Socio-economic Inequality in the Modern World and the Forming of New Kinds of Social Stratification in Russia

This paper argues that today in Russia and in the whole world the problems of socioeconomic inequality remain an issue of great importance. The income gap between the rich and the poor does not decrease. Despite a significant rise in incomes at the beginning of the 2000s associated with economic growth, the estimates of inequality in Russia remain among the highest in the world. De facto social policies fail to attain their declared goals, and the redistributive potential of tax policies to provide social security to those most in need is far from being realized. A considerable share of the Russian population lives in poverty: although many people are not unemployed, and yet their earnings barely meet the minimum standard of living. The lack of egalitarian policies combined with the ever increasing number and wealth of extremely rich shows that the potential for reducing socio-economic inequalities in Russia is large.