War in Ukraine drains billions, millions of Russians in poverty
Russia continues to wage war in Ukraine, spending billions on military equipment. Meanwhile, many Russians live in extreme poverty, often with barracks for homes and mud instead of roads. Another shocking video from Putin's country has just surfaced online.
Since the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine, numerous videos from Russia have appeared online. They reveal the dire conditions in various towns across the country. Of course, it's different in Moscow, the Russian capital, and in Saint Petersburg, a city beloved by Vladimir Putin himself. These recordings are published by residents or by Ukrainian politicians.
This was done multiple times 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. He was publishing recordings from various regions of Russia at that time.
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 showed the neighborhood where she lives. The video shows mud instead of roads and wooden barracks instead of decent homes. The woman explains that the place smells like sewage and shares a story about how she almost fell into the dumpster once. "Russia still spends billions on war, not improving the lives of its own citizens," Gerashchenko added.
As reported by Russian media, in 2023, Rosstat published data regarding poverty. The number of Russians with incomes below the poverty line amounted to 13.5 million people, which was 9.3% of the population. On average, the poverty line was 14,339 rubles (approximately 140 dollars). Among large families, the rate is about 30 percent.
