Getting your player ready...
MOSCOW — The World Bank released a grim report on Russia on Monday, projecting a 4.5 percent contraction in the economy in 2009 and warning that the financial crisis would push 5.8 million Russians into poverty unless the government shifted more spending to poor families.
The report praised the government’s $85 billion anti-crisis program, which stabilized Russia’s banks and prevented panic. But it said too little had gone to households — a hazard in a society where 37 million people, a quarter of the population, live near the poverty line.
