Simple Minded Attitudes Towards Russia

 

"Wait for a few more people to come, Pyotr!"

In Bloomberg, there is an article on the Russian economy where the important part begins here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-11/artist-mutilates-self-as-putin-paralyzes-russia.html

... In March, when the previous version of the forecast was adopted, the basic scenario was a moderately optimistic one that had the Russian economy growing at an average of 4 percent a year, noticeably faster than developed countries like the U.S. and members of the European Union. The current version is based on a "conservative" scenario, with average growth limited to 2.5 percent annually and a drop in Russia's share of global output to 3.4 percent in 2030 from 4 percent in 2012. In other words, despite consistently high energy prices -- in 2030, the forecast sees oil at $90 to $110 per barrel in 2010 prices -- Russia will keep lagging behind other developing nations, especially China and other Asian countries.

However, since we are dealing with the country which actually delivered a non-violent option on Syria to us - an option that our best minds are incapable of coming up with - we have to preface things with something like Killer Klowns From Outer Space, so the article from the beginning to the words "In March..." is as follows:

On Nov. 10, Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky undressed on Moscow's Red Square, right in front of Lenin's tomb, sat down and nailed his scrotum to the pavement.

Reactions to the radical act, which Pavlensky meant to be a "metaphor of the apathy, political indifference and fatalism of modern Russian society," ranged from disbelief to mockery. A police source told state-owned news agency RIA Novosti that the action constituted normal behavior "for a mentally ill person."

Pavlensky, however, may have been on to something. The apathy and fatalism he so dramatically depicted is clear in the Russian economic ministry's long-term economic development forecast. The forecast, which stretches through 2030, is a major strategy document meant to serve as the basis for policy decisions -- though in this case the most probable scenario does not require much action at all.

In March, ... 

Note that the writer also calls the act a "radical act", which expression I think I just used in writing about Herschel Grynszpan in my previous post. I wuz trying to be a fool-osopher, I guess, and just did not unnerstan' that "radical" meant "total scrotality"

As the International editors always said,

"There should be no article on Russian economics without answering who, what, where, why, and what body part is involved!"

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see  http://fatherdaughtertalk.blogspot.com/2013/11/attitudes-towards-russia-2.html


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