Pikalyovo has fallen into a trap yet again and is waiting for help from the top.
Road repairs are continuing in Pikalyovo, but only within the city limits. The access roads have been left untouched, since, apparently, the locals remember that on the previous occasion Putin flew in by helicopter.
The residents of Pikalyovo (Leningrad Region) are losing their ground once again. The local enterprises, all of which are heavily interdependent, have announced their plans to break their contracts, which could bring the local industry to a grinding halt within a matter of mere days.
The first time Pikalyovo came to a standstill was at the end of the summer, when the contracts between related industries expired on August 31. The unspoken questions are hanging in the air: will production stop again, will there be layoffs and will Putin come and sort it all out again?
In early fall, residents were at their wits' end because the owners of local enterprises were not scheduled to agree on the terms of cooperation until September 14.
"While the partners discussed prices and purchase volumes with the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, we were shipping commodities to them without contracts and without even receiving pay for our supplies," the press secretary of LLC BaselCement, Svetlana Andreyeva, told Novaya Gazeta. The Pikalyovo cement factory has paid back its debt in full and Metakhim's debt stands at 17,161,640 roubles.
"I think that starting in November, the owners will be induced to renegotiate for a longer term, most likely through the New Year", Svetlana Antropova, the head of the trade union committee of JSC BaselCement-Pikalyovo said. "Temporary contracts don't hold much promise, however."
In June, under pressure from Mr Putin, the businessmen came to terms within minutes. In September, under FAS control, it took them several weeks of tortuous negotiations.
The main danger today stems from Pikalyovsky Cement, as the workers of all three plants agree. The cement producers plan to modernise and switch to classic production technology, which would make the aluminum plant redundant (JSC BaselCement-Pikalyovo). Once they part ways with their companions, the production chain will be interrupted and everything will be paralysed.
So, the city has found itself waiting for the Prime Minister once again. They're busy repairing roads in Pikalyovo, but only those within the city limits, since they all remember that on the previous occasion, Vladimir Putin arrived by helicopter.
"They're building roads even inside residential estates", Irina Polyakova, a local resident, marveled. "They're even painting the fronts of all the houses in the city centre."
The local ethnography and history museum has a new exhibit on display - a picture of Mr Putin with the locals.
"It's in memory of the few minutes that changed our lives," the museum's curator Galina Sidorova explained.
It looks as if life is becoming rather tough for the city all over again. On October 13, the city was on the brink of collapse. The efforts of Leningrad Region Governor Serdyukov, the federal ministers and the Anti-Monopoly Service were rendered futile by simple financial calculations.
Earlier this week, JSC Apatit (part of the Fosagro Holding and Russia's only supplier of nepheline concentrate required to produce aluminum) notified BaselCement-Pikalyovo that it was unilaterally terminating the contract to supply nepheline concentrate. The reason, Fosagro explained, was BaselCement-Pikalyovo's debt to Apatit. "Since September 21," the holding's management claims, "JSC BaselCement-Pikalyovo has been in arrears. Deripaska's company owes Apatit more than 20 million roubles, 16 million roubles of which are arrears."
BaselCement has expressed surprise at the plans to terminate the contract on commodity supply two weeks before it expires and claims it doesn't owe Apatit anything. A slight delay in paying for the supplies was due to an untimely payment made by partners: the companies Metakhim and Pikalyovsky Cement, which buy raw materials from BaselCement-Pikalyovo. It looks like the vicious circle has once again closed in on Pikalyovo.
Nina Petlanova