Novaya Gazeta: "Riot Police to Switch Steering Wheel"
What will follow the final ban on importing right-hand drive cars?
In Russia, major socially important decisions are traditionally announced during holidays. This year, too, between May Day and Victory Day it was announced that the Ministry of Trade and Industry has prepared new technical regulations On Transport Vehicles Safety.
Some of the document's provisions are quite amusing. For example, it stipulates that the vehicles imported to Russia must have a capacity to be equipped with GLONASS satellite navigation system. There is, however, a more serious point in the document, the one that completely bans the import of right-handed cars to Russia.
The Government's position on the issue was clarified by Prime Minister Putin. He said that when choosing between the possibility of strikes by car makers and protests by importers of Japanese cars, the Government "had no other choice," but to support the former.
It is still not clear, however, when the new regulations will be approved by the Government and when the various provisions, including the most controversial point on banning right-handed car imports, will come into effect.
What is clear, however, is that the decision will have an extremely negative impact on the economy and residents of the Far East. The real unemployment rate in the region is about to reach 10% of the economically active population and people have almost nothing to engage themselves in, except for street protests. There is a version popular in some government circles that the protests are sponsored by Japan. Even if it were true, the "enemy" money would have probably been the only means to existence for hundreds of thousands of people. Our Government, unfortunately, is incapable of even offering this kind of "public projects."
More seriously though, in an interview to Japanese journalists, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called on Tokyo to set up car manufacturing facilities in the Far East. The Government should have thought about that not today, but three to four years ago, when car manufacturers were very interested in setting up production in Russia. Why did not the Government arrange for a facility in the Far East? Is it because there were no investors willing to invest? They should have offered some privileges to attract them. Did not they know that the region was economically depressed?
Unfortunately, it is too late now. The world automobile industry (including Japan) is in decline now and is not interested in opening manufactures in Russia.
The same is true about any other industry, from oil processing to ship building.
It would be wrong to say that the Government did not try to develop the Far East. There was the 49 billion roubles bridge project on the Island of Russky...
Now, the Government is hastily trying to resolve the region's problems using all means at its disposal - from flying in riot police from Moscow to actively inviting the Japanese business to invest in the Far East. Yesterday, for example, Prime Minister Putin offered Japan to take part in the construction of pipelines and a liquefied gas production facility. While the infrastructure projects are important, they will take time to bring results. The crisis in Primorye, however, is getting worse very day. The question is, will the riot police stand up to the challenge?
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Hot Spot
By Anastasia Zagoruiko, from Vladivostok
In Primorye, unlike in Moscow, they knew already in April about the new regulations banning the right-handed car imports. It provoked a new wave of protests among people.
The original version of the document did not attract much attention. While they discussed it on Internet forums, most people still did not believe that the Government would approve such a "raw" document. Therefore, less than 100 people turned out at the rally against the new regulations on April 12.
However, the Government did not dismiss the document; instead, they continued to discuss the regulations, trying to improve it. As the discussions go on, the car importers are getting more frustrated. Some are getting ready to join the street protests, others are looking into ways to bypass the new regulations and switch the steering wheel to the left side to continue importing. Very few are ready to buy a Russian-made car. The plans to replace the imported cars with Russian-made vehicles through government subsidised railway deliveries to the Far East have failed. This is confirmed by railway officials.
It is hard to predict the outcome of the rally scheduled for May 16. Some analysts believe that mass protests that took place in December can happen again. According to official data, customs duties on vehicles imported to the Far East until the latest duty increase accounted for 35% of the total amount of customs duties. The ban on right-handed cars and on the left-handed cars that will not comply with the new regulations will completely undermine this source of the federal budget revenue. According to the customs agencies, the budget revenue from import duty on cars has already dropped 18 times since the introduction of the new import duties. However, neither the new regulations nor import duties can force people in the Far East to switch their foreign made cars to Russian vehicles. In the Far East, they joke that they will switch to bicycles if they ban foreign made cars...
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Subtext
By Yurh Revich, commentator from Novaya Gazeta
The requirement "to have a capacity to be equipped with GLONASS satellite navigation system or with GLONASS/GPS" is irrelevant, as a satellite navigation system can be installed in any vehicle because it only requires a power source.
Therefore, it is not clear what the authors of the new technical regulations meant by this requirement. They could have meant some special power sockets or connection devices similar to the ones for car audio. However, unlike car audio, it is very difficult to establish a standard size for the satellite navigation systems. Furthermore, there is no need for that, as the size of the screen will be one of the most important features of the system, affecting its price and convenience. Besides, luxury models are equipped with a dashboard computer, which already includes a navigation system and, hence, does not require an extra one.
