Yesterday Russia's State Council and Security Council members convened for a meeting. It was announced that the meeting's major aim would be reviewing relations with the CIS, but Kommersant special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov found out that in fact the gathering, which both President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended, focused on measures to counter the crisis, whose scale the Government seems to have underestimated.
Before the meeting, one of the Governors, whom I met in the cloak-room, was wondering why CIS-related items were on the agenda now that the economy is collapsing.
The Governors were well aware of the scale of the crisis. Mordovia President Nikolai Merkushin told me the situation was aggravating every day and even every hour.
"We will see the real scale of the crisis after New Year," he said. "80% of Mordovia's companies have been affected by the crisis already."
"Have many of them have closed?" I asked.
"A few did," Mr Merkushin confessed. "The excavator plant is going to close down. The companies connected with car manufacturing are in real trouble. Meanwhile, people hold rallies against import duties. It's irrational! In our view, the Primorye authorities' explanation to the people was inadequate and ineffective, which is why they are protesting. By the way, Belarus closed its market to Russian companies with duties. They are trying to save what they can."
"Is there anything to save in Belarus?" I wanted to know.
"They have recently imposed such high duties on confectionery that our producers are no longer competitive in their market."
"Do you think they will survive the crisis?" I wondered.
"Who knows," Mr Merkushin answered in a sad voice.
The governors looked dejected. They understood they were facing imminent trouble that no one had expected. None of them had a clear vision of the situation. Maybe the President and the Prime Minister did - after all, the latter has spent the past few weeks touring Russian companies in a bid to get the economy moving again. However, according to Kommersant's information, Mr Putin was not going to participate in yesterday's meeting until the end. He decided to come in the morning only. Mr Putin has not taken part in State Council meetings, chaired by President Medvedev, since assuming the office of the Prime Minister in May.
In his opening remarks, President Medvedev thanked the press for coming (which was a clear hint that he would like the journalists to leave the venue) and admitted that one of the goals of the meeting was "to discuss specific measures for countering the global crisis and its influence on the Commonwealth members, as well as strengthening regional security."
The fact that the journalists were asked to leave early speaks volumes: At previous State Council meetings the press was allowed to hear all the speakers' reports, as well as the head's of state remarks and his final address. In truth, there was a formal pretext to ask the journalists to leave the meeting seven minutes after it started: CIS-related issues are usually discussed behind closed doors.
According to Kommersant's information, after the press left, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a report, followed by Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina. Prime Minister Putin delivered a ten-minute speech dwelling on the crisis' possible consequences for relations with CIS members and giving anti-recessionary instructions to the governors of the frontier regions and all other regions (Mr Merkushin was mostly interested in this point). According to Prime Minister Putin, the key task today is closing Russia's borders with duties, as Belarus is doing now, or inventing a more effective means of backing the economy (which the Primorye Territory has been trying to do, but in vain).
In general, Prime Minister Putin meant that CIS members should work out a single position, both in politics and the economy, but there is little hope that they will come to an agreement on this issue in the short term. Also, Mr Putin suggested that at the forthcoming G20 summit in London on April 2 President Medvedev should speak on behalf of the CIS, rather than Russia alone. (Possibly, a few CIS countries will be keen on this offer.)
A quarter of the discussion time was devoted to the crisis; it was the first time that so many high-ranking officials gathered to talk about this issue. Both the President and the Prime Minister argued that it is possible to avert ruinous consequences for the economy, should the crisis be dealt with promptly and decisively. That is what they called the governors for.
No one seemed to mind that assumption, but no one understood which tools to apply. If the governors knew, it would be a load off their minds.
Andrei Kolesnikov