MOSCOW, December 9 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian presidential press-secretary Dmitry Peskov sees the reason for protest rallies in what he described as scissors between quickly growing living standards of a significant part of society and the ineffectiveness of some government mechanisms.
“The standard of living is better. In cities with multi-million populations the people feel far more comfortable these days. The percentage of those below the poverty line has reduced considerably,” Peskov said at a meeting with presidential trusted proxies. He acknowledged that the share of the poor was now about 25 percent. The rate is extremely, monstrously great, but it is far smaller than it used to be.”
“An unheard-of breakthrough has been achieved. Nobody else has ever managed to accomplish as much over such a brief period of time - ten years,” Peskov said. “As soon as we made it, there appeared many well-off people, and the well-off grew angry, because they wish to have a say in running the nation. That’s where our state got stuck.”
Any state is conservative by virtue of its nature, Peskov said. It falls behind the people’s development.
“The people got angry and went to Bolotnaya square. What is Bolotnaya Square? Everyone there was angry about something very small. Childcare centers are few. Somebody has been asked for a bribe. And someone has met a rude traffic cop. The state provides bad services,” Peskov said.