels of management, I'm not sure that the very top has any idea what's going on. Although, of course, they understand conceptually. Point two - they do not finish speaking. Because, well, you see, indeed, the banking sector, like any other financial sector, is, firstly, closed, and secondly, it is very sensitive. Any such thing can bring down the banking system, but, gentlemen, you will attend to your direct duties. But there is one more example related to the financial and economic bloc, and maybe a little later I will tell you about it.
Chesnokov:
The broadcast continues, Yuri Pronko is our guest, and in addition to such important topics as the Immortal Regiment and May 9, we also discuss something that is impossible to live without: this is bread, this is the economic policy of the current government. Yuri, you criticized the entire previous bloc, criticized harshly and, in my absolutely amateurish opinion, justly economic policy ...
Pronko:
I haven't given you all the examples yet. This is so that you and our listeners understand where the financial and economic bloc of the government is leading our country. You all know that from time to time the state cuts off the so-called super profits from the oil industry and sends them either to gold and foreign exchange reserves, or - attention! to help the American economy. That's it and nothing else. To date, more than 90 billion US dollars, which belong to Russian Federation, invested in US government bonds. What is this? When I hear remarks from Mr. Siluanov, the Minister of Finance of Russia, that he has no money for anything - and at the same time, 16 billion US dollars have been invested in treasury bonds over the past three months. This is helping America. In its purest form. Russian, Russian money that is directed to the American economy. Not from a great mind, you say? No, from a big one. This is cynicism. People carry out the tasks given to them.
Chesnokov:
But here is China, which cannot be suspected of national betrayal, it holds 10 times more in these than ...
Pronko:
Look at the Chinese economy… Yes, not even at 10, there are even more…
Chesnokov:
There's a trillion and a half [Chinese investments in US securities].
Pronko:
But, firstly, the Chinese economy is an export-oriented economy. That is, it cannot consume everything it produces. And now you can name me at least one sector of the Russian economy that produces more than we can consume? It's just oil and gas. All. We have brought down all industries and sectors of our own economy over the past 25 years.
Here is such a vivid example. There are several areas that are considered high value-added industries. The highest added value is the space industry. Thank God, enough mind to invest there. I see what scandals, I see criminal cases - I mean the Vostochny cosmodrome. But I take a position - so if it was necessary to invest not even 400, but 500 billion there, then it had to be done. This is the highest multiplier effect that one industry gives, because there are many related sectors that work for it in one way or another.
Chesnokov:
By the way, even the Americans are still buying our engines for super-heavy rockets. Or rather, Soviet ones, which are still according to old drawings ...
Pronko:
Well, ours, ours, yes. By the way, you mentioned the Soviet Union. What planes did I fly as a child?
Chesnokov:
Even I managed to fly on Soviet planes ...
Pronko:
This is Tupolev -154, this is Ilyushin -62, this is Ilyushin-86, this is Antonov -24, which (I will tell you a secret!) Has been flying for 60 years, for example, in Yakutia. If these aircraft do not exist, there will be no communication at all in the Far North of Russia.
Chesnokov:
Yuri Pronko is from Mirny.
Pronko:
No, I come from Zhigulevsk, from Samara, but I lived in Yakutia for a very long time. Where is our aircraft industry? All attempts to restart it through the creation of the SLA state corporation ended in nothing.
Chesnokov:
No, but still there are 104, in my opinion, produced Superjets.
Pronko:
Well? It's not like a drop in the ocean, it's a nanodrop in this sea of aviation ...
Chesnokov:
Nevertheless, the Mexican company "Interjet" bought 20 Superjets ....
Pronko:
It's nothing. Once again: we go to any Russian airport now, even here in Moscow we see only planes of two world global aircraft manufacturers [Boeing and Airbus]. All. Why don't we create our own aircraft industry?
The second example is machine tool building. Look at the graphs that show how many machine tools the Soviet Union produced and where we came from. I will illustrate you with an example. In 2016, the Russian government decided to allocate as much as 20 billion rubles through the Industry Support Fund for all support to Russian industry. Remember how much I told you withdrew through the banks?
Chesnokov:
550 billion.
Pronko:
And here as much as 20 billion for the entire industry. For machine tool building - 3 billion! I meet people (thank God that we still have factories that produce machine tools) - they have tears in their eyes. It's funny money! What can we talk about if you seriously live in the country, take care of your own country, develop your own economy. Or are you developing a different economy? Or are you interested in maintaining this status quo here, and exporting everything else there?
