Скачать или смотреть RUSSIA: MOSCOW: INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY DEMONSTRATION

(8 Mar 1995) Russian/Nat

Russian women have taken to the streets to demonstrate for better rights to mark International Women's Day.

The Helsinki Human Rights Watch group echoed their complaints in a scathing report released today (Wednesday) on the plight of Russia's women.

In Moscow it was mainly the older generation who gathered beneath
a statue of Lenin to call for a better deal from the government.

Indeed it is the elderly who have been hardest hit by Russia's move to a market economy.

Pensions are so low that many old women are forced to take jobs as cleaners or even as manual labourers to make ends meet.

And they all blame Boris Yeltsin for their suffering.

But Moscow's flower sellers were too busy making money to demonstrate.

Women's Day is their biggest day of the year.

Russian men, not noted for their sentimentality or domestic skills, reward
their long suffering wives with a large bunch of flowers.

Moscow's men descended upon the flower markets on their way home from work in search of a nice bouquet but market forces meant that there were few bargains.

The law of supply and demand forced the price of a single rose up to the equivalent of 6 U-S dollars.

But many were willing to pay inflated prices to make their women happy even if it is just for one day a year.

SOUNDBITE: MAN (RUSSIAN) You understand, a woman without
flowers, well with them she becomes even more beautiful. I just
love giving flowers. it makes me happy

SOUNDBITE: WOMAN (RUSSIAN)
I get them on my birthday, too. Not as often as I'd like, of course.
I'd like to be given flowers more often. Women love getting flowers
or presents

But women in St Petersburg were also demonstrating.

Rising living costs and high unemployment particularly affects the female population.

According to the latest figures women make up over two thirds of Russia's new unemployed.

Not even a national holiday in their honour could bring a smile to their faces.

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