That was a show. A well-moderated PR show. The answers that the Russians heard mean one thing - nothing good to wait and hope for. For the last ten years no positive systemic changes have occurred. The country is approaching a period of great social unrest. Look at what we have (no hierarchy or priorities):
- Low salaries in state institutions
- Low legal salaries/wages/fees in private enterprises
- Collapse of the Health Care System
- Collapse of the Education System
- Collapse of the Pension Reforms
- Collapse of the Pre-school Education System
- Severe budget cuttings for Social Programmes
- Unsuccessful reforms in the Army, industries
- Russian manufacturers lose markets
- Increase in employment history (up to 15 years vs 8 years earlier) to have the right to enjoy fully-paid sick leaves
- Tax rise everywhere
- Housing Maintenance Costs are going up and will rocket next year
- Compulsory Fire Insurance schemes in the nearest future
- Mass Media are threatened and suppressed.
- Political opposition has been hunted down and disappeared
- Now, they shout aloud that the country has got no patriots
- A lot of Russians are immigrating
- Corruption has reached the level of 40 billion rubles a year (for the last 8 years, officially acknowledged by Nurgaliev), according to foreign sources - $20 billion a year.
This is what I have learned from watching official TV news programmes on channel 1.