The crushing cost of the Russian counter-revolution

The west shares the blame for this surge in inequality

Johnathan Steele in Moscow
Friday September 9, 2005
The Guardian

<snip> Many state assets, from kindergartens to trade-union holiday homes, were closed and sold off a decade ago. In recent years local authorities have been charging people a growing share of the cost of the hot water, heating and electricity that their centrally supplied flats use.

This week a law came into effect that requires councils to charge people 100%. If services were adequate people might be less upset. But through incompetence, or a shortage of cash from the central budget, or because it gets creamed off on the way, local authorities cut spending. In many cities winter heating and electricity work only a few hours a day.

The charging scheme is part of a "cost recovery" programme recommended by the World Bank and already in force in numerous developing countries. The bank pays part of the salaries of research staff in several Russian ministries so its ideas penetrate easily.

Cost recovery is spreading to health and education. Prescriptions, blood tests and other minor procedures increasingly have to be paid for. State universities are charging fees. Most will no longer be funded from the federal budget. Regional authorities will have to take over, and in Russia's poorer areas this means closing faculties and downgrading universities to become technical colleges, concentrating on business studies and accounting - a move that President Putin has said he wants. <snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1566192,00.html

I recommend checking out the archives of The Exile. Not everyone's cup of tea, but certainly better than the Moscow Times.

What is this "World Bank" crap?