MoscowMinistries.com
Title
Moscow Ministries
Description
Capital: Moscow is the most significant city in Russia. Population (including foreigners) exceeds 13 ml. There are thousands of cities, towns and villages around Moscow. Majority of people from there work in Moscow and travel daily on electric trains to their jobs.
Economy: Moscow is suffering a serious crisis as well as the Russian Federation in general. It is observed in the economy, politics and religious life. The economic situation is critical due to the following reasons: unreasonable financial policy bringing budget deficit to the state and abnormal loans from Western nations; andinstability in the government. Vladimir Putin became the President of a new government in the beginning of August of 1999; the previous government existed just 3 months. Inflation is growing and the reputation of the government as well as of the President continues to fall. There are a high number of government-funded institutions (e.g. schools, universities, hospitals, libraries, theaters, museums, and the army). All these factors result in a situation in which millions of government employees don't receive paychecks for several months. Even those who have a stable income receive an average salary of no more than US $200-250 a month! The economic situation influences many layers of population, but children, pensioners and the unemployed suffer most of all. At the same time, there is a prosperous class of Muscovites (so called "New Russians") who can afford to buy very expensive apartments and cars. Their wealth in many cases comes from illegal businesses, operations with former state property , and from dealings with the Russian Mafia.
A Brief Survey of the Economic Crisis in August 1998: The Russian government maintained the following financial policy: keeping the budget stable; avoiding inflation by any means; and trying to maintain a fixed Ruble/Dollar rate. Unfortunately, these measures didn't resolve the problems of average Russians. It was moreso just a good-looking theory, which was not effective in practice. To accomplish these goals, the government used it's own resources as well as loans from prosperous Western nations. Ultimately, when these resources were exhausted and inflation could not be restrained any longer, the Ruble rate was "set free" according to its real market value. During only 10 days of August 1998 the ruble fell almost 100%, and until the end of 1998 the inflation rate was 300%. A very unscrupulous governmental policy was the GKO Pyramid; a method of taking finances out of banks and investment companies, which resulted in these institutions' collapse and bankruptcy. The population rushed to the banks to save their savings, much like during the Great Depression in the United States. It is well known that if the majority of banks' clients withdraw their savings simultaneously, the bank may easily become bankrupt. This happened to a number of Russian banks both large and medium within a one-week term. Because of that, the army of unemployed people has multiplied. Today's situation in Russia parallels the situation in the United States in 1927-1929. Then President Hoover tried to resolve similar problems using similar methods. Yet, his policy was actually one of the causes of the Great Depression. Truly, God gave wisdom to the next American president, Franklin Roosevelt, enabling him to lead America out of economic chaos of the 1930's. Today in Russia, we desperately need government that will be God's given and which will have wisdom and compassion on people as president Roosevelt had.
