Russia 090505 Basic Political Developments

Moscow Tightens its Grip on the Regions as Wealth Declines

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=34945&tx_ttnews[backPid]=7&cHash=9a68df0d8a
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 85

May 4, 2009 07:06 PM Age: 7 hrs

Category: Eurasia Daily Monitor, Home Page, Economics, Russia

By: Yuri Zarakhovich

Map of Birobidzhan

On February 26, Moscow ordered an inspection of the Far Eastern Jewish Autonomous Region (Birobidzhan) which borders China. Since 1991, the population of this region has declined by 15 percent, while there has also been a steady influx of Chinese migrants. Now, some local night clubs do not admit ethnic Russians. Nonetheless, it was fiscal issues rather than the rights of Russian nationals that caused anger in Moscow. The regional authorities have been accused of using federal budget transfers to finance Chinese businesses, even if their produce does not reach Russian markets. Chinese farmers, subsidized by the Russian authorities within its territory, are selling their produce in China. Under the protection of the local authorities, the Chinese migrants mine gold and export it to China, with nothing being re-invested within Russia, or taxes paid on the profits (NTV, February 26).

Over the past decade, Vladimir Putin's policies, federal in name and unitary in substance, deprived units of the Russian Federation of their own money. Not unlike in the "good old" Soviet era, the federal center claimed all the collected revenues, and then decided on the allocation of subsidies. Though such stringent cash control helped keep the local authorities under control, it also badly hurt the Russian economy. In 1999, 31 of the existing 89 units of the Russian Federation functioned as "donor regions," which provided subsidies to support the rest of the country (Novyye Izvestia, March 15, 2007). Now, just 12 regions among the incumbent 84 function as "donors," supporting the rest of the country at Moscow's discretion (Paralmentskaya Gazeta, March 27, 2008).

As the ongoing systemic financial crisis is markedly worsening, the long subjugated units of the Russian Federation are increasingly displaying signs of discontent. The specter of separatism threatens to become as menacing as it did briefly in the 1990's. However, this time the separatists will hardly attempt to hoist their banners over regional capitals, and fight federal troops in the way seen in Chechnya. Now, they prefer to claim allegiance to the center, paying lip service to the "Czar and the flag," and make sure their cash flows abroad, rather than go to Moscow.

The Jewish Region is the first such major case on record with Moscow launching a major probe. However, it is an open secret that the Russian Far East's economy -and virtually its entire foreign trade- is oriented towards China, Japan and South Korea rather than to Russia. Even Putin's envoy to the Far East General Konstantin Pulikovsky said in 2003 that "the Far Eastern Economy is 80 percent oriented to Asian-Pacific region's countries, with only 20 percent to Russia" (www.top.rbc.ru, June 20, 2003).

Moscow is now facing the possible risk of losing its Far East and Siberia entirely, both economically, and in the longer term politically. Surprisingly, the federal authorities seem quite indifferent both to the plight of their main and richest territories, or to the serious possibility of their gradual dislocation from the state. Some still believe they can put down any attempt at independence by resorting to crude force, though they fail to show success in the separatist North Caucasus, where they have been trying to crush separatism since 1994.

On April 29, Vladimir Ryzhkov, a scholar from the Altai in Siberia, formerly a liberal deputy in the Duma and now a professor at Moscow's Higher School of Economics, told the Irkutsk-based Baikalskiye Vesti that Moscow has "cast aside" Siberia (www.politirkutsk.ru, April 29). Ryzhkov made a very strong case, suggesting that Moscow's policies had turned the formerly prosperous region into a dying territory. According to Ryzhkov, it is now cheaper to fly from Moscow to Western Europe than from the capital to Vladivostok. As a result, Ryzhkov pointed out, "six of the ten poorest regions of the Russian Federation are Siberian."

Ryzhkov sees one basic solution - Moscow must "leave a greater part of the taxes collected there" to Siberia. But that is exactly what Moscow, scared by a potential challenge to its "power vertical," stubbornly refuses to do - increasingly pushing regional elites to seek solutions for their economic ills across the border.

Economic discontent is serving to fuel political tensions. Some major republics within Russia seem to be asserting or preparing new legal grounds for their independence in the event of further trouble. On February 19, the legislature of the diamond-rich Siberian Sakha-Yakutia ruled not to drop provisions in its constitution affirming its sovereignty - and its people as the source of that sovereignty rather than exclusively belonging to the Russian Federation (Kommersant, February 19).

National republics within Russia, such as Sakha, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, or Chechnya all have similar provisions within their constitutions, which Moscow views as potentially separatist and still cannot remove -even though these federal entities are run by members of the ruling United Russia Party, chaired by Putin. Meanwhile, the ethnic Russian regions, such as Krasnoyarsk or Yekaterinburg (also ruled by Putin loyalists) discuss their withdrawal from the much-touted Putin-Medvedev "national projects," decreed to upgrade Russia. Now, these regions do not want to be part of them, citing the failure of the federal authorities to deliver the promised funds. (www.newsru.com, February 11).

