6 March, 2023

A year ago, on February 24, Russia's special military operation in Ukraine began. For Russian trade unions and their members, these events have become most important ones, determining the entire economic, social and private life for a lengthy period of time. The past few weeks were filled with reports and events directly or indirectly related to that date.

The attention of trade unions has been focused primarily on what is going on at their own enterprises, in cities and towns, as well as in the combat zone.

The economic situation in February remained stable. According to the updated IMF estimates, the GDP drop last year was 2.1%. The leading world and Russian economists assess this fact as a direct indication of failure of the attempts by the collective West to isolate our economy and destroy it.

It should be noted that the decline in output volumes affected primarily those industries in which a significant role was played by foreign multinationals: the production of cars, medicines and drugs. At present, Russian manufacturers successfully restart production facilities that were sold by foreign-based owners to domestic ones, and we expect to compensate for the lost production volumes by the end of the year.

Auto factories have already brought new motor cars and electric vehicles to the market; the wood processing plants formerly owned by IKEA, which in January became the property of Russian entrepreneurs, resume operations while preserving jobs. The largest in decades import substitution programme for the civil aviation fleet has been approved. According to the IMF forecast, Russia's GDP growth by the end of this year may reach 0.3% instead of the 2.3% decline mentioned a month earlier.

In January, Russian unemployment reached a new historic low of 3.6%. The number of labour conflicts and protest actions has decreased to еthe lowest level in the last 10 years. Despite the imposition of more and more illegal sanctions by the United States and EU countries, no shortages of foodstuffs and consumer goods were observed.

At the end of the last year the inflation was 11.94%, with food commodities up by 10.29%, non-food items up by 12.7% and services up by 13.19%. In parallel with this, wages grew in almost all sectors of the economy which largely offset the inflationary effects. According to the Ministry of labour, starting from February 1, over 40 payments and compensations have been indexed by 11.9%.

It can be concluded that our society and economic system have withstood an unprecedented flow of sanctions which, numbering ten packages by the end of February, consist of more than 15,000 limitations and prohibitions. At the same time, according to foreign experts, the sanctions war against Russia has cost European countries almost a trillion US dollars.

Shortly before the anniversary of the military operation, a report of Seymour Hersh, an American Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, known for exposing the US war crimes in Vietnam, Iraq and other places, was made public. He cites evidence from sources claiming that the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines running along the bottom of the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany were damaged by explosions with the full knowledge and the authorisation of top US officials and with the participation of Norway. This information caused a storm of indignation in the Russian society, because, firstly, the materials were factual and presented with the utmost conviction; secondly, no reasoned refutations have followed from the US Administration, and thirdly, Germany, against which that international terrorist act was actually directed, has evaded investigation and any condemnation by its allies.

It is worth recalling that a few weeks ago, the former leaders of Germany and France, Angela Merkel and François Hollande, as well as some other former high-level politicians, openly admitted that nobody was going to implement the Minsk agreements on the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine, signed in 2015, and that those agreements were just an attempt to give Kiev time to strengthen its army. In fact, they publicly confessed to lies and hypocrisy. And on February 23 in Warsaw, Joe Biden announced further support for the nationalist Kiev regime with weapons and money.

The main internal political event of February in Russia was President Putin's state of the nation address which was delivered on February 22 and timed to coincide with the anniversary of the beginning of the special military operation.

The President announced a number of initiatives to support the standard of living of the country's citizens, in particular, an additional indexation of the minimum wage by 10%, etc. The full text in English is available at:

http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/70565

It should be noted that despite the overall tense situation undoubtedly affecting the mood of the citizens of our country, as well as certain difficulties in reconfiguring the economy, their support for President Putin's actions remains at a high level. Thus, according to a survey by the Public Opinion Foundation, a non-government sociological service, 81% of Russians believe that the President is coping well with his duties, while 78% trust him. According to polls conducted by another major non-government All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre, confidence in Vladimir Putin remains at 79.1%, whereas 69% of respondents approve the performance of the Russian army.

The FNPR continues to actively work on the draft laws submitted to the lower house of the Russian parliament, particularly on the amendments to the Labour Code. Our focus of attention is on the amendments to the legislation on employment through which the trade unions seek to increase unemployment benefits, protect platform, remote and self-employed workers, encourage employers to hire young people, improve the procedure for providing jobs to disabled people. On February 21, the extraordinary congress of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Donetsk People's Republic made the decision on joining the FNPR.

The Russian trade union movement is optimistic about the future. The country's economy is actively changing its structure. Our long-standing demands to the government on the reindustrialisation of the economy, reducing dependence on foreign trade in hydrocarbons, increasing domestic investment in the real sector of the economy, etc., are currently being implemented. Many enterprises of the manufacturing industry, mechanical engineering and the military-industrial complex work in two or three shifts allowing employees to receive higher wages. The home market is filled with domestic products of quite competitive quality compared to foreign ones.

We continue to monitor the development of the situation and are always ready to provide you with relevant and credible information.

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