Russian Stimulus Package - Bail Out, Despite Economy Improving

“There is a possibility that the recently released layoff figure is a way to intimidate the federal authorities,” Gimpelson said. “AvtoVAZ, which threatened layoffs earlier, will get government aid as announced today.”

Oleg Deripaska’s GAZ Group will lay off 14,000 employees, or 37 percent of its work force, while Aeroflot will fire 2,215 employees, or 14 percent of its staff, the ministry said.

The layoffs at GAZ Group, a strategic partner in the Magna-Sberbank deal to buy Opel from GM last week, will be distributed throughout its subsidiaries, the ministry said.

Every Waldorf student is seen as a unique human being developing physically, emotionally, socially, intellectually and morally.

About ten years ago, first schools based on educational principles formulated by Rudolf Steiner began to appear in Moscow and other major Russian cities.

 “We’ve recently launched a personnel retraining program that will either raise workers’ qualifications or prepare them for working in a different sector,” she told The Moscow Times. “Workers will be paid the main part of their salary throughout the yearlong training course.”

The first course started Sept. 1 and included 4,000 employees, she said.

Retraining seminars are part of a federal government effort to limit a surge in unemployment during the economic crisis. The government, worried about widespread unemployment leading to social unrest, has put together a billion-dollar jobs stimulus program.

“The problem with most of the companies that are state-owned or partially state-owned is that they usually have too many people working and are not operating very efficiently,” Jones said.

“These companies need proper structuring, and job cuts should have been made years ago, as these kind of reforms should be made in good times,” he said.