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Episode details

World Service,27 Feb 2015,28 mins

Russian President Putin cuts his staff's pay

World Business Report

Available for over a year

The Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that the salaries of his staff are to be cut by 10%. Moscow economist Oleg Buklemishev tells us it's a symbolic move which won't make much of a difference to public spending whilst Moscow bureau chief of the Economist Arkady Ostrovsky says Putin is using the war in Ukraine as a distraction from Russia's own ongoing economic problems. After a video purportedly from Islamic State showing the destruction of ancient statues in Iraq, we ask Christopher Ratté from the University of Michigan about how IS have sold other artefacts to fund their campaigns. We have our review of the week's news in business and finally we remember Leonard Nimoy, otherwise known as Mr Spock, who has died at the age of 83 and ask why the Star Trek franchise has endured.

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