Facing a wave of complaints about low salaries and poor living standards at his annual call-in show with the public, President Vladimir Putin insisted that life is getting better for ordinary Russians even if they don’t yet feel it.
While real wages fell in recent years, “now incomes are gradually starting to recover,” Putin said Thursday in the live broadcast that exposed simmering discontent after a recession he called an “unpleasant element in the economy.” When a firefighter in Kaliningrad region said he earned as little as $190 (12,000 rubles) a month and had to work two or three jobs to support his family, Putin appeared surprised and said the information “needs to be checked.”
Average monthly salaries will rise to about $712 (45,000 rubles) this year, from 33,000 in 2017, Putin said. After callers highlighted poor provision in education, health care and basic infrastructure, the president said results of his $400 billion investment program to 2024 in the so-called National Projects “should be felt right now, this year, and next year,” including on wages.
The televised marathon is meant to present Putin as in tune with the concerns of ordinary Russians. With his popularity on the slide amid anemic economic growth, his 17th “Direct Line” took place at a sensitive moment for the Kremlin after a series of protests forced officials into unusual climbdowns on issues ranging from police corruption to waste disposal.
