Vladimir Putin offers CIS countries the opportunity to rent exhibition halls at the Russian Exhibition Centre at the rate of one rouble per year
Meeting in St Petersburg with heads of government from the former Soviet Union, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin suggested that the National Exhibition of Economic Achievement be revived. These national exhibition halls, most of which are currently closed or used by small resellers, can be rented by CIS countries for one rouble per year over the long-term. Ukraine, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia have already agreed.
At the meeting, Vladimir Putin also discussed the mutual economic integration of CIS states, saying that the CIS "needed additional measures to encourage direct ties between our production facilities, companies, and regions." With this in mind, the prime minister offered to revive the National Exhibition of Economic Achievement so that all residents and guests of Moscow will be able "to learn more about CIS member states, their ways of life today, and about their achievements in industry, science, technology and other areas."
In order to move his partners to action, Vladimir Putin reminded them that space at the exhibition would be offered under "quite favourable terms" – just one rouble per year. Countries that do not want to rent an entire exhibition hall because they fear that they cannot afford to maintain it may join together, the prime minister added.
Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and Armenia, who have already agreed to the proposal, now need to renovate the exhibition halls. The Ukrainian government already knows how much it may cost – 250 million roubles – but does not yet know where to procure the funds. The previously jumbled use of the exhibition halls is evident in the example of Kyrgyzstan, whose hall had initially been dedicated to Estonia, then to the field of biology, before receiving its current designation in 2004.After signing the agreement and paying the nominal fee of 50 roubles for the next fifty years, however, Kyrgyzstan has added a medical centre and a voting office for its citizens.
Better projects may appear after the Alley of Nations along which the CIS exhibition halls are situated is revamped in the next four years – a project to be completed by the exhibition centre's 75th anniversary. The centre's management says that Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan have already shown an active interest and that a CIS Centre for Business and Cultural Cooperation will crown the base of the exhibition.
For the moment, however, these are just plans, perhaps not even for the immediate future. As for a mutual trade agreement in the CIS, it is most likely to be signed in the spring of 2011, while the package of agreements to establish the Common Economic Space is slated for December 9 at the presidential summit of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
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The beginning of economic achievement
The history of the Soviet Union's main exhibition centre began on August 1, 1939. To be allowed to participate in the Soviet Union's National Exhibition of Agricultural Achievement, collective and state farms, factories and scientific organisations were to have Stakhanovite performance for 1937 and 1938, and the agricultural producers and organisers for 1938.
The exhibition centre erected to Moscow's north covered an area of 136 hectares, including ponds, parks, experimental plots, and 250 buildings designed by the Soviet Union's best architects. From August 1 to October 25, 1939 alone, over 3.5 million people visited the complex.
The main symbol of the exhibition centre, the Peoples' Friendship Fountain, was erected only in 1954, when the renovated centre opened its doors for visitors after the post-war period. In 1959, the centre was renamed the National Exhibition of Economic Achievement. In 1992, by decree of Boris Yeltsin, it was again transformed into the Russian Exhibition Centre, jointly owned by the federal (69.79%) and city (30.21%) governments.
According to Forbes, 290 of the centre's 507 buildings are currently items of commercially immovable property. They brought in revenues of 794 million roubles last year.
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No Gas Discount
As for the question of Belarusian fuel, Vladimir Putin insisted that Russia does not indend to reconsider gas prices for Belarus and that cancelling duties for crude oil imported by Minsk would be possible only after the two parties had ratified the agreements on the Common Economic Space. "I have never heard of price concessions for our European customers," Vladimir Putin said. "They have been asking these questions for a long time, but Gazprom did not make even the slightest concession. As for our Belarusian friends, they receive gas at the lowest possible prices – it could not be any lower."
There isn't any other market method of setting gas prices. "Gas prices are pegged to world oil prices. This is not done by administrative methods, but by the market itself," Putin added.
Anastasia Savinykh