Denis Telmanov
The Prime Minister visits agricultural exhibition
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday visited the country's largest exhibition of agricultural achievements "The Golden Autumn", which is held annually at the All-Russian Exhibition Centre by the Ministry of Agriculture with support from the Moscow Mayor's Office.
The exhibition opened two hours before Mr Putin's arrival. Farmers, businessmen and producers of agricultural equipment were the first to arrive at the brand-new pavilion. They discussed methods of increasing the milk and crop yield, and who was planning to buy new equipment, where they were planning to buy it and how many machines they needed, as well as the advantages of Russian and foreign equipment.
Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov accompanied by at least 50 officials was the first well-known politician to arrive at the exhibition. Having looked with satisfaction at the rows of huge combine harvesters, the Mayor went on to the pavilions. Then Minister of Agriculture Alexei Gordeyev arrived at the exhibition. His delegation was smaller and he looked more like an ordinary visitor than a man in charge. The Minister passed through the pavilions with the speed of a window shopper, often changing direction as the retinue lagged behind. Half an hour later First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov arrived. The Mayor, the First Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture opened the exhibition together.
When Mr Putin arrived, all those present in the hall, nearly 200 people excluding reporters, followed him. The Prime Minister was in no hurry; he stopped at every combine harvester and listened attentively to the directors and deputy governors. They talked about their achievements and tried to focus attention on the problems of their enterprises.
For instance, the director of the Kirov plant, which produces the Kirovets tractor, complained about the lack of loans to buy equipment. The head of an agricultural complex situated near Novosibirsk asked about compensation for a rise in the fuel prices. He said the local authorities repaid the agricultural sector nearly 30 million roubles, which they now wanted to get from the federal Government. Mr Putin redirected the question to Mr Gordeyev, who only nodded. The figures that were presented impressed neither the Minister nor the Prime Minister: in Novosibirsk the best cows produced only 3,300 litres of milk a year, while in the Moscow Region at some farms cows produced 6,000 to 8,000 litres of milk.
Later the Prime Minister visited the Space Pavilion, where instead of spacecraft he saw record-holding cows, pigs, sheep, chickens and turkeys. Sturgeons were on display in fish tanks. It was in this pavilion that the Prime Minister got the biggest surprise: pig races. Five rosy pigs in wraps of a different colour, not to be confused with one another, rushed into a special pen almost 10 metres long, after the whistle was blown. The Prime Minister's face clearly showed that he supported one of the pigs but his choice remained unknown. After the race it became clear that the pigs were professional runners and were even members of the Federation for Sport Pig Breeding.
"I didn't know there was such a federation," the Prime Minister said and was immediately presented with a T-shirt with the emblem of the federation.