Putin promises higher wages before polls

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised extra cash to state workers and students on Friday, but stopped short of bigger vote-winning gestures before a campaign run culminating in Russia's 2012 presidential poll. Russia holds regional polls on March 13, followed by parliamentary elections in December and the presidential vote next March, in which many expect Putin to return to the Kremlin.
"One of the biggest problems is rising food prices ... We cannot and will not turn our back on social obligations, leave people alone with their problems and the promise of a flourishing tomorrow," Putin told a meeting of his ruling United Russia party in Bryansk, a provincial capital in central Russia. He said state workers would get an additional wage increase in the autumn, while student grants would likely be raised by more than the previously promised nine percent.
But, given that the high oil prices could earn an extra 1.5 trillion roubles ($53 billion) for the Russian budget this year, the spending promises so far seem relatively modest in a sign that Putin may be heeding experts' warnings that spending too much would only fuel inflation - voters' top concern. Russia's president during an oil-fuelled boom in 2000-2008, Putin has hinted he will return to the Kremlin next year or endorse protege, President Dmitry Medvedev, for another term. Analysts say the popular Putin, 58, will remain Russia's paramount leader either way. He has been laying economic plans through at least 2020 and has given no indication he plans to cede control of the country's reins any time soon.
But rising prices threaten to bolster opponents of United Russia, the long dominant party he uses as both a source of support and an instrument of power, in regional elections this month and December voting for the State Duma. Consumer prices rose 3.2 percent in the first two months of the year alone, data showed on Friday, making it tough for the government to meet its 2011 inflation target of 6-7 percent. United Russia's popularity fell to its lowest point in more than a year in January, according to a survey conducted by the independent polling agency Levada-Centre.