Alexander Chernyavsky
Krasnoyarsk
Prime Minister finds state-of-the-art technologies in central Siberia
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin paid his fourth visit to Krasnoyarsk, a city on the banks of the Yenisei River. The visit's atmosphere was quite positive. Clad in a brown parka and brown trousers, the Russian Prime Minister was in a good mood as he walked out of the plane and down the ladder at Yemelyanovo airport.
It appears that the creators of the programme of Mr Putin's Krasnoyarsk visit realised that he has been tackling difficult problems lately, including ways of coping with the current financial crisis.
Mr Putin's latest Krasnoyarsk visit was, in fact, a guided tour of local economic achievements.
First of all, the Prime Minister took part in opening the fourth bridge across the Yenisei River. Instead of cutting the red ribbon himself, Mr Putin asked the builders to do it. "This is a good and beautiful bridge," Mr Putin said, adding that his meeting with construction workers a year ago had not been in vain.
The builders said the bridge was over 800 metres long and that there were plans to commission its second stage in the next few years. "We will complete this project," Mr Putin told local residents.
Naturally, the Prime Minister liked the builders' patriotic decision to paint the tri-colour Russian flag on both sides of the bridge.
Sergei Zyablov, head of the territorial road-building agency and deputy of the Krasnoyarsk Territory's Legislative Assembly, said the new bridge's name was currently under discussion. Some people would like to call it the Putin Bridge. The people of Krasnoyarsk will be polled on the issue.
The main events of Mr Putin's visit took place in Zheleznogorsk, a major Russian nuclear industry centre located 60 km from Krasnoyarsk. Mr Putin got a chance to see various up-to-date technologies, including an innovative solar-energy complex project at the local mining and ore-processing works.
In September 2008, a unique polycrystal silicon plant, due to become the aforementioned complex's main element, was opened in Zheleznogorsk.
"This is of course a good project," Mr Putin said.
Nonetheless, he was dismayed by the 15 billion rouble ($549.4 million) sum needed to launch the project. "I understand that they are now going all out, spending 100 billion roubles ($3.6 billion) here and 75 billion roubles ($2.7 billion) there. 15 billion roubles is a lot," Mr Putin said and ordered Krasnoyarsk Governor Alexander Khloponin and Rosatom Nuclear Energy State Corporation CEO Sergei Kiriyenko to prepare proposals on financing the solar-energy complex.
The project is to be financed by Vnesheconombank, Russian Technology Corporation, and the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).
While talking to territorial and municipal authorities, Mr Putin promised that "Krasnoyarsk will be among the regions that will receive 50 billion roubles ($1.8 billion) for coping with the financial crisis."
Mr Putin also visited the Reshetnyov Research and Production Association of Applied Mechanics, another city forming enterprise in Zheleznogorsk, and discussed the development of Russia's space sector and the future of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS).
Mr Putin's patriotic feelings probably received a boost after they told him that the truly unique GLONASS was several years ahead of rival foreign systems.
"Our task is to effectively utilise this tremendous space potential in the interests of national security and to apply up-to-date space technologies in the economy. This sphere will receive over 200 billion roubles ($7.3 billion) by 2011," Mr Putin said.
The Prime Minister made only one critical remark during his visit, saying that consumers still lacked all-out access to space services.
After a packed schedule, Putin went to Khloponin's Sosny residence on the banks of the Yenisei River and spent the night there for the first time. In fact, Putin never stayed in Krasnoyarsk overnight when he was President.
This morning, Putin's plane headed for Novosibirsk, where the Prime Minister will chair a meeting on the road-building sector's problems.