Pensioner pain exposed at mock fair

01 December, 2008, 14:11

Millionaire fair in Moscow made headlines around the world. But it angered many ordinary Russians struggling to make ends meet. The Fair Russia party staged a Pensioner Fair to highlight the gap between the haves and the have-nots as the global recession starts to bite.

Leader of the Fair Russia Faction in the State Duma, Nikolay Levichev, said that “a fair of luxury goods in the time of world financial crisis and mass dismissals is a Feast in a Time of Plague.”

The three-day Millionaires’ Fair was held in the capital’s biggest exhibition halls, where a lot of elite boutiques are situated. The Pensioners’ Fair was far less ambitious event. It was staged in the street – at one of the boulevards in the centre of Moscow, and lasted for just one hour.

“Of course, we can’t afford ourselves to rent such a big exhibition hall; furthermore our showpieces will look strange in such surroundings,” Sergey Mironov, Fair Russia party leader said.

The exhibits were the goods that can be bought on an average Russian retirement allowance and the daily diet of an ordinary Russian pensioner.

The rations were divided up and put on 30 plates, representing 30 calendar days. You could find a small piece of meat on one, or a half a banana on another.

According to Fair Russia, a pensioner can afford just two slices of bread a day. An elderly person’s market basket also consists of a package of macaroni, rice, buckwheat, sugar and a bottle of salad oil.

The Fair Russia party is demanding an increase in Pensioners’ monthly payments and for a tax be imposed on luxury goods.

 
Millionaire Fair founder and president Yves Gijrath interview