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Aleksei Miller and Roman Abramovich Give Unrivaled Performances
// The Oligarchs Have Learned How to Give Real Government Advice
The Activists
Russian President Vladimir Putin led a meeting of the presidium of the State Council for government policy in the northern territories held in Salekhard yesterday. Kommersant special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov was stunned by two presentations: one by head of Gazprom Aleksei Miller and the other by Governnor of Chukotka Roman Abramovich. In his opinion, people who give such presentations have already made up their minds about a lot of things, if not everything.
After a short opening address all about how “11 million people live, work, and raise families” in the North under harsh natural conditions, Vladimir Putin turned the floor over to Vladislav Shtyrov, head of the working group that organized the meeting. This group appeared even before Mr. Shtyrov became president of Yakutia. He inherited the job from his predecessor, and he will probably pass it on to his successor. Even from yesterday's discussion it was clear that solving the northern problem in the next few years is beyond the power of any one person or group of people, even if this person is the President of Russia and the group of people consists of members of the State Council presidium. It is clear that the broader the membership of the group, the more hopeless the problem of the North looks (I suspect that if the same government officials were to discuss the problem of the South, the result would not be that different from yesterday's). The main speaker was Mr. Shtyrov, who obviously realized he was wasting everyone's time by reading a report that all the presidium members had in their hands.
Therefore, he babbled on so quickly that I was worn out in the first minute of the report and with a feeling of relief stopped trying to fathom its meaning. Granted, the President of Yakutia interrupted his speed-reading towards the end to discuss an important problem.
– A control system cannot be simple, – he said. The great economists of the past already talked about this. It has to be as complex as the control object.”
Mr. Shtryov may have determined that he was not being very convincing and decided to illustrate this concept with a convincing example. So he talked about why the dinosaurs died out 70 million years ago:
– Their brains were too small to control their bodies.
This was a fascinating and unexpected way of criticizing the decision to dissolve the committee for problems of the northern territories.
It is unknown if the president read Mr. Shtyrov's report. At any rate, he did not react at all to these thoughts. What was there to say anyway? However, Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref had obviously read it. In his opinion, the President of Yakutia had laid it on pretty thick.
– The center is doing a lot more than what Mr. Shtyrov has enumerated, – the federal minister said. – Four federal programs… The problem of northern delivery has been completely forgotten…
Then Mr. Gref launched a counterattack against the President of Yakutia. He declared that money the center allocated to the regions was being spent ineffectively.
– Transfer pricing, tolling, money laundering in offshores… This has got to stop, – he said crossly.
For obvious reasons, I glanced with interest at the president, and I was struck by his reaction. On hearing the words “tolling” and “offshores”, Mr. Putin yawned widely.
– You need to show assets and property, and not the way they've already been shown, – Mr. Gref continued confidently.
It turned out that in his report Mr. Shtyrov had touched on the issue of changes to the law “On Subsurface Resources” and the troubling topic of the move away from flat-scale severance taxes. On the one hand, as is well known, this scale is a disincentive to production.
– But on the other hand, – said Mr. Gref, – all oil companies pay at the present scale.
However, the minister claimed that nearly all interested parties had agreed to the new differentiated scale.
And here I noticed that Governor of Chukotka Roman Abramovich was listening to the minister with enormous interest. I had the impression that he was the only one who had not agreed.
While Mr. Gref was recounting all these fascinating things about differentiated scales, a member of the State Council presidium, Governor of Krasnodar Territory Aleksandr Tkachev, was absorbed in drawing little bows