A Wind of Change

 Much can depend in a nation's life on the personality and beliefs of its leader. Even more, often enough, on those of the men surrounding him. To this, Russia is no exception.

President Putin has always stood by the re-industrialization of the economy and the advancement of the real economy vs the financial economy. However, this always met with limited success and seemed to only make advancements more in a reactionary manner to key anti-Russian world events. Import substitution, raised due to western economic war on Russia, is a prime example of this. While successful, its success has been much more limited then by any account it should have been. It is as if the ship of state was constantly being met with a ponderous head wind, breaking its progress. Agriculture and military have been the exceptions.

Indeed, that head wind was the number two man in Russia. An avowed Atlantist and part of the globalist financial elite, Dmitry Medvedev, as prime minister, was never exactly pro Russian development or mercantilism (there it is that evil word Mercantilism, so hated by the neoliberal free trade crowd). It can be understood of course as 1. Financial economics by its nature is an extraction economy, its quick cash through liquidation of industry and sell off of resources. When backed up by people who see themselves as citizens of the globe or global elites and hold no particular driving and all consuming love for their homeland, their Rodina, this is a formula for disaster.

Since the removal of Medvedev from power and with him the Atlantist neoliberal block and their replacement with Prime Minister Mishustin, the winds of change have arrived.

This was first seen by the Russian advantageous positioning to support the economy during and after the Covid19 lock-downs. I detail these HERE. In tendum, the Russian government gave assistance to the Russian medical supply and biotechnology industry to allow Russia to become an over night medical equipment heavy weight, bringing forth top of the line technologies (detailed HERE) and to be the first to start mass production of the first registered Covid19 vaccine (detailed HERE). Already nations have lined up to purchase and franchise the production of equipment and vaccine. Russia has also shown an ability all over her vast distances to greenfield to completion almost two dozen hi-tech medical hospitals, projects completed in under 100 days each and not temporary trailers like the Chinese "wanders" but permanent building with all the hi-tech equipment (also Russian made) that would be expected from world class facilities.

"The president gave marching orders for the government to work out a package of programs for the growth of the Russian IT industry, to create maximum comfortable conditions for specialists of this industry. Now we are reviewing the changes that will be required in the legal codes to create tax havens for the IT sphere."

Prime Minister Michael Mishustin

One such maneuver is the lowering of pension taxes required from the IT industry from 15% down to 7.6%, almost a 50% cut. Taxes on profits will drop from Russia's already low 20% to 3% for companies who earn 90% of their profits from production and sale of software solutions.

Additionally, manufacturers of electronic equipment and AI systems will also be covered under these new taxes.

No major economy in the world has such beneficial tax codes for the IT industry. Coupled with the fact that Russia produces more engineers than any other nation, an excellent communications infrastructure that is now being upgraded to 5G, its comparatively lower salaries compared to other nations and very cheap utilities and land costs and there is no logical reason not to invest, except for fear bred by ignorance and foreign propaganda. Taking into account the weak position of the ruble vs foreign major currencies, for those selling abroad and ignoring this , it is just down criminal incompetence.

The Russian government has also undertaken a gigantic effort in reviewing, updating and deleting antiquated government standards throughout all industries. This has helped catapult Russia into one of the world leaders of the Ease of Doing Business index in 6 short years. What, the Western MSM forgot to mention that?

The Top 18 Other Constitutional Amendments to the Russian Constitution

The referendum is over and 78% of the Russian voters gave their support for the constitutional amendmentS. You may have noticed I capitalized the "S", which was for most of my western readers who from reading their national."journalism" may be found lacking in knowledge that there were other amendments but the "Putin is now King" amendment that the Western mouth pieces are all yelling about. As a matter of fact, even many opponents of President Putin staying on came and voted for the changes, all for one reason: to give Russia the tools it needs to break the last chains of Western post Soviet colonialism.

To that one point, what the mentioned amendment does is zero out the number of served terms previously for Putin, Medvedev and Yeltsin (ok, little chance he will run again) to run for 2 more consecutive terms. So this is no guarantee of being in office, but most western media seemed to miss that point.

What is more important, especially to "woke" western liberalism are the other changes.Russia is a conservative Christian nation state, more akin to what the West was in the 1950s and 1960s then to the woke, extreme liberal mayhem and politically correct oppression that it has become.

The amendments to the constitution were presented to voters as a major blow to the colonial constitution written by US State Department "advisors" aka handlers of Boris Yeltsin and given to him to pass right after he had 550 people killed in the Russian White House (parliament) revolt, in 1993.

What most westerners are not aware of is that Russia was always viewed as an enemy by the Western elite and they were quite vocal about pointing this fact out, even though at this point in the 90s Yeltsin had dismembered (with the help of Gorbachev) the Soviet State, murdered the Russian army, and gave and signed anything demanded from him by his Western handlers.


