The prime minister recalled anemic Soviet chicken and said what his favourite flavour of ice cream is.
The agricultural Rostov Region looks like a composition of squares from the air. Green squares indicate fresh plantings, yellow ones date back to spring. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's helicopter landed on one of these yellow squares yesterday. He started his visit at the agricultural cooperative bearing the vintage name, "Lenin's Behests." Ultra-modern combines that look more like spaceships lined the barley field in honour of Putin's visit. The harvesting of winter cereals began on June 22, and the time for spring wheat will come in about 10 days. There was the danger that the model harvesting for the prime minister may have ended in disaster, because it had rained the day before and the ears might have gotten too wet to harvest. But as it turned out, the blazing sun helped and everything went fine.
Farmers from the Rostov Region retained the nostalgic name not for ideological reasons, but to maintain their brand. "We've been known as grain suppliers for 80 years now," boasted Sergei Pankratov, chairman of the cooperative. "The name doesn't matter. It's the people that are important," he mused. He planned to complain to Putin about low government prices for grain and to ask him to continue federal programmes to support the agro-industrial complex. The chairman didn't try to conceal his own personal interests – last year his cooperative produced 74 million roubles worth of grain but their profit for 2010 was a mere 1.5 million roubles. If they hadn't received two million roubles from the government, they would have been in the red.
The cooperative did not sustain any damage from last year's draught and things have been going fairly well this year, but farmers are superstitious and do not count anything before the harvest is taken in. "The field is a living thing," Pankratov said. While waiting for Putin, combine and truck drivers hid in the shade. They said that 80 people work on 5,500 hectares of plough land and receive about 11,500 roubles. This is not bad by local standards, but the city is close by, and one can earn this kind of money there with ease. "During harvesting we are working all the time without any weekends," they said.
Pankratov invited the prime minister to tea after taking a walk on a barley field. Workers, including two families – fathers and sons – gathered at the table for tea with pies and fruit. "You have entire dynasties here," Putin said approvingly. On behalf of agricultural producers, Pankratov thanked him for the discounted lubricants and fertiliser.
"We have made an agreement with oil companies that these discounted prices will last until the end of the year," Putin said. Pankratov realised that the government had no intention to curtail its support, and shifted focus to external issues. He asked Putin about progress in talks on Russia's accession to the WTO.
"I'm concerned about this myself. This issue is particularly sensitive for agriculture, especially livestock breeding," Putin said. He pointed out that foreign countries give much stronger support to their farmers than Russia -- though this has a negative aspect as well because European farmers have stopped counting up their losses. In Putin's opinion, Russia has shaped a good balance of government support. "We have negotiated everything we wanted except for animal husbandry," he said. Access of foreign meat to the Russian market has become a stumbling block. "But don't worry, we won't yield an inch," he reassured Pankratov.
Apparently, Lenin's Behests put Putin into a nostalgic mood. He recalled anemic Soviet chicken: "I remember we called them the Wings of the Soviets. But now we have everything. We have excellent produce, and it is becoming better and better." It turned out that Putin was particularly interested in dairy products. "I love ice cream and if I see that it's ours, I'll take it," he said, but he didn't explain where he reads the labels.
Yelena Mishina
