WHOA!!!! No way!!! Wold Bank should burn! Raise taxes as we get more poor? Are they insane!!! Russia is one of the last free places on earth that doesn't have social engineers telling us what we can and can't do. If Duma or anyone of you polticians listen to this ****, well just think of Football Championship rallies but instead everyone calling for your resignations. Just remember how Perekrostok was caught over pricing pork when Putin inspected the grocery store. People are already over pricing everything, using the economic crisis as an excuse to cheat the average person out of an extra few bills of money. World Bank go to****

Artyom, spot on, the World bank is just trying to ruin Russia. We need keep low tax, low duties, except on resource exports, absolute flat rates on tax. We should aim to be the lowest tax place in the world, with maximum opportunity for our people, tax low and grow the economy to get the tax revenue. The world Bank is just a tool of the west. Ignore it, please, please,please ignore it. We should be the place to do business, with the lowest tax rates in the world, on top of that we should be looking to set up a free banking area, where Swiss banks can move to, on ultra low rates, and be fully protected from the EU and US tax thugs. This is teh way for us. Tax low and allow equal opportunity, our goal in the end should just be a sales tax. Let's not fall for this one.

So more poor people means we need higher taxes. All that is going to do is increase smuggling, bootlegging and other crimes as people try to survive retched poverty just try to get a pack of smokes to enjoy and a drink to ease their troubles. Considering that the world bank and IMF are responsible from turning so many economies from growing to corrupt corporate oligarchies no one should be listening to their advice. Even by their own admission their work only improves the economies of the countries they pillage about 40% of the time and even that seems like a high-ball figure. Why, oh why does anyone give any credit to the advice of these evil organizations?

The World Bank is completely right and that is the way used in any nation with a high standard of living and long life expectancy. It is essential also Western-style commercials agains drunk driving. Every year 35,000 people die in Russia from car accidents and another 25,000 are injured. In Spain, with a third of the Russian population (46 million people Spain and 142 million people Russia) less than 2,000 pepole died last year from car accidents. Just if the number of casualties in Russia is reduced to Spain´s levels that would mean 1 million people more in the labor market. If Russia had a level similar to Spain, the number of deads would be reduced from 35,000 to 6,000, saving almost 30,000 lifes, 300,000 lifes in a decade (apart from 2 million people injured) and that has an effect in Russia´s demographic statistics obviously, apart from saving billions of $ in Social Security and to insurance companies.