Il Cremlino ha complottato per incolpare l’Occidente dell’impopolare aumento delle tasse per proteggere Vladimir Putin

Full text:

The Kremlin has decided to publicly blame the west for a forthcoming tax rise to spare Vladimir Putin from criticism that his war economy is starting to hurt ordinary Russians.

The Russian president’s top officials, including domestic policy chief Sergei Kirienko, participated in at least one of the meetings on how to divert blame for the economic hardship.

The meetings took place in the run-up to Russia’s new budget law, which was introduced in late September and passed its third reading on Thursday, said two people familiar with the discussions.

The budget will raise the rate of value added tax in Russia from 20 per cent to 22 per cent from January, going against Putin’s pledge not to raise taxes again before 2030.

One of the meetings on how to handle public reaction to the VAT rise was attended by members of the state-controlled media who were issued with a set of guidelines, seen by the Financial Times. 

These prescribe that the media should place responsibility for the tax rise on the west, arguing it is “not interested in a peaceful settlement” of the Ukraine war.

“Your money or your life?” is among the phrases the guidelines recommend using, along with “nothing matters more than security”.

The guidelines also required that any personal mention of Putin in relation to VAT news be avoided, while “positive” aspects of other tax changes introduced in the budget law — such as higher rates for gambling companies — should be emphasised.

Meetings with loyal media outlets at the Kremlin are not unusual, nor are guidelines on how to handle sensitive topics, said editors who have attended such sessions over the years. But in this case, one of them noted, the meeting was only part of a wider series of discussions — a sign of the authorities’ heightened concern. 

“They are really concerned about not stirring things up and amplifying the positive,” the person added. The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Resorting to fiscal decisions so unpopular that they required a separate propaganda campaign to head off dissent suggests the Kremlin’s economic room for manoeuvre is shrinking.

Oh no a tax raise is blamed on something else than is actually the reason for it. Never heard that one before.

Question is rather, what doesn’t the Kremlin blame on the West?

No surprise. Putin blames the west for everything wrong in Russia. Everybody in Russia knows its a lie but they don’t dare say anything

It would be easier to list out all the things that went wrong in Russia that the Kremlin didn’t blamed West.

Haha, classic…