The Kremlin’s Cost-Benefit Calculations Sell Kursk Residents Short |
On Dec. 6, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and Kursk region Governor Alexander Khinshtein announced that monthly payments of 65,000 rubles ($808) to refugees displaced by Ukraine’s 2024 incursion would end. Instead, Manturov said the funds, which were roughly equal to last year’s average monthly salary, would be redirected to regional reconstruction efforts from January. The decision immediately triggered protests in Kursk, with several hundred people gathering to demand that the payments continue beyond December.
This is not the first time Kursk refugees have called officials to account over the authorities’ inability or unwillingness to help them. A year ago, refugees held several protests and grilled Khinshtein and his since-jailed predecessor, Alexey Smirnov, over inadequate and delayed aid and a lack of answers from the regional and federal authorities. Back then, the protests were larger and the authorities responded. This time, however, despite the protesters’ appeals to President Vladimir Putin, the chances of a policy change are smaller.
The dispute is over a substantial amount of money. In February, some 114,000 locals received the payments. 112,500 people were eligible for the last round of payments in November, amounting to 82 billion rubles ($1.19 billion). This money — financing only part of the payments........