Posted on 06/05/2003 4:23:17 PM PDT by B Knotts
MOSCOW, June 5 - President Vladimir Putin, enjoying seemingly unassailable popularity, assured Russians on Thursday that he would respect a constitutional two-term limit that would force him to retire within five years.
In a wide-ranging exchange with teenagers at his country retreat, he said post-Soviet Russia would see no return to Stalin-style personality cults and blamed bureaucracy and corruption for inhibiting the growth of democracy.
...
''Two terms are enough,'' Putin said during two hours of chat, excerpts of which were shown on prime-time television news.
''It's a question of whether we need a five-year or a four-year term. But this is a matter of taste,'' he added. The present presidential term is four years.
(Excerpt) Read more at famulus.msnbc.com ...
Contrast that view with X42's recent rant.
Heck of a good thing. They could get a very good tradition going here.
It's not what it seems. There is the 13% flat tax on income true, but there is also a 35.6% social security tax paid by the employer (though they call it the UST or unified social tax). For comparison, during the communist era, the income tax was 12% with an additional 6% tax on bachelors and childless couples. So, in fact, the individual tax rate has gone up quite a bit. But that's not all. There is a 20% value added tax (VAT) placed on goods and services at each point where it transfers hands, and on top of that a 5% retail sales tax. There is also a 0.5% to 2% property tax (which varies depending on the size of the estate).
Russians have to pay a lot of taxes.
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