Russians are hardly falling over themselves to watch Dmitry Medvedev's weekly televised talks. Muscovites, it seems, would prefer a Hollywood movie. For one thing, Mr Medvedev has little positive to say. Oil prices have stabilised above $40 a barrel and Russia's two main stock indices have rallied a little. But the torrent of grim economic news flows on. Industrial output continues to collapse, unemployment keeps rising, wage arrears are grow-rning fast-and some big companies may be on their deathbeds.rnNo wonder Mr Medvedev now calls the downturn "a sort of endurance test". "We have a lot of problems, so nobody can relax," he conceded in his latest fireside chat. Unemployment, he said, had reached some 6m, or 7.5% of the labour force. One recent poll found one in three Russians was expecting to lose their job in the coming months. Industrial output (which includes oil and minerals) fell by a painful 13.2% in February compared with a year earlier. Manufacturing output shrank even more, by 18.3%.
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