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Unlike his compatriots he had the means to secure a safe haven far from the leaden clouds that were descending on Russia. Tens of millions of ordinary Russians who had taken out loans during the boom years, not only faced crippling debts, but also job losses, and banks, after having distributed mortgages and consumer credit with few questions asked, were facing a mountain of bad loans.
Russia recovered from the 2008 crisis when the demand for energy and raw materials rose as China pursued its phenomenal growth trajectory. Energy and commodity prices climbed at breakneck speed boosting Russia and the others Brics. However, most of what followed, in Russia’s specific case, was of the Kremlin’s own making, instead of steering the economy towards recovery Putin embarked on a series of dangerous adventures: the extravagance of the Sochi Winter Olympics; his unflinching support of the Syrian dictatorship; the annexation of the Crimea; fomenting war in the Ukraine’s frontier regions; and pouring vast sums of money into his sabre rattling military budget.
The music stopped when oil prices collapsed and Western sanctions closed the door to financial markets, forcing the Bank of Russia to spend its reserves propping up the hard hit rouble.
It was no wonder men like Tarasov were disillusioned with Putin’s regime, their hopes turned to ashes and a feeling of bitterness as his policies threw their ambitions to the wind. Ordinary Russian supported Putin’s bravura, but as the crisis started to bite their pride turned to fear as businesses slashed hours, laid off workers and cut wages. They were feeling the pain of capitalism and its hard rules, compounded by the unrealistic imaginings of a modern autocrat cut off from reality by fawning oligarchs, and woe betide those who failed to respect the unwritten laws of his realm, rich or poor, as Tarasov learned, owed their total loyalty to the Kremlin’s strongman and his selfserving clique.
Cornucopia Page 46
