Putin opposed to social division into elites, average citizens
MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the division of the country's population into elites and everyone else unfounded and said that workers and farmers were the true elites.
"There are elite wines and elite resorts but there are no elite people. Do you know who the Russian elites are? They are workers and farmers, people who bear the entire country on their shoulders. They have been bearing it for centuries, they are bearing it now and they will continue bearing it. I think that any other division into elites is absolutely unfounded," the president said at his annual press conference in Moscow on Thursday.
"There are rich and poor people, there are healthy and ailing people but every one of them is equal in their country and in the eyes of the law," he said.
"There are patriotic-minded persons amongst the rich people. It is possible that some of them are dissatisfied now. Indeed, why should they be happy? The question is how they intend to resolve this situation. To be in permanent dependence, in a state of being hooked," Putin said.
He gave an example of a Russian national, a shareholder in a big company registered in an offshore zone, who was denied dividends on the grounds of sanctions imposed on him. "They, the directors, were told: "Listen, what you are doing is against the law, you are compelled to pay or we will take a legal action against you." Do you know what they did? They stepped down and money cannot be transferred without their signature," the president said, laughing.
"Speaking of Russian businessmen, do they want to live this way? Most of them don't. The main protector of the interests of Russian citizens, whatever they may be doing, including business, can only be a strong Russian state," Putin emphasized.