Vladimir Putin spent three hours answering journalists' questions
yesterday at his annual press conference. Several times during that marathon,
he played fast and loose with facts and statistics. Meduza highlights some of the most
egregious untruths.
Cargo trucks and passenger vehicles pay the same vehicle tax.
In Putin's words: “A motor vehicle tax is the same for passenger cars and trucks
weighing 12 tonnes or more. [...] Experts say that during acceleration and
braking, 12-tonne trucks do more damage to the road bed than cars. However,
they pay the same amount. This proposal seeks to create a level playing field
for all types of transport.”
In fact: Tax rates for the owners of trucks and cars are different. By law, the
federal government only sets the framework for vehicle tax rates, but regional
officials can raise or decrease these rates. If you look at the tax rates set
down by regional laws, it's clear that passenger vehicles and cargo trucks pay
different taxes. For example, in St. Petersburg, a passenger car between 100
and 150 horsepower pays 35 rubles, while trucks of the same horsepower pay 40
rubles. And sometimes, it so happens, cargo trucks actually pay lower taxes
than ordinary cars.
Muscovites can park near their homes for free and everyone is satisfied.
In Putin's words: “And parking is free for people who live in the buildings next to
these car parks. I can assure you that the citizens concerned, the Muscovites
who live near these car parks, are more in favor of the policy than against it.
The charges apply to those who arrive from other districts or other regions:
from the Moscow suburbs and so on.”
In fact: Willing Muscovites can obtain a so-called residential permit to park
for free near their homes. But this benefit applies only between the hours of 8
p.m. and 8 a.m. For 24-hour parking, you've got to pay 3,000 rubles ($42) a
year. Despite Putin's confidence that Muscovites are “more in favor than
against” the parking fees, a recent Levada Center survey shows that only in the
very center of Moscow does the policy enjoy narrow support (57 percent),
whereas residents in Moscow's outskirts oppose the new fees 76 percent to 15
percent. Just this past week, moreover, roughly 1,000 demonstrators gathered in
downtown Moscow to protest the parking fees, resulting in several detentions by
police.
Tatarstan can decide for itself what the head of its local government is
called—"head" or "president."
In Putin's words: “As for the president of Tatarstan, there is a saying in Russia: ‘Call
me a pot but heat me not.’ This is Tatarstan’s business. I do not think that
this is such a sensitive issue or that it could hurt national feelings. You
know the people in the Caucasus always react vehemently to all issues related
to their national identity. However, even Chechnya said: no, the country should
have only one president, and we will not call the head of the republic this
way. This was the choice of the Chechen people. We will respect the choice of
the people of Tatarstan. It is up to you to decide, all right?”
In fact: The Chechen people played no role in deciding what to call Ramzan
Kadyrov. (He used to be the republic's “president,” whereas today he is the
republic's “head.”) There was no referendum. The Chechen parliament merely
renamed Kadyrov's position at Kadyrov's own request, which was prompted not by
the will of the people, but Kadyrov's own whim. (He decided that only one
person in Russia should be called “president,” in a gesture of servility to
Putin.)
The Tatar people are also unlikely to get a say in what their republic's
leader is called. There is a federal law coming into effect on January 1, 2016,
that designates the leaders of Russian republics as “heads” and nothing more.
At this point, only the federal government can roll back this reform.
Russian officials didn't know that Turkey opposes the bombing of Syrian
Turkmen.
In Putin's words: “You see, I had not heard about the Turkomans (Syrian Turks) before. I
knew that Turkmen—our Turkmen—lived in Turkmenistan, and so I was confused…
Nobody told us about them. But after we indicated our willingness to cooperate
on the issues that are sensitive to Turkey, why didn't they phone us via the cooperation
channels between our militaries to say that during our discussions we
overlooked a certain part of the border where Turkey has vested interests. They
could have expressed their concerns or asked us not to hit certain areas. But
nobody said anything.”
In fact: There's no way the Russian authorities didn't know who Syrian Turkmen
are. The Turkmen are an ethnic group of Turkic heritage, and are considered to
be the third largest minority in Syria. Turkey has traditionally supported the
Turkmen. Several days before Turkey shot down a Russian bomber, Turkish
officials summoned the Russian ambassador and formally protested Russian
airstrikes against Turkmen settlements in Syria.
Foreigners don't want to adopt sick children.
In Putin's words: “Here’s how we will work… Let’s start from the last part of your
question. I’d like to point out that according to statistics the number of sick
children adopted by foreigners is far below that of healthy ones. No foreigner
has ever rushed to adopt our sick children. This is statistics. So let’s not
hurry to change the decisions that we’ve already made. This is the first
thing.”
In fact: Statistically, foreigners adopt more healthy children than sick or
disabled children, but this is a misleading way of looking at the phenomenon,
given that adoptions of healthy children are always more common, regardless of
foster parents' origins. In 2012, Russian and foreign parents adopted 9,169
children, of whom only 200 were disabled. Of all adoptions by foreign parents,
disabled children were adopted 6.6 percent of the time. Among adoptions by
Russian parents, however, that figure drops to 0.4 percent. In raw numbers,
Russian foster parents adopted 29 children with disabilities in 2012, while
foreign parents adopted 171 such children. One in every ten children adopted by
American parents that year was disabled.
Russia won't levy sanctions against Ukraine.
In Putin's words: “We are not going to impose any sanctions on Ukraine—I want this to be
heard. We are just switching to a most-favored-nation treatment in trade. Which
means conditions for Ukraine will not be any worse than those for our other
foreign partners.”
In fact: Beginning on January 1, 2016, Russia will levy against Ukraine the
same sanctions it currently has against the European Union, the United States,
Canada, and other nations that have placed sanctions on Russia for its
intervention in Crimea. The Russian government decided on these sanctions
against Ukraine back in August 2015.
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