Well, then the Russian Federation needs to create jobs in places in areas such as infrastructure- and other sectors. Where is the nation's wealth going?

The nation's wealth is going to the people. That is one of the tenets of Mevedev's plan. Modernize Russian business, reduce poverty, and reduce government spending.

I accept that "modernizing Russia businesses" [making it less corrupt] is critical. On the other hand, this smells like neo-liberalism lite! Medvedev needs to attend to the needs of the people directly and immediately. Massive improvements to Russia infrastructure- such has horribly maintained roads- and other aging infrastructure is the surest way to create jobs and stimulate the economy. If Medvedev is guided by the advise of the business class, there will more poverty in Russia for many generations to come. The Business class has only one goal: make more money. I am sorry to say it Medvedev comes across as not as daring or decisive as Putin. His recent law lessening penalty to tax cheaters may have been judicious but it was not prudent. I think he is full of neo-liberal ideas; I am not sure these are good for Russia. The whole notion of Modernizing Russia is ill conceived idea. What is needed is not slogans but relieving the suffering of ordinary people; the best way to recuperate Russia is massive job creation projects. Instead, he came up with ambiguous slogan fraught with contradictory significations. Russians do not need "modernization", in moral or cultural sense; they need their ruined lives be restored. Medvedev needs to focus on that—That is the job of the Prime Minister- Suppose but the two men must not allow Russia future to be at the mercy of the business elite.

Sarah , it's just my opinion but the idea of 'Modernizing Russia' is all about avoiding the mercy of the business elite. Think about this; What are the biggest and largest 'elite' companies or Businesses, lets even look at the word 'elite', it means exclusive, what is an exclusive company? Clearly a single or monopoly business, these by nature tend to be the large and lumbering: 1. Credit ‘Debt’ institutions. 2. Natural pre government owned institutions. Now, just about the worst possible scenario occurred when these natural monopolies fell into the hand of individuals that no longer even had a semblance of a care for the people in which inhabit the earth they sit on. I’m sure everyone in Russia is well aware of that scenario and no more needs to be said, now what is the natural normal evolutionary response to, single restricted monopoly corporations. it has to be modern small, 'self credited' information aware businesses. How does that help you today? Yeah..., probably not very much. But, if you can’t see an improvement at all I’d say that the issue is that credit is still restricted or tied up in semi legal or illegal institutions , in my opinion only, the government of the day has ultimate responsibility to provide free flow of legal tender for normal business purposes, enough to allow competition and fund small businesses, the trick is stopping monopoly and thus a ‘funding’ of the enemy. Which is ‘elite’ business. So the process is slow.

I personally believe "Modernizing Russian Businesses" is about using the large core infrastructure to create many more, off shoot smaller leaner self propelled and information aware businesses, at which point corruption will get caught up in the idea that a common man or woman can run a little self contained business, pay fair tax and make more net wealth than before., at which point corruption becomes irrelevant. I think an idea to gauge the real citizens aversions to tax is to introduce a completely and totally voluntary ‘Go Russia’ (or whatever anyone could call it) (something patriotic anyhow) ‘TAX’ and make it a very small amount, an amount that is so small as to be irrelevant or even make it a totally voluntary TAX of any amount. The point of this is not to raise funds or credit but to see how many citizens pay anything at all, if the failure to pay rate is sky high (assuming the exposure of the donation is enough)(i.e everyone knows about it) then this would probably suggest that the aversion to tax is rooted in a physical inability to pay, or a complete unwillingness , which as a citizen would have to be the same thing. (who wouldn’t want to help their own country?) This probably suggests that the citizens feel that taxes are too high and people feel the return is to small. Everyone says taxes are too high, it would be interesting to see what they do instead of say. it would be important to call the donation a TAX. For psychological reasons. Hey, life’s about opinions . yeah?