Just a few examples:

Russians have no one to blame but themselves for the brutal dictatorship they built in their own country and imposed on their neighbors. (Chrystia Freeland, Financial Times, 29 May 1996)

NATO has proved itself to be peaceful and the West's CFE commitments add to that assurance. But as Russia recovers and rearms, as history suggests it will, Moscow's imperialist urge might well rise again. Then it will be too late and 'provocative' to redraw the defense line. (William Safire, International Herald Tribune, 3 Oct 1995)

There is an expansionist mentality among Russia's ruling elite, deeply rooted in the country's past, which makes it difficult for them to consider forming a partnership with the West. This almost permanent urge for territorial expansion has at the same time become a scourge for the Russian people who continue to live in appalling poverty in a country rich in resources. (Jan Nowak "What NATO can do for Russia", Washington Times, 19 April 2000)

So what were the main other amendments?

1. Only the federal government can set up governmental structures in the territories of Russia.

2. The territory of the Russian Federation can not be divide, partitioned or annexed to or by anyone else and any actions committed in that vein will be considered treason.

Yes, under the colonial constitution RF had nothing in it about maintaining territorial integrity or about treason on these grounds being..welp treason.

3. RF is the lawful inheritor of the former Soviet Union. This includes all treaties and treaty organizations.

4. The RF has a unified 1000 year history. It has a culture and belief in God passed on to us from our ancestors as well as government traditions.

5. Civil servants and elected politicians are now officially banned from having bank accounts outside of Russia and from holding a second citizenship or permanent residency. As unbelievable as this may sound, some two dozen members of the Russian Duma (parliament) are also citizens of other nations, primarily US, UK and Israel. As a matter of fact, the leaders of various progressive bills to strip parental rights and pro LGBT groups are US citizens. Go figure.

6. The Constitution now enforces that the country's minimum wage can not be lower than the minimum cash required for life above the base poverty line.

7. The RF remembers those who defended the Motherland and will defend the historic teuth from changes.

8. The well being of children is top priority of the government, which will provide the optimal conditions for development of spiritual, just, emotional, physical and intellectual development. The development of patriotism, citizenship and respect for elders. The government prioritizes family based education but takes upon itself responsibility for orphaned children.

9. Government language is Russian. Russian is the main language among thr many equal nationalities of the RF.

10. Provinces have a right to set their own local language which will be used in parallel with Russian.

11. RF guarantees to all its nationalities the right to their own language, creating conditions for its study and conservation.

12. Culture in the RF is a unique blend of all its component nationalities and is upheld and defended by the government.

13. The government guarantees the defense of the rights of Russian ethnic minorities located outside of RF.

14. The only official currency of Russia is the ruble. The currency is controlled by the Central Bank.

15. Government guarantees its obligations to pay pensions and to index those pensions yearly.

16. No international laws or treaties can supersede Russian federal laws.

17. President is the guarantee of the Constitution and the freedom and rights of the citizens.

18. Candidates for presidency can not be younger than 35 and must have lived the past 25 years in RF. He can not have duel citizenship or residency or foreign accounts.

There are of course many more minor amendments that will be discussed later and there impacts.

Russia Is Well Positioned UPDATE 4 (1 June 2020)

Despite the "best wishes" of the Western mass media that everything in Russia is failing, the reality of the situation is that Russia is uniquely positioned to rebound economically faster and stronger then the over leveraged West.

Even the NYT came to this conclusion "Thanks to Sanctions, Russia Is Cushioned From Virus’s Economic Shocks", true, you can taste the bile in the first half of the article, but then they get to the various points.

Russia has been cut off from the Western financial markets, Russia has been busy regrowing its industry for the past 7 years and Russia has a huge reserve of over $600 billion set aside for occurrences just like this with a government debt of less than 10% to GDP. But this is not enough, what Russia has, unlike the West, is a leadership that is ahead of the curve.

The Russian leadership has foreseen what is coming down the road and has taken key steps to block that road as best as possible. Russia instantly closed the borders with China, while infected people from China were still traveling everywhere. Russia closed commercial flights with the rest of the world more slowly and that did allow for the infection to leak in. Either way, for what ever reasons: Grace of God, cold weather, partial immunity from TB vaccines, the virus has been slow to spread and the rate of full recovery is 5 times to that of deaths, while globally right now its about 2 to 1, of the officially recognized infections.

The Russian government has stock piled medical equipment and has retooled very quickly to manufacture additional equipment and materials, enough so as to send aid to 14 other nations, including the US, as well as 15 plane loads of trucks and personnel to aid Italy, bringing lacking equipment, such as disinfectant machines, spreaders, and liquid as well as over 200 doctors and military biochem experts. Russia has disinfected over a twenty hospitals and homes for the old, as well as building field hospitals, throughout hard hit northern Italy.

