Kommersant: "Putin’s plan to be upgraded"
Business Association wants to update Startegy-2020.
Boris Titov, chairman of the "Delovaya Rossiya business association, said yesterday that his organisation will draw up the economic section for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's Strategy-2020. Mr Putin himself spoke about the need to update it at a recent government meeting. United Russia, for which this strategy is a programme, will not block sound ideas. Meanwhile, the new Right-wingers see no point in modernising the programme because they say it has already collapsed.
Speaking at a Government Presidium meeting on January 20, Vladimir Putin said that within this year the government will have to adjust the strategy after the crisis with the help of experts. He said it is necessary to include government bodies, the business community, leading analysts and foreign experts in this work. Sources close to Putin explained that the government will not sacrifice social policy to Strategy-2020 in the pre-election year.
Titov said yesterday that he will form an expert group to update the programme's economic section: "This will be the opinion of the business community and it may be a bit different." "I think that social rhetoric will become increasingly unimportant whereas practical attitudes will prevail. We must make money for the country rather than just spend it," Titov told Kommersant. "We must tell the truth – the ideas of competition and business development are more in demand now," he added. When asked whether Delovaya Rossiya was not invading United Russia's territory, Titov said that the programme is separate from United Russia and that Putin decided to upgrade the strategy himself. Titov added that during a pre-election year the ruling party would not be interested in talking about business' problems or a reduction in social spending because its voters are public sector employees and pensioners.
The head of the United Russia Executive Committee Andrei Vorobyev is in charge of the party's weekly meetings on Strategy-2020 in the regions. He told Kommersant that United Russia won the 2007 elections with Strategy-2020 – Putin's plan – and does not plan to give up on it. However he emphasised that the strategy is an open programme: "Why should there be any restrictions in this regard? Delovaya Rossiya is our partner and its members can make sound and productive proposals. I think there is no point in locking out positive input or creativity." When asked by Kommersant why the United Russia leader did not instruct his party to work on a new version of Strategy-2020, Vorobyov replied that they had already been instructed to do so.
Titov did not rule out offering Delovaya Rossiya's ideas to other parties as the elections approached, emphasising the "need for a political force that would reflect the interests of the business community. "We must admit that business leaders are leaving Russia; capital is flowing away from us. Many think about leaving and investing abroad," Titov pointed out. "We had a tough conversation with Putin about this," he said. However, Titov is not going to run for a seat in the State Duma "because it is very difficult to accomplish anything there."
Member of the Union of the Right Forces Political Council, Boris Nadezhdin, told Kommersant that his party will not make any proposals for the government's programme: "Strategy-2020 is the second edition of Putin's plan and the official programme of United Russia, our rival." Moreover, he pointed out that the plan had collapsed: "It says that in 2011 inflation will be at 5%, that an independent court will be formed and that cultural funding will be increased!" As for updating the strategy, Nadezhdin said that "what matters is not the programme but the government's strategic priorities." "It is impossible to enhance social guarantees and make concessions to business at the same time," he observed.
By Marie-Louise Tirmaste
