Rupert the Red

The CIA factbook says the 2005 estimate is 67, the WHO suggests around 64 (http://www.who.int/countries/rus/en/).

Wow, a Republican hearing blames Clinton? Next you'll be telling me pigs can fly. But seriously, your link makes no reference to "$200bn looted by US banks" or Americans running the Russian economy. Links are nice but they have to be relevant to the topic at hand.

Russian unemployment is currently about 7.7%, it has been falling every year since 2000 - as far back as I can find data. Its not great but certainly lower than Germany or France, and I doubt anyone is "screaming" for a job mining coal in Siberia.

Homelessness was also illegal in the USSR. If we collected everybody who was homeless and locked them up in institutions they wouldn't be homeless any more, but would it be progress?

 

maybe they can, ur certainly giving it a good shot. but seriously, 2 get back to the claim u made, or the denial u made, that americans were not running the show, i take it u concede this point.

i didn't say it did. i made it clear that this was a separate allegation (well it's more than an allegation: it's common knowledge, and has been the subject of a congressional hearing and report and litigation). and that figure is conservative. harpers wrote: Estimated portion of the $4.8 billion that the IMF loaned Russia last July that has been lost or stolen: 1/5 »[Russian Audit Chamber (Moscow)]. http://www.harpers.org/Economics.html
that's 20% of nearly 5 billion dollars 'lost' or stolen which of course is a figure more in the neighbourhood of a billion dollars.

we all have to use links as some kind of source reference. i do try 2 make mine relevant and i do read what i link to for relevance.

8.3% plus considerable underemployment is the cia figure actually, which i don't trust. carnegie quotes a figure of 11.7%. figures such as these (and where do urs come from btw?) which notoriously downplay unemployment numbers usually do not count ppl who have simply given up trying to look 4 work through desperation or defeatism, ppl in shitty part-time jobs, and others who want a full time job but simply none are available, such as partners where one is working, ppl who've reached retirement age, young ppl, etc. anything u read describes the situation as dire. the anecdotal evidence i hear supports that.

i wonder how long it will take until we can stop blaming the communists 4 everything that's gone wrong? while all that about homelessness may be true (it's true in our country 2 about it being against the law: we call it vagrancy) the other truth is that the soviet economy did house several hundred million ppl and not everyone lived in a siberian salt mine. today lawlessness and homelessness are endemic. would that be progress? most russians i talk 2 (admittedly theyre the ones who emigrate) don't think so.

lest i be accused of being an apologist 4 the fsu, let me tell u that i'm not. so i dont want 2 get in2 a defence of the soviet system (as compared with the mess they've got now). there was a hell of alot wrong with it, as u have mentioned in ur posts, and with which i wholeheartedly agree. however, that doesn't mean we should be blind to what's happened since state control communism ended, don't u think?