Russia has over 44000 artificial/assisted breathing machines and two large manufacturers are working 24/7 manufacturing more. As a comparison, Japan with the world's oldest population, a population of 120 million, has only 24000 and 10000 are already occupied by the sick from other infections. Milan, Italy had 48.

But more so then the medical preparedness, is the economic steps that Russia has taken to make sure that a post infection economic crash does not come at the end of the month long quarantine.

Europe and the US panicked, sending everyone into lock down without a single thought about how the already financially overstretched and struggling populations will feed themselves and survive a month plus without money to buy food and in some cases without food, not to mention pay rents, credit debts and utilities. All plans came only as an after thought, not much for proper full spectrum planning. Over 10 million have filed for unemployment in the US alone, in just two weeks. Unheard of numbers.

The Russian government, spearheaded by President Putin has avoided this and has put in key points for both the workers and the small and medium businesses. They are as follows:

For people:

1. 50% increase to unemployment benefits by the Federal government, so that unemployment will not be less than the minimum allowed salary. Sure a person will not be eating steaks on this but he will not be starving either. Unemployment is available to anyone who has worked for at least 4 months previously. As a comparison, in the US unemployment is available only to those who work full time, on contract pay (not hourly workers) and has worked at least 12 months previously.

2. Provinces will add to the unemployment payout as much as their budgets allow. Moscow for one will double the unemployment payouts of the Federal government.

3. Sick leave pay has also been increased by 50%.

4. People facing unemployment or inability to pay credit due to pay cuts are now able to take a 6 month credit holiday from payments. Banks, by law, have 3 days to process the paperwork and freeze credits.

5. Pensions will be indexed +6%.

6. Filing for Bankruptcy is now free.

For business:

1. For small and medium businesses percent free loans to pay salaries up to 20 million rubles ($270.000 at current exchange rates) without a need to pay back for 8 months after the emergency is lifted.

2. Rents owed on Federally owned lands and infrastructure waived for 8 months.

3. All taxes on rent givers are waved in exchange for them lowering the rent payments demanded from their renters.

4. All business taxes, with the exception of VAT, are waved for 6 months.

5. Large funds for investment in support of whole business sectors.

6. Bankruptcy for businesses can be stalled for 8 months.

Other ideas are still being worked out.

As you can see, the Russian government is dead set on making sure Russian bounces back fast, hard and ahead of its Western competition. But to make sure Russia does not become a temporary slush fund for Western credit, two additional laws were passed:

1. a 13% tax on all percents, dividends and other earnings on deposits or investments over 1 million rubles. This is only on the money earned, as money making money will now be equated to income, unlike in many countries, so the rich will pay their fair share along with all workers.

2. a 15% tax on all monies being transferred out of Russia. So it will no longer be a quick slush fund and get the cash out later, doing damage to the economy built on those monies. At least a portion will remain in the country to be put back into the economy.

Now we will wait and see what other new projects or laws will come in and only time will tell who in 2 months will be standing, who will be on their knees and who will be on the floor bleeding out with a white chalk outline.

God Bless.

Update 6 April 2020

The situation on the ground has continued to evolve, with several governmental and non-governmental actions starting to continue easing life for Russians and Russian business.

1. Sberbank has created a payment holiday for its clients, for up to 6 months. This, unfortunately, does not mean that percents are not accuring, but payments can be put off, as follows:
   -- Mortgages up to 1.5 million rubles
   -- personal loans up to 250.000 rubles
   -- automobile loans up to 600.000 rubles
   -- credit cards up to 100.000 rubles
   -- small business short term loans up to 300.000 rubles
While the sums are small, it is a start.

2. Government has cut pension contributions from businesses for their employees by 50%. This is the biggest chunk of the payroll taxes that a business has to pay.

3. Internet- all major internet providers have agreed that they will not cut service for those who are unable to pay, during the crisis period, however long it lasts.

Update 8 April 2020

The Russian government has allocated 10 billion rubles ($133 million) to double the salaries of medical personnel fighting the Coronavirus out break.

Emergency salary loans to small and medium businesses are now full operative and are being turned around in under a day. Bank staff are working from 0800 to 2400 daily.

Update 17 April 2020

In order to recharge the economy once the locks downs are over, the Russian government is now offering guaranteed 6.5% mortgages, with the government picking up the tab for any percentage above the 6.5% level. The mortgage level limit is 5 million rubles for Moscow and St. Petersburg and 3 million for the rest of the country.

Update 1 June 2020

The Russian government has now started to pay a one time sum of 10,000 rubles per child between the ages of 5 and 16. The first deposits have started and parents have up to the end of September to file.

Government loans to small and medium businesses for the purpose of paying salaries have now been modified so that if 90% of the work force is kept on, the government will wave the debt totally. If 80% of the work force is kept, 50% will be waved.