Russians in the world of shadows
In this article I am going to show three people and one useful idiot who move in the shadows around Putin, the little Muscovite. I have chosen to describe these people so I can end the article with two funny stories.
Elvira Nabiullina
She is the head of the Russian central bank, charged by the president with keeping the economy afloat until the little Muscovite can bring about a ceasefire and a conditional peace settlement. She is a brilliant economist, a person who can build a house of cards out of virtually nothing.
Dazzle most economists in the West and paint a picture of a sustainable Russian economy. She is agile and can in small hidden steps transform the economic society into a more defense-oriented economy. Brilliant at managing costs in the human biomass that defense and industry need.
Sergey Chemezov
Sergey Chemezov, the little Muscovite's oldest friend. The old comrade-in-arms from the 80s in East Germany. Sergey and the President shared the same staircase and they even lived on the same floor and their wives spent a lot of time together. He is the biggest power player in the Russian defense industry.
He controls the Rostec conglomerate and thus the largest defense industry segment of Russia's GDP. Sergei Chemezov is the classic definition of a “Chekist” a Kremlin insider from the military and intelligence establishment that runs Russia.
Igor Sechin
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Igor Sechin is the strongest of the Siloviki. A silovik is a person who works for any state organisation that is authorised to use force against citizens or others. Igor a former Soviet spy and close ally of Vladimir Putin - has been a man in the shadows for much of his career. During Putin's first term, Moscow joked that Sechin did not really exist, but was a kind of urban myth.
A ghost invented by the Kremlin to create fear, as American diplomats jokingly suggested. Liberal-minded Russian media called him “the scariest person in the world” or “Darth Vader”, a description used by US diplomats.
Sergey Mironov
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Sergey Mironov, one who is now a useful idiot of the shadows. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he called the Ukrainian government a “Nazi regime” that “must be destroyed”. The Wagner sledgehammer “With its help, we will smash the Nazi ideology aimed at destroying our country,” said Mironov, who, like many other Russian politicians, portrays the war in Ukraine as an existential struggle for Russia's survival against a malevolent West.
I originally intended to write a longer article about these people and their impact on the economy. But the rapid fall that is now taking place in the Russian economy means that what I can highlight in the article is already old material and described by others. But there is some stuff that humorously shows how power control happens in Russia. In this, Putin is the referee who stands by and watches.
Inflation is now having such a big impact that the Russian Federation is now starting to reintroduce the subsidy system that existed during the USSR in 1984. The first to introduce subsidized food was the governor of Kamchatka, Vladimir Solodov.He introduced subsidized food vouchers for the poorest and most needy.
A few days later, Governor Alexey Besprozvannykh of Kaliningrad did the same but targeting more types of food. Not stopping there, the chairman of the Economic Market Committee Anatoly Aksakov proposed a national subsidized food card to be valid throughout the Federation.
Elvira Nabiullina has set out the areas in which she can advise on how the state should finance the shortcomings in the upcoming state budget so that it matches the budget approved by Parliament. These include flooding the banking system with crypto roubles so that Russian banks will buy Russian government bonds. Gazprom's new extraction contract is extended to 2242 for the gas field intended for China.
A new system for paying injury and death benefits to contract soldiers. This will result in a reduction of compensation in the human biomass in the defense economy. All indirect and direct government charges will be increased, 15 - 25%. Published upcoming need government interest rate hike in 2025.
Sergeys Chemezov spoke to Parliament in October 2024, where he described how the agreed inflation targeting is affecting the defense industry. The interest rate is now becoming a burden for the defense economy.
On December 11, Sergey Mironov submitted a proposal to the lower house of parliament to dismiss the centralbank director if the need arises.
In steps Igor Sechin to reinforce the demand that the interest rate has reached its ceiling for the time being and no new interest rate hikes will take place in 2024 and early 2025.
This is just a theater in parliament to hide the shadow budget in the defense economy. Elvira has flooded the banks with crypto currency for which they have then bought government bonds. The banks' balance sheets improves and they can then continue to lend to the defense economy. Igor Sechin keeps track of the players and Sergey Mironov has created a public scapegoat in Elvira.
Humorous anecdotes can be used to describe these shadows. I will show you two of the most famous ones.
Sergey and Igor are homeless and lying on some cardboard boxes on the ground in a Moscow alley.
Sergey says: “Crisis, crisis, that’s all everybody is talking about! It won’t affect me, I’ve survived everything!”
Igor says: “You’re wrong! You’ll be the first to be affected by crisis!”
“How come?”
“That’s easy! Have you ever had friends who happen to be bankers?”
“No!”
“You’ll have some soon!”
Elivira joins them ”Hey guys”
Note Slightly modified anecdote from Ziuganova pro krizis 2009.
As for the real political role of Sergei Mironov, it is best described in a classic Russian political anekdot how Putin went to a restaurant accompanied by two Parliamentary Speakers Mironov and Gryzlov.
The waiter said: “President, what would you like to eat?”
“Meat!”
“How about vegetables?”, says the waiter.
“The vegetables will also have meat!”
Thank you for reading my article
Lars-Erik Jonsson