Siberian subprime exposes Putin's divided Russia as credit booms

Moscow

A REMOTE enclave in southern Siberia with Russia's second-highest unemployment seems like an odd place for a credit boom.

But Tuva, a predominantly Buddhist republic with a jobless rate of almost 20 per cent, is emblematic of the world's most unequal major economy. Lending is surging there as some of Russia's poorest take on high-cost debt to make ends meet. Consumer loans in the first seven months swelled in Tuva by more than a third, outpacing the national average by 50 per cent.