Kaliningrad Governor Georgy Boos, another staunch Putin loyalist, called on Moscow to "increase the independence of the regions" so that they will be better able to combat the consequences of the economic crisis. Moscow remains firmly determined to collect and harshly control the distribution of regional revenues in order to retain its central authority. Meanwhile, the economic potential of the poorer regions is flowing abroad, ironically reducing Moscow's political influence and power to the point of a dangerous national breakup.

Miners from Sakhalin burning coalmine given 2-month leave

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13904073&PageNum=0

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, May 5 (Itar-Tass) - Over a half of mineworkers from Sakhalin's burning coalmine in Udarny Township are being sent off on an enforced two-month leave.

In all, the coalmine employs more than 900 workers. The enforced leave is to be given to 250 coal-cutters, 150 ore-dressing factory workers, and 50 drivers of motor vehicles. This decison was taken by the management of the coalmine in view of the arisen emergency.

According to the Russian Ministry for Emergencies (RME) department for Sakhalin Region, coal seams at a depth of 160 metres are in flame at the coalmine. The fire broke out on May 1 owing to damage of power cable by a coal "spall". Methane ignited and coal caught fire. There were 11 mineworkers at the coalface at the time. They all were promptly brought up to the surface. One miner received light burns of hands and the face.

About 70 mine rescuers are grappling with the fire at the coalmine, which produces 1,100 tonnes of coal per 24 hours. The rescuers have been assigned to prevent oxygen from reaching the coalface. This will be done by means of plaster plugs put in the mine shaft.

Sakhalin Region Governor Alexander Khoroshavin directed the authorities of the Uglegorsk District, in the territory of which the UdarnyTownship is located, to ponder how to create new jobs for mineworkes who lost job as a result of the fire.

Medvedev to meet leading members of "Just Russia" party

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13903990&PageNum=0

MOSCOW, May 5 (Itar-Tass) - President Dmitry Medvedev is to meet with the leading members of the "Just Russia" party here on Tuesday.

The Head of State intends regularly to meet with members of political parties. He announced this when conferring with the United Russia party members early in April.

In his remarks then, Medvedev said, "Our meeting opens up a series of consultations that I would like to hold with our parlimentary parties."

"We met before as well. But there have been no contacts in this format.... So that no time would be lost. I shall not make long speeches; I would like, rather, to listen to what you have to say," he added.

"I think we must, to begin with, discuss the current situation, look at how our estimates of the state of affairs in the economy and in the social sphere are faring now," Medvedev sugggested.

"I regard it as necessary to hold this kind of consultations on the broadest basis," the Head of State emphasized. "Naturally, I shall meet, for sure, with both the Communists, the Just Russia and the Liberal Democratic party members," he promised.

In so doing, Medvedev does not intend to join any party. "Together with you, we realise what place the president occupies in the present-day political system. At all events he functions as a supraparty institution, which is not a perpetual situation though. There can be, of course, other forms of work as well," he recalled.

350 hectares of forest on fire in Volgograd region

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13904240&PageNum=0

VOLGOGRAD, May 5 (Itar-Tass) - Forest fire at an area of 350 hectares is raging in the Danilovsky district of the Volgograd region. Spokeswoman for the regional emergencies department Ilona Yegorova told Itar-Tass on Tuesday that a “signal about a major forest fire in the Danilovskoye forestry was transmitted to the duty officer’s desk at 02:50, Moscow time.”

“Nine fire-fighting teams are engaged in the extinguishing efforts there. Another eight fire engines have been dispatched to the site from Volgograd,” Yegorova specified. “There is no information so far about the nature of the blaze - if it is a creeping fire or crown fire,” she said.

A response team of the regional department of the RF Emergency Situations Ministry was dispatched to the site.

Prison Sentences Down

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1010/42/376821.htm

Courts have been reducing the number of prison terms issued, replacing them with other penalties, the Federal Prison Service said Monday.

The trend comes amid the government's drive to fulfill international commitments as part of its membership in the Council of Europe, the agency said, Interfax reported. Currently, more than 50 percent of verdicts delivered by Russian courts do not call for prison terms.

The prison service intends to introduce the practice of releasing convicts while limiting their movement by forcing them to wear electronic monitoring devices, Interfax said. (MT)

04 May 2009, 13:14

Jesus Christ Superstar banned in Pskov as requested by the diocese

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=5992

Moscow, May 4, Interfax – Pskov authorities banned a guest performance of the famous rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar which was to be held at the local drama theatre on May 5.

According to the Express-Gazeta paper, chairman of the Pskov regional committee on culture Zinaida Ivanova decided to cancel the performance referring to the request of the diocese.

Official reason for cancelling the show was its “technical complexity” for the theater as its building is in emergency situation.

Deputy Director of St. Petersburg Rock Opera state theater Tamara Malysheva is puzzled with the incident and reminded that Jesus Christ Superstar was already performed in Pskov philharmonic society in 2004.

“It’s a missionary performance, there’s nothing blasphemous in it,” she believes.