| Chief
of a collective farm in southern Russia. When asked about the state of
agriculture, he said "The government has forgotten the Russian countryside.
It supports traders in the cities but for the villages there is only destruction.
We haven't received any salaries for months and no money for spare parts;
half of our combines are broken. We had a good crop but not enough equipment
to harvest it. Privatization is not working in Russian agriculture. A wheel
for a combine costs 1,000,000 rubles but a liter of milk sells for only
600 rubles. How can we live?"
"For 74 years, we had
state investment and it worked successfully. Now there are racketeers even
in the countryside. If we don't pay them for protection, thieves come in
the night and tie up our cowboys and kill our cows." |
 |
Next
Page
