I was reading this report : "Millions more Russians living in poverty as economic crisis bites" http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ns-living-in-poverty-as-economic-crisis-bites The "Grauniad" is generally a liberal-left paper, dedicated to the hatred of Western Capitalism, pro-EU, pro Russian & pro-PLO. So that said the article should be read knowing their natural bias. But it is a fact that the World price of Oil & Gas has had a devistating effect on the Russian economy. Which is too dependent on the price of Oil. Sanctions & the cost of war in Ukraine & Syria, the cost of economic sanctions has also adversley effected the economy. With the current effect on our Russian friends we should : 1/ Destroy the US dollar as the World's reserve currency & allow Gold & other currencies to be used for the purchase of Oil. 2/ Remove all sanctions against Russian 3/ Give Interest free loans to Russian, dependent upon them eliminating corruption. These measures would surely help the Russian people to recover their economy, without Western exploitation.
Last year, 19.2 million people in Russia, or 13.4% of the population were living in poverty, compared with 16.1 million people, or 11.2% of the population, in 2014. But it's still lower than the overall poverty rate of 15.9% in the UK.
Poverty is a relative measure between Countries. Compared to the West 99% of Russians live in poverty.