Chesnokov:
- "World gas station" you mean?
Pronko:
Yes, sure.
Chesnokov:
Okay, you're being critical. And do something what?
Pronko:
There is a concrete variant - it is demand stimulation. If there is no demand, there is no supply. Here they made a shameful decision on working pensioners and canceled their indexation. Look, these people deserve it! But, nevertheless, they will say that this is some kind of 4%. No, this is more than a hundred billion rubles, which would actually be invested in the development and promotion of demand in their own country. They didn't. This is such a small example. Great example. Now we are seeing a sharp decline in income - more than 20 million of our compatriots live below the subsistence level. That is, they live on less than 10 thousand rubles a month. Who encourages them? Where is the ration card program that would stimulate both demand and support for the producer?
Chesnokov:
In the US, by the way, 50 million people receive ration cards.
Pronko:
Absolutely. Here is one trap. Here, I mean in the federal government. They cannot find it... Moreover, by the end of the year they will now coordinate amendments, additions, changes between various ministries and departments, and all this will die down, mark my words.
Third option. If, thank God, we still have separate sectors, separate industries that can give a synergistic effect, let's finance them directly. When I hear remarks that this is emission, what the layman knows about emission, he is told that, they say, the more money is printed, inflation will be higher - this is nonsense.
Chesnokov:
Why stupidity?
Pronko:
And because you produce a product with this money, you produce a product. Your industry is starting to unwind. And you get this synergy.
Chesnokov:
And where is the guarantee that they will not plunder?
Pronko:
There is no guarantee. This is an institutional issue. Moreover, now the problem is not in plundering. This is old news. Now there is a new scheme, which the head of the Accounts Chamber Tatyana Golikova is very actively talking about. When the allocated public funds are not stolen, but they are simply placed on a bank deposit.
Chesnokov:
And scroll, getting interest.
Pronko:
Yes. A well-known story is the report of the Accounts Chamber, every listener of KP radio can find: 54 billion is allocated, an audit is carried out in three years, not a ruble was stolen, they all lay on a bank deposit, and lie ... So I don’t remember now, either they had to build a road, or some infrastructure project. At a minimum, these beneficiaries received half a billion living rubles without doing anything. So do not plunder - it is no longer fashionable. It is fashionable now to put on a bank deposit.
Chesnokov:
Oh ... And what do you propose to do? Stimulate demand, huh? But look, after, for example, the Baltic states joined the EU, Western banks - Swedish, German - entered there and stimulated demand through unlimited consumer lending. As a result, now in the Baltic States, in my opinion, 20 thousand euros per capita debt per person - is there such a danger?
Pronko:
No. Develop your own financial market. Why do you need the European Union? Why do you need these Western institutions? The country is self-sufficient, the country has everything - human, natural, territorial - resources. What else does? Why should we look there? If you want, I'll be strict. Even tougher. Let's declare a policy of isolationism in the economic sphere.
Chesnokov:
Well, we just don't have that many people. 250 million people lived in the USSR, we have exactly 100 million less.
Pronko:
And what's the problem? We must improve the quality and standard of living of our own citizens - this is the task. If our citizens knew proportionally how much they consume and how much, for example, the average American consumes, they would clutch their heads.
Chesnokov:
But without Ecuadorian bananas, we definitely won’t live.
Pronko:
Do we need it? Are these bananas? Wait, I don't want us to go into exaggeration - these bananas are there, pineapples, I do not propose that they be grown here, in Russia. But what can be grown here - once, what can be produced here - twice. And plus, yes, the policy of expansion. We declare isolationism. But this does not mean that we do not go further into the world, this does not mean that we do not promote our products and services.
Chesnokov:
We talked a lot about the economy, but still we will not deviate from what is on the near horizon. It's May 9, it's the Immortal Regiment. Yuri, I have a suspicion, returning to the topic with which we started our conversation, that this line, after which you became disillusioned with individual representatives of the type of the liberal opposition, although they have nothing to do with liberalism, this was just the first An immortal regiment, when, quite unexpectedly, streams of mud poured on it.
