Economy in Russia - Hunger Strikes, Putin Slams

A couple of weeks ago I posted this story about a group of Siberian stewardesses who went on a hunger strike to try and shame their now-bankrupt former employer, the airline KrasAir, into paying them up to eight months of back wages. Apparently this isn't the only work-related hunger strike going on in Russia at the moment.

Workers at the Baikal Pulp Mill are well into their own hunger strike to protest not receiving all the wages owed to them when their plant shut down last year. This week 21 former employees joined a group of 42 already on a hunger strike. In total some 2,000 former workers say they're owed 100 million rubles ($3.25 million). Actually it's a good thing the Pulp Mill closed, because for decades it dumped its waste straight into Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake and one of its most unique ecosystems - but the workers were promised new jobs at a new facility, which like their back wages, has failed to materialize.

Another group of workers in the town of Pikalyovo (near St. Petersburg) could have resorted to a hunger strike of their own when the three major factories in their town were shut down (taking with them the town's supply of hot water as well as their jobs), but why do that when you have Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in your corner?

Putin visited Pikalyovo to check on the situation personally. But officials thought they could pull a fast one on the Prime Minister by suggesting he visit other factories in the region. According to Pravda.ru, they quickly learned that pissing off the most powerful man in Russia isn't a good idea.

Putin used his visit to Pikalyovo as an opportunity to bitch-slap the local authorities - first asking them: "why did you make everything look like a dump here?" during a tour of the shuttered factories, then asking them "why was everyone running about like cockroaches here before my arrival?" Putin sat down with the owner of Pikalyovo's main industries, Oleg Deripaska - who until the economic crisis last year was Russia's richest man. Putin ordered that the 41 million rubles in back wages be paid to the workers, the next day. He then told Deripaska to reopen the factories - when Deripaska forgot to sign a the documents authorizing the plants' restart, Putin was said to have thrown a pen at him, then demanded it back when Deripaska tried to walk away with it.

How much of this tale is true is anyone's guess, since it does sound a little too much like a propaganda piece, casting Putin as hero of the working man, but it sure makes for a great read - and seems like a great blueprint for dealing with any future Wall Street bailout requests.