The Financial Crisis Deepens in Russia

The streets and shops are being spruced up with pine trees and tinsel. But for many Russian families, there will be precious little to celebrate this New Year. In Barnaul, a Siberian industrial city 1,800 miles east of Moscow, schoolteacher Tatiana Saveleva will be buying few presents for her family. In October Tatiana's husband, Dmitry, an engineer at a local railway repair factory, saw his and other employees' pay slashed by a third. By November the plant had switched to a four-day workweek. "A lot of people are suffering," Tatiana says. "It's all negative."

Russians of all ages and classes are struggling to understand the krisis. "It has spread to the regions much faster than could be expected," says Andrei Kuznetsov, a strategist at investment bank Troika Dialog. "Companies are complaining of low demand, payment arrears, and limited financing."