Putin News Conference Highlights Russian Crisis: World Socialist Web Site

World Socialist Web Site
wsws.org
Putin news conference highlights Russian

crisis
By Andrea Peters
21 December 2015
In his annual end-of-year news conference last

Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed
an audience of nearly 1,400 journalists, speaking for
approximately three hours. Despite his best efforts, the
Russian leader could not hide the fact that the
countrys economy is unraveling and Moscow has no
solution to the spiraling conflict with Washington.
In 2015, Russias economy contracted by 3.7
percent, a fact noted by Putin in his remarks to the
press. Real disposable incomes and industrial
production have also declined substantially, and trade
volumes are down. Inflation is running at around 12.3
percent. Capital flight, which in 2014 had reached $151
billion, will be about $60 billion in 2015.
One fact not noted by Putin is the countrys official
poverty rate, which, calculated on the basis of an
absurdly low wage level of $112 a month per
individual, rose from 12.6 last year to 14.1 percent. On
the very day of the news conference, the Russian
currency hit new lows against the dollar, falling 1.1
percent according to Bloomberg. Although the official
unemployment rate stands at 5.6 percent, it is much
higher in areas more remote from the countrys major
cities, such as the restive region of Dagestan, where
unemployment is upward of 30 percent.
The collapse in world energy prices is shipwrecking
the Russian economy. Previous government projections
related to economic growth and the health of the
federal budget were based on an estimated oil price of
$100 a barrel. Over the course of the past year, these
projections have been revised downwards based on a
new estimate of $50 a barrel. But, as Putin sought to
casually acknowledge in his exchange with reporters
last week, the current price now stands at $38 a barrel.
Putins insistence that statistics show that the
Russian economy has generally overcome the crisis, or
at least the peak of the crisis, not the crisis itself, is

belied by the very facts that he was citing. Furthermore,
the government is gearing up to implement massive
new cuts in social spending, continuing a process that
has already witnessed the axing of funding for health
care, education and other services, with the exception
of the military.
Putins observation that we will have to make
further adjustments to the federal budget due to the
collapse in oil prices is a warning of what is in store for
the Russian working class. For years, advocates of
fiscal austerity have insisted that Russias pension
system be targeted by slashing payouts to retirees and
raising the retirement age. The fact that Russian life
expectancy has risen to 71 yearsa statistic held up by
Putin last week as a sign of the improving welfare of
Russias populationwill be utilized as a justification
for extending the working age, which Putin
acknowledged Thursday, at some point we will have
to do.
Russias budget crisis, which is a twin product of the
fall in global commodity prices and the efforts of the
Western powers to sink the Russian economy through
trade sanctions and currency speculation, is already
leading to growing social tensions. Since
mid-November, Russian long-haul truckers have been
staging protests against the implementation of a new
highway transit fee that the government claims is
necessary to finance infrastructure repairs on the
countrys roads, but drivers insist is bankrupting them
and being used to line the pockets of a top Russian
oligarch.
Even as he sought to obfuscate the implications of the
countrys economic crisis, Putin adopted a belligerent
tone toward Turkey and threatened Ankara with
military retaliation over its decision to shoot down a
Russian military jet that allegedly strayed into Turkish

airspace during operations in Syria. Putin noted that
Russia has now stationed air defense systems in the
area and declared, Turkish planes used to fly there all
the time, violating Syrian air space. Let them try it
now.
When pressed on the question as to whether or not
the US was behind the Turkish governments actions,
Putin indicated that this was likely, but refrained from
stating that the attack on the Russian jet was carried out
on direct order from Washington. You asked if there
is a third party involved, he said. We do not know,
but if someone in Turkish leadership has decided to
brown nose the Americans, I am not sure if they did the
right thing. First, I do not know if the US needed this. I
can imagine that certain agreements were reached at
some level that they would down a Russian plane,
while the US closes its eyes to Turkish troops entering
Iraq, and occupying it. I do not know if there was such
an exchange. We do not know. But whatever happened,
they have put everyone in a bind.
The bind that Russia faces in particular is tied to
the fact that apart from resorting to military force, it has
no answer to Washingtons intransigent hostility. The
ruling oligarchy on whose behalf Putin speaks owes its
ill-gotten wealth to the asset stripping of the former
Soviet Union and the reintegration of the region into
the world capitalist economy. Thus, even though the
Putin regime grasps, and often makes reference to, the
US desire to push Russia out of the Middle East and
Central Asia, and ultimately break apart the country, it
has no basis upon which to challenge American
imperialism except by way of armed might.
This leads the Putin regime to vacillate between
threats, accusations against the US for creating the
spiraling disaster in the Middle East, and pleas for
some sort of negotiated settlement. At last Thursdays
news conference, Putin accused the US of laying the
foundations for the emergence of ISIS by destroying
Iraq and then promoting the growth of Islamist forces
through its relations with Turkey.
The Turkish authorities are taking quite a lot of heat
not directly, thoughfor Islamising their country, he
said. I am not saying if it is bad or good, but I admit
that the current Turkish leaders have decided to let the
Americans and Europeans knowyes, we are Islamising
our country, but we are modern and civilised Islamists.
Remember, what President Reagan said about Somoza

in his time: Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he is
our son of a bitch. Just keep it in mind, we are
Islamists, but we are on your side, we are your
Islamists. There may be such an overtone, but nothing
good came out of what happened.
The dangers posed to Russia by US support for
Islamist forces are at the forefront of Moscows
foreign policy concerns, as the Kremlin fears that the
spillover into Central Asia and the north Caucasus of
the Syria, Iraq and Afghan crises could fuel Islamic
separatist movements on and within Russias borders.
Despite this, Putin continues to search for some sort
of modus operandi within the existing state of affairs.
The Russian president reiterated his support during the
news conference for the United Nations Security
Council resolution passed the next day that supposedly
laid out a political solution to the Syrian civil war,
despite the fact that it failed to address the fate of
Russian ally Bashar al-Assad or clarify which groups
fighting inside Syria are terrorists.
In the days following Putins news conference, in
relation to the conflict between Russia and the West
over Ukraine, Putin called once again for the US and its
allies to change their understanding of Russias aim.
Im convinced, Putin stated, that the positions of
our western partners, European and American, are not
bound up with the defense of the interests of Ukraine,
but with an attempt to prevent the re-creation of the
Soviet Union, and nobody wants to believe us that it is
not our goal to re-create the Soviet Union.
To contact the WSWS and the

Socialist Equality Party visit:
http://www.wsws.org

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World Socialist Web Site

Putin news conference highlights Russian

In his annual end-of-year news conference last

at least the peak of the crisis, not the crisis itself, is

World Socialist Web Site

Russian military jet that allegedly strayed into Turkish

Remember, what President Reagan said about Somoza

World Socialist Web Site

To contact the WSWS and the

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