Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned governors of the North Caucasus Federal District that if they merely delegated their tasks to the municipal level and did not keep track of them, everything would continue as before – people would be forced to knock on doors, beg, plead, and offer bribes.
Vladimir Putin unexpectedly arrived in Pyatigorsk on Saturday. Journalists from the prime minister's pool did not know for sure until the last moment where he would chair the scheduled meeting for that day and what it would entail. It turned out that it would be held thousands of kilometers from Moscow – in Pyatigorsk, the capital of the newly established North Caucasus Federal District. New Presidential Envoy Alexander Khloponin, governors of the district's regions, federal ministers, and the head of the Federal Security Service soon arrived in the PM's wake.
Vladimir Putin began with saying that he abolished import restrictions and the customs clearance ban for Chechnya. The restrictions were introduced when counter-terrorist operations began in Chechnya in 1999. The state of these operations was called off in the spring of 2009, but import restrictions remained in effect.
The meeting's top agenda was establishing order in the North Caucasus republics. Vladimir Putin vowed to dismiss inefficient officials.
"After the newly appointed Presidential Envoy and Deputy Prime Minister [Khloponin] takes office, staff decisions will be made immediately concerning the heads and employees of federal agency branch offices that have committed violations in their work or are unwilling or unable to organise their work in an appropriate manner," Vladimir Putin said.
North Caucasus officials will have to ensure normal working conditions for human rights activists.
"I ask the representatives of the regional authorities, representatives of local authorities, and law enforcement agencies to do everything to provide for the normal operations and activity of human rights organisations that are acting within the framework of current Russian legislation and are actually helping people," the prime minister announced.
Vladimir Putin also outlined five main priorities of the federal district's social and economic development:
- to create a systematic strategy for the development of the federal district as a whole and to prepare specific action plans for each constituent entity based on this strategy;
- to develop special solutions for improving the investment climate and to work through the issue of establishing special economic zones in the federal district with regional industrial parks in every entity of the North Caucasus;
- to force major federal agencies and natural monopolies to formulate special investment programmes for the development of the infrastructure of the North Caucasus and its constituent entities. It is necessary to seriously improve people's quality of life and thus to develop and implement plans for the prosperity of cities and other communities in the federal district;
- to clean up the process of government and of the authorities starting with the local branches of federal agencies.
Vladimir Putin's expressive statements and instructions denote that he sees the highly corrupt local authorities and local branches of federal agencies as the region's main obstacle. He stressed that "special zones and other instruments must be built on the basis of understandable and transparent procedures to eliminate the possibility of abuse and the repetition of past mistakes."
The prime minister asked the governors to pay personal attention to that issue.
"If you merely delegate at the municipal level and do not keep track of it, everything will continue as before – people will be forced to knock on doors, beg, plead, and offer bribes," he explained.
Vladimir Putin was frank and tough in stressing how important the issues were:
"Russia paid a high price to counter the aggression of international terrorism and end the criminal regime of those who had seized power in the Chechen Republic and used it as a staging area for attacks on neighbouring regions. We were victorious together then and we brought back peace. Now we need to take the next steps, and, as it turns out, these are no less difficult. The government must prove that it is capable of guaranteeing security, justice, and the rule of law."
Ivan Grachyov