The Rise In Poverty In Russia Is Fueling Political Unrest

A social worker at Miloserdie (Mercy), one of Russia's best known charities, tells AFP: 'It's a heavy workload' Natalia KOLESNIKOVA AFP/File 

France 24: Russia's rising poverty fuels political discontent 

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, crowds have grown at the Martha and Mary Convent in central Moscow. 

The white-walled women's monastery houses one of Russia's best known charities that gives out free food parcels, among other projects.

"Before the pandemic we had around 30 to 40 people a day," Yelena Timoshchuk, a social worker at Miloserdie (Mercy) told AFP, leaning against a table loaded with bottles of sunflower oil. 

"Now we get about 50 to 60 people daily. 

It's a heavy workload." 

Read more .... 

WNU Editor: Before the pandemic I always went back to Russia 2 or 3 times a year to pay household bills, check how the family business is doing, visit and see contacts/friends/and family. 

My last visit was a few months before the pandemic started. 

It is hard for me to visualize the economic and poverty crisis that the above France 24 article is reporting on. This is not the Moscow that I know.

But when I look at the city of Montreal where I live, it also does not resemble the Montreal that I knew before the pandemic. 

One third of retail stores closed. Almost all bars and restaurants shut down. Homeless people everywhere. 

What Russia is going through right now is what every country in the world is also going through.

Poverty and the rise in the number of desperate people is now the norm. 

I do not know how long this will last. 

While economists and political leaders around the world talk about a quick recovery in 2021, I see the opposite. 

My prediction. 

It is going to be a tough 2 or 3 years. 

And if the U.S. stock market bubble implodes. 

5 to 10 years of misery and all the international unrest and conflict that it will spawn.