"A big problem with the Russian economy is that people don't pay their taxes,
so the government has been cash poor. But they do have a major asset in oil
resources, and when oil prices go up, more money pours into the treasury."

It is true, in the post Soviet era the new aristocracy is less answerable and responsible than
Tzarist times.
If the rich (and their bussiness community) could control themselves and pay their taxs Russia could
not only buy new weapons, it could have good health care!


D wrote in message
ink.net...
----------
In article , "Kevin Brooks"
wrote:

Well, what is really strange that Russia has enough money (due to high
oil prices) to spend on military acquisitions..

Well, Mr. Snarky, the fact is that they *don't* have the money to spend--or
have you missed their gyrations with executing more and more "barter"
exchanges of late?

Do you actually read newspapers?

As the original poster noted, higher oil prices have helped the Russians out
a lot, bringing in a lot more revenue than only a couple of years ago.

A big problem with the Russian economy is that people don't pay their taxes,
so the government has been cash poor. But they do have a major asset in oil
resources, and when oil prices go up, more money pours into the treasury.

So the original poster was right--their revenues have gone up because of
increased oil prices.




D