To that end, the New Times magazine has published a two-page spread detailing one major part of this puzzle, unambiguously entitled “Vladimir Putin and his ‘Family’ – Gazprom.” As the country’s chief natural gas extractor, Gazprom accounts for a full tenth of Russia’s gross domestic product. That the government is the company’s largest shareholder makes it a good first candidate to examine for some not-so-coincidental links between the two. The results are striking, even for those who already have the general idea. We’ve translated the chart and posted it below (click image for full size).

The original version in Russian can be found by clicking here.

The inflation rate is significantly higher than previous years. The first quarter of 2008 saw a 4.8 percent rise in inflation, as compared with a 3.4 percent rise in the first quarter of 2007. Rosstat’s figures also seem to indicate that inflation is accelerating. Weekly inflation in March rose from .2 percent at the start of the month to .3 percent in the last week.

The highest price growth was noted in bread, baked goods and wheat flour.

Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov was furious with the Finance Ministry: “Over the past several years the government managed to meet the forecast inflation target only once,” Itar-Tass quoted. “That was in 2003. In all of the subsequent years inflation proved higher. Last year alone the forecast level was exceeded by a hefty 4 percentage points,” the prime minister said.

The official prognosis for the year was initially 8.5 percent, and was raised to 9.5 percent in March. Many economists discount this estimate as conservative, and believe the real rate could come to 15 percent or more. In 2007, the rate reached 11.9 percent, 3.9 points over the 8 percent estimate.

A recent poll conducted by VCIOM, the state-owned public opinion organization, found that nearly three fourths of Russian residents believe inflation to be very high. 18 percent believe inflation is moderate, and 2 percent, insignificant.