Pronko:
This is true. A year ago, our whole family - I have a big family - decided to go to this action. I am very worried, because for me it is very reverent. There are several topics that can throw me off track. It was very important for me to go with my grandfather, who has been gone for a quarter of a century, until Red Square ... I always have a photograph of my grandfather in my portfolio, because he was the closest person to me and he left very early, and at the same time on June 22, 1941 the deputy regiment commander, Colonel Osipov Ivan Tikhonovich, this is my grandfather, joined the fight against the Nazis who attacked our country. I tortured my grandfather very often, well, like any kid, I was wondering, he practically didn’t tell me anything, he told me that it was scary ...
Chesnokov:
Real front-line soldiers, by the way, tell little.
Pronko:
So he could not rudely push me away and say that I would not speak, he told me something, but I saw from him that he did not like to talk. It was such a great example for me. Mom left for the North from Samara, we lived in Mirny and once my grandfather flew to us. And already saying goodbye to him, he could not get through the control, he rang on the frame. They removed everything that could be removed. And these fragments rang in it. And it was important for me to go through this stage together with my grandfather, and a year ago, on May 8, I learned about the fate of my great-grandfather, already through my Ukrainian line. Although I will say right away - for me it is one people. Russians and Ukrainians. For me, this is one nation. And what is happening, for me, is beyond comprehension. So, I learned about the fate of my great-grandfather Mina Pronko - that was his name. He died in February 1944 - his father did not tell anything at all, and his father has been gone for three years - he died, liberating the right-bank Ukraine. This is great-grandfather. His son, respectively, my grandfather, Vasily Pronko, was taken prisoner. Then he went to Budapest. In the Pronko family, it was not customary to talk about the war at all. That's what my grandfather is Russian, that Ukrainian, they didn't tell me anything at all. They didn't push back, but they shunned.
Chesnokov:
Too hard?
Pronko:
Yes. And when we passed a year ago, for me it is ... Well, in general, whoever was at this action last year will understand me. Because it must be experienced, it must be there, it must be inside, on Tverskaya. We walked from Belorussky railway station to Manezhka and then stepped into Red Square. I saw absolutely sincere faces of my compatriots, by the way, of different nationalities and different religious views… And so I tell you, and I get goosebumps, because this is really very serious and very important. And then, yes, I found out not on this day, but, in my opinion, the next day, after ... We passed, for our family this is a very big celebration, for me in general there are two such dates - this is Easter, as for believer, and this is May 9, the Day of the Great Victory. And I learn about statements that, it turns out, there were allegedly some dummy people, some abandoned portraits. I was so shocked! I received a huge number of messages about how such an advanced journalist Pronko can participate in such, forgive me, this is a quote, “obscene, PR”, etc., where the president is present. That is, there was such a batch there ... Porridge in the head of people that they were ready ... And the worst thing, I see now, exactly in a year, I see what is happening again in social networks. I don't understand what's going on at all.
Chesnokov:
The frenzy is happening.
Pronko:
For what? Who needs it? Some caricatures appear, some caricatures get out… Yesterday I saw a Polish caricature, which means the wedding of Nazi Germany and Bolshevik Russia - literally. And this is written by the Poles. And the Poles don't want to talk about how they screwed up Czechoslovakia? How did they once derbanit her with fascist Germany? The topic is so sick, the topic is so conceptual, the topic is so solemn that this husk, this, forgive me, non-ethereal word “shlupon”, it should nevertheless step aside and if a person considers himself Russian, if a person considers himself a citizen of Russia, and he is not in a vacuum, he remembers his ancestors, then how not to go to the Immortal Regiment? Well, this is the foundation. For me, the same foundation is the Russian Church. There is a Russian church - there is a Russian nation. No church, no nation. The same is true here. There is an awareness of the greatness of the victory of our compatriots on May 9 - this is the foundation. There is no awareness - the borders are open, you can go in all four directions. But no one will be happy there. Nobody needs you there. This is a very big misconception that when people here pour slop on their own Fatherland, then counting on the fact that they will get something there, this is a big stupidity. Whether they will return or not, I do not know, but the fact that they will be unhappy is reinforced concrete.
Chesnokov:
Still, I promised our audience that my guest Yuri will tell you what kind of TV channel he works as a host - Tsargrad?
