Poverty persists in Russia as war spending escalates
Russia continues to wage war in Ukraine, spending billions on military equipment. Meanwhile, many Russians live in extreme poverty, with little more than barracks for homes and mud in place of roads. Another shocking video from Putin's country has surfaced online.
Since the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine, many videos from Russia have emerged online, revealing the dire conditions in some towns across the country. Of course, the situation is different in Moscow, the Russian capital, and in Saint Petersburg, a city much cherished by Vladimir Putin himself. These recordings are put forth by residents themselves or by Ukrainian politicians.
This sort of exposure has been repeatedly highlighted by Anton Gerashchenko, a former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. "Russians keep saying the world envies them and everyone wants to move to Russia," he wrote in October 2024. During this period, he published recordings from various regions of Russia.
On 19th January, he shared another video, which likely originates from the Yakutia region, located in the eastern part of Siberia.
We save other countries, bomb them. And we don't even need to be bombed. We've already bombed everything ourselves. It's sad and dreary, says the author of the film.
A Russian woman revealed the neighbourhood where she resides. The video depicts mud instead of roads and wooden barracks instead of decent homes. The woman explains that the area smells of sewage and recounts an incident where she almost fell into a skip. "Russia still spends billions on war, not improving the lives of its own citizens," Herashchenko added.
As reported by Russian media, in 2023, Rosstat published data on poverty. The number of Russians with incomes below the poverty line was 13.5 million people, which constituted 9.3% of the population. On average, the poverty line was 14,339 rubles (approximately £115). Among large families, the rate is about 30 per cent.
