Poverty in Russia: economic and social implications

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to analyze of poverty in Russia as the most important social problem of our time. The methodology of the study includes an assessment of the dynamics of socio-economic indicators in Russia in the period 2015-2020, as well as a comparison with European countries. It is shown that the problem of poverty is still one of the most pressing and urgent for modern Russia. Despite the outlined positive dynamics in the poverty level of the country's population in 2018-2019, there was a decline again in 2020, due to the deterioration of the socio-economic situation against the backdrop of the Coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the effectiveness of the earlier measures in the framework of social policy has practically disappeared, and the poverty level has practically reached 13%. The systemic lack of financial support for such critical sectors as education and health care has contributed to a series of cuts in order to save limited resources. A comparative analysis of the main socio-economic indicators in Russia and European countries made it possible to reveal the presence of significant differentiation, since Russia occupies the last positions among the compared countries in terms of basic social indicators.