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Lumber for the poor? Here in the U.S., the unemployed masses have food stamps and welfare to fall back on when unemployment checks run out.

But in Russia, local governments are looking for more tangible ways to help out-of-work citizens make ends meet. They are handing out everything from free plots of land to discounted lumber in an effort to keep social unrest at bay.

Andrew Osborn, Moscow correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, wrote about these unusual subsidy programs in a recent edition of the paper and he joined us on the line from Moscow.

The Wall Street Journal: Russia, a Lumbering Giant, Asks: Care for Some Cut-Rate Logs?

(Photo by sarniebill1 via Flickr/Creative Commons)