Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, has taken to giving televised fireside chats about the financial crisis. Not before time. As unemployment spirals, industrial production slumps, inflation gallops, the rouble slides and the budget creaks, ordinary Russians are wondering what is going on. Polls show that many-over half the population-have little idea of what the government is doing to help them.rnWhen Russia's oil-fuelled economy began to slump last autumn, later than many other countries', the Kremlin stifled public debate, dismissively blaming America for "infecting" the world. The infection proved catching, though, and soon world oil prices slid and hundreds of thousands of Russians lost their jobs. Peremptory silence no longer works. "It is very important to tell the truth," Mr Medvedev now tells Russians on state television. The Kremlin has become more candid about the severity of their economic condition. Having spent weeks predicting that the economy would show zero growth or perhaps a small contraction this year, the economy ministry now admits it will "probably" shrink by 2.2%. That, it says, is because investment in 2009 will fall by 14%.
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