Prime Minister Vladimir Putin addressed a regional conference of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party in Khabarovsk and said that the government will continue to subsidise flights from Russia's Far East, leaving the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transport to deal with those companies still unscrupulously hiking their fares. He also explained why inhabitants of the region have been suffering from the scarcity of Japanese cars.
Speaking with members of United Russia's Far Eastern delegation, Putin was more than once forced to remind them that their party was called United Russia – the politicians of the region are too often accustomed to referring to themselves as an "isolated entity."
Indeed, people living in Arctic Russia call their rare trips to Central Russia "traveling to the mainland," while the Trans-Baikal residents call it "a journey to Russia."
For many Far Eastern residents, a weekend in Beijing is a typical getaway, but the price of a long-distance trip to Moscow's Red Square is absolutely prohibitive. Airfare discounts were introduced for elderly pensioners and young people several years ago in order to make trips to Moscow and some major Central Russian cities more affordable.
Putin said the programme had justified itself completely, and that 500,000 airline passengers had taken advantage of it over the past two years. Consequently, the government did not hesitate to extend and expand the programme; the prime minister promised an additional 2.5 billion roubles in 2011.
"We should assess the reasons for these exorbitant airfare prices, including kerosene-based fuel in the Far East, and address additional obstacles to domestic air traffic. A ticket to New York is less expensive! I have given the appropriate orders. The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance are now charged to brief me on this issue," Putin said.
The modernisation of airports in the far Eastern Federal District is another high-priority task. Putin said airports in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Magadan, Anadyr, and Yakutsk, as well as those on the Iturup (Etorofu) and Kunashir (Kunashiri) Islands, had already been included in the list. In all, over 25 billion roubles will be spent on the airport modernisation programme next year. Russia's Far East will receive 33% of the total funding.
Naturally, Far Eastern residents could not help but raise the issue of the automotive industry. Against the backdrop of its anti-crisis programme, the government levied prohibitive foreign import duties, triggering civil unrest in the region. This dissatisfaction was motivated by the fact that over the past 20 years, an entire generation of local businessmen has asserted itself by importing Japanese and South Korean cars to the region. Moreover, Russian cars are the exception, rather than the rule.
"Nobody wanted to shut down anyone's business. Whom did we have to support in the crisis: South Korean and Japanese automakers or the Russian automotive industry? Look, the national automotive sector employs 600,000 workers, plus another two to three million in affiliated enterprises. This accounts for six million people, including their families, nationwide. We had absolutely no choice. We could have facilitated used-car imports, killing the Russian automotive industry and laying off millions of workers. I want to make this clear to everyone," Putin said.
Deprived of inexpensive Japanese and South Korean vehicles, the Far East has received an alternative in the form of a Sollers car-assembly plant now operating in Vladivostok. Sollers, which owns the Ulyanovsk Automotive Plant (UAZ) in the Volga Federal District, assembles Ssangyong SUVs, Isuzu commercial trucks, and custom-made UAZ SUVs. The plant turned out over 13,000 vehicles this year and plans to raise that figure to 25,000 in 2011. The government is now courting other Western automotive giants to relocate their car-components production to Russia's Far East.
"This is a rather modest achievement. We are taking the first steps. But if we don't take those first steps, we will never achieve anything, and we will be forced to buy everything from abroad," Putin stressed.
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Quotes
On Russia's bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018:
"I feared from the very beginning that they would be terrified after seeing such vast Russian spaces and finding out how many places they have to visit."
On financing road construction and public improvement projects:
"It is always pleasant to receive allocations. But we should discuss local developments."
In reply to a remark that specialists "from Russia" come to Sakhalin Island:
"What do you mean 'from Russia'? And where exactly are we now? Is it Russia? So, they come from the mainland, but not from Russia. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that our party is called 'United Russia' for a reason."
On the balance between different fuel types:
"Boiler oil can be retained in some places; we need coal and state-of-the-art technologies. So many coal utilisation technologies have been invented: liquid and gas coal are used effectively. And from the point of view of ecological burden, it's an entirely different situation.
On changes in the logging and fishing sectors:
"This required extremely hard work, but through our joint efforts... Here is what I have written down: "We were able to overcome the situation." I don't even know how to pronounce this. Did we manage to overcome it? We did. The head of the sector says that we did. Hopefully, he is right. At any rate, the rules for normal, civilised business have been established."
On the lack of alternative energy sources:
"Take windmills, which are quite widespread in many European countries. It would seem that here we have a clean, ecologically sound source of energy. But that isn't the case: they kill birds. They vibrate so much that even the worms crawl out of the ground, and I'm not just talking about any old mole. This is a real environmental problem."
On the proposal to extend forestry leases to 149 years:
"If you plan on living to see it in 150 years, then we had better start improving healthcare."
On tougher penalties for poachers, including prison terms:
"Give them to the tigers... or leopards."
Sticking to the right side of the road
KomAvto, the website of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur auto market, offers around 800 Japanese and South Korean cars but only a few Lada vehicles. The used-car market is not dead, however, despite reduced imports as a result of sky-high tariffs. In fact, instead of becoming destitute, many businessmen are moving into other fields through the commercial chains they already had in place. Vladivostok and other Primorye Territory cities now sell far more Japanese foodstuffs, household chemicals, and kitchenware in a market that has expanded appreciably.
"It was clear that the market for used cars for left-hand traffic [i.e., Japanese vehicles] would eventually end – there was no doubt about it," said one car dealer. "Today, the ones who are yelling the loudest are the ones who missed the boat. Serious people left this business long ago and are now opening dealerships with cars that are meant to be driven on the right."
However, Far Eastern residents have not yet made the transition to Russian manufactured vehicles. Lada cars are delivered here under cheap railway transportation initiatives and sold mostly to the public institutions.
By Anastasia Savinykh