Kremlin Splurges As Workers Suffer

While millions of Russian workers scrimp and wait for back wages, the Kremlin has gone shopping for silver.

Earlier this year, the Kremlin ordered 6,000 sumptuous pieces of hand-crafted sterling silver, including caviar bowls, champagne buckets and flatware, to outfit four presidential residences.

German silversmiths Robbe and Berking won’t say how much the total order was worth, but the company’s dessert spoons cost $95 apiece. The average Russian worker earns about $150 a month.

The silver order has not been reported by the Russian media, and Kremlin officials were not eager to discuss it.

“I am not a spaniel, but a serious man. And people should not call me for all kinds of stupid information,” the deputy head of the Kremlin’s maintenance department, Alexander Derkach, told The Associated Press in Moscow.