Inter Press Service: The recent call from Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for "tightening belts" has convinced even optimists that something is deeply wrong with the Russian economy.
No doubt the planned tax increases (introduction of a sales tax and increases in VAT and income tax) will inflict severe damage on most businesses and their employees, if last year's example of what happened when taxes were raised for individual entrepreneurs is anything to go by - 650,000 of them were forced to close their businesses....