DISINFO: Poverty is lower in Russia than in France
SUMMARY
Almost 19.1 million people, or 13.1% of Russia's population, lived below the poverty line in Russia in the first half of 2021, according to figures released in early August by the Russian Statistics Committee (Rosstat). In the second quarter, 12.1% (17.7 million people) had incomes below the subsistence minimum of 2021 (about 137 euros per month), against 14.4% of the population (21.1 million people) in the first trimester.
In contrast, in France, the economic crisis caused by the health context due to COVID-19 made poverty skyrocket. According to the CNLE (National Council for Policies to Fight Poverty and Social Exclusion), 18.46% of the population, or 12 million people, would live below the poverty line in 2021.
RESPONSE
Recurrent narrative showing a growth of poverty in Western countries, and growing issues related to health, education and infrastructure while presenting Russia as successful because its leaders would take those issues as top priorities.
Comparing statistics between countries is a difficult task, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, each institution that produces statistics has different methodologies and political agendas. The OECD which performs such comparisons shows that Russia has a higher poverty rate than France, but the figures are pre-pandemics (2017/2018). The World Bank also has figures dating from 2018.
The feeling of poverty is strong in Russia and many critics arose when the official figures were published in April 2021. The oligarch close to the power, Oleg Deripaska, strongly doubted the official rate that was far from his own evaluation (54%), he implied that the methodology of Rosstat was modified for political reasons in an electoral year. Though he later softened his critics after they were largely discussed.
Sputnik later removed the graphic and text about the comparison with France in its article, leaving only an account of the speech of the Russian president and the statistics of Rosstat, though the audience had read and reacted to the initial comparison. Moreover, no explanation why the comparison was removed is provided.
The narrative that the Russian public health system would perform better than the French one is in particular popular among the watchers of RT, though it is based only on the political promises and not on facts. Concerning the fight against COVID-19, Russia experiences a high toll of deaths and reached barely 29% of the adult population vaccinated (compared to 72% in France). Russian statistics claim that 45% of the population has been vaccinated by 17 October 2021.
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