Pronko:
This is a patriotic channel. This is a Russian channel. This is the imperial channel. For some, this may again become a revelation, and after our broadcast, publications will begin again that Pronko is an imperialist ... And I have never hidden my position. The channel on which I work may seem strange to some, but I am very free in topics, on a visit. I can absolutely invite different positions, different opinions, well, of course, I discuss finance, economics, politics - this is my specialization, but this is a cool channel in terms of the fact that a person can, taking his own position, having his own opinion, come into contact with the hosts, with guests, to discuss with them, albeit in absentia, because there are no interactive programs, this is still television - this is more difficult than on the radio - but this is different from everything that is now on Russian television. Because every leader has their own opinion. And most importantly, the channel has its own opinion on the events that are taking place. We do not close ourselves off from anyone, but in the end, it's time to respect ourselves. Here is the Tsargrad TV channel for those who respect themselves and their Fatherland.
Chesnokov:
Summing up, here is Yuri Pronko, that average reader, listener of Komsomolskaya Pravda, who was now listening to your monologue about the difficult economic situation, that 550 billion was missing, and a person has a question - here I am, an ordinary person, what can i do?
Pronko:
Love yourself. Love your loved ones, relatives, appreciate your family! Big things start from small things. If you have harmony in the family, then there will be harmony in the world around you. This means that there will be harmony in the country. We must clearly realize that life is built by one's own hands and one's own brains. You can't do without it. I will not give you a recipe for a happy life. But I will take courage and say that if you are in harmony with yourself, the world will change for the better.
Chesnokov:
For me, the Day of the Great Victory is the time when a lump in the throat rolls imperceptibly, and the eyes "spontaneously" fill with tears.
The head of the Federal Property Management Agency has a dacha in Finland, the First Deputy Prime Minister has castles in Austria and luxury apartments in London... Real estate, accounts, offshore companies, children, grandchildren... The current Russian elite has everything "there", everything is over the hill!
In Russia, they love the “state” very much. It is believed that this institute is a lifesaver from any problems and hardships. Freebies and envy are the most terrible subconscious stereotypes rooted in the Soviet era that allow Russians to survive.
Most, in my humble opinion (no offense), do not care what and how in the state, economy, politics. The state guarantees a “bowl of gruel”, but we don’t count on more. Paternalism is a terrible force, but when it acquires a universal character, as in Russia, it is a direct road to the abyss, to the abyss of no return.
To some extent, the citizens are right. The state has been accustoming us for a century not to stick out, with what fright will we change now? Be proactive, responsible, thoughtful.
How quickly they pass laws that establish new fees for the citizens of Russia! Excises on gasoline will increase from 1 April. The corresponding law was adopted by the State Duma today in three readings at once. According to the new law, "requisitions" for gasoline will increase by 2 rubles per liter, for diesel fuel - by 1 ruble per liter.
I read the analytics of a respected institute that studies the economy of the Russian Federation and ... I choke with laughter!
Quote: "The annual increase in prices has fallen to 9.8%, mainly due to the strongly compressed contribution of food price changes, especially for potatoes and fruits and vegetables, which were about as expensive a year ago as they have been lately."
We talked about journalistic work in Russia, about the peculiarities of political talk shows, and so on.
Here's one but important snippet:
Why do you pay little attention to geopolitical topics in your programs?
Despite a serious drop in global oil prices last year (continuing correction), of the major oil producing countries, only Venezuela and Russia showed sharply negative results!
Venezuela's GDP collapsed by 10% (IMF), and Russia - by 3.7% (Rosstat).
Everyone else has grown!
Gentlemen, there are no liberals in the Russian government! There are people who self-proclaimed "liberals", but in the essence of their decisions they never were. Enough already to be carried out on these wiring by their "colleagues" of full-time "patriots".
So, A. Dvorkovich said that gasoline prices will rise by only 10% this year. Only inflation will "sit" in the growth of prices - said the vice-premier.
Well, but I would like to remind the "celestials" that it is time to remember and fulfill their own promises - to abolish the transport tax or cancel the excise tax on the price of fuel. Nowhere is there such a "social" approach to its citizens! Usually either tax or excise. But the Russian bureaucracy has long regarded the country's citizens as a silent "biomass" that will pay for their every whim.
Pronko Yuri- presenter of the Realnoe Vremya program on the Tsargrad TV channel.
Laureate of the All-Russian competition of business journalism of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in the nomination "Journalist of the Year" (2011), holder of an honorary diploma of the Association of Russian Banks for achievements in the field of financial journalism (2011).
I’ll make a reservation right away that I’m not against the rich and successful, but I am categorically against those who have turned our country into an “experimental testing ground”, where they pump out raw materials, sell them over the hill, and in return buy “slippers and beads” for local natives.
ABOUT Obviously, the Russian "elite" (without quotation marks, these people cannot be called such a high epithet) has rotted away. She left the country, remaining in it. It is difficult to understand why those who have succeeded in domestic business have such a hatred for the place where this success was made possible.
You can say that any person has the right to choose that point of application (in this case, the place of residence), where he, his family is comfortable and convenient. Everything is so, but not so, because we are talking about people who control more than 2/3 of the domestic economy and “fatten” in front of those who drag out a miserable existence. In this category of "spectators", at least 20 million people live on incomes below the subsistence level.
The showdown around Norilsk Nickel, when the oligarchs who received a unique asset as a result of the "scam" of the century - the so-called. loans-for-shares auctions, after taking them offshore, are a vivid example of how lawless those who claim to be the Russian elite are. Or maybe they don't apply anymore? The same Mr. Deripaska bought himself the citizenship of Cyprus for "the convenience of doing business."
Apparently, they are no longer ours, they are already "their boys" for the West. There are their accounts, real estate and wealth, and here is the industrial zone and its inhabitants, which allow them to lead a comfortable existence and participate in oligarchic wars. They and their judicial squabbles have long since taken some to London, some to Stockholm, "forgetting" about the Russian legal system.
I already wrote that
the Russian elite has become a laughing stock for the West. Her behavior is perplexing even among our geopolitical opponents: they do not observe such venality among their own, those who are considered there "the master of life."
Here are a few examples that support this thesis. Hundreds of wealthy Russian citizens, including Boris Mints (O1 Properties), Arkady Volozh (Yandex), Pavel Grachev (Polus), etc. each paid at least €900,000 and received Maltese citizenship.
Further, more: in a new report on the distribution of wealth in the world World Wealth Report consulting company Knight Frank notes that Russian citizens-multimillionaires are among the leaders among the world's super-rich in terms of having a second citizenship.
58% of the rich and wealthy in Russia already have a second passport (dual citizenship), 45% are considering moving from Russia to another country for permanent residence.
At the same time, more than 70% of Russian large-scale industry belongs to foreign offshore companies. This fact has a direct correlation with another indicator - the annual increase in millionaires in Russia. According to the World Wealth Report,
the number of our compatriots with a capital of more than $50 million amounted to 2,620 people. They own $1.2 trillion, which is 73.5% of the country's GDP in 2017.
It turns out that almost the entire domestic economy is managed “from behind the hill”, while its wealth is managed by a narrow group of influential and wealthy people who live there and work here. They control more than 2/3 of the national wealth, but they are not the national Russian elite. The elite is not in patriotic glorification, but in real deeds and investments.
In the current federal government, this fact is considered normal. How else can one explain the decision of the “Shuvalov commission” that it was impossible to carry out forced deoffshorization, because it would lead to a systemic crisis in the Russian economy?! Shuvalov is right:
the current system that he and his brothers (Kudrins, Dvorkovichi, Grefs, etc.) implemented in Russia will literally collapse. The system will collapse, which is sharpened only for pumping money out of Russia, but not for its breakthrough industrial growth.
These gentlemen do not care about the development of the economy, the impoverishment of the country's population, it is important for them to get cash here and send the "earned" billions there.
How long can this situation continue, when the “elite” openly despises Russia, but, while receiving foreign citizenship, does not forget about its assets in a hated country? How to explain from the side of the “successful and accomplished” in the 90s, namely, this factor I explain their actual betrayal of the Motherland, sectarian worship of the so-called. Western values and shop windows?
The answer is obvious - to send these figures to the mother of history in March 2018, when each of us will come to his polling station and support the national sovereignty and national interests of Russia through personal voting.
The time has come for the nationalization of the elite: if you don’t want to be with Russia, work for its good, go over the hill, the borders are open.
If you stay in your own country, if you want to be part of the cohort of successful and rich people working for the good of the Fatherland, no problem. Earn honestly, invest in business development in your own country. It is precisely for this group - the real, and not the ephemeral elite - that the most comfortable (“hothouse”) conditions should be created. Conditions for the prosperity of Russia and its people.