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February 7, 2005 TV BBC Monitoring - Gap between rich and poor reaching dangerous level in Russia Channel One TV / 7 Feb 05 /TV BBC Monitoring / (c) BBC The gap between rich and poor grew sharply in Russia in 2004, reaching a dangerous level, Channel One TV reported on 7 February. The poorest strata of the population earns nearly 15 times less than the richest, "which is a gap several times wider than in Western countries", the presenter said. In 2004, the gap was at its widest for post-Soviet Russia, though the number of people living below the poverty line was reduced by 4m and growth in real income was nearly 11 per cent, the programme said. The richest twenty per cent of the population currently accounts for over 46 per cent of all income, whilst the poorest 20 per cent accounts for 5.5 per cent of all income, a correspondent told the programme. Studio guest, Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Labour and Social Policy Andrey Isayev, gave two reasons for the widening gap: the lowering of taxation, which has prompted the well-off to declare their real earnings, and inadequate measures by the state to reduce poverty. The minimum wage in Russia must be increased at least to subsistence level, Isayev said. To reduce the gap between rich and poor to the level of eastern Europe, pensions and state sector pay would have to be increased by at least 40 per cent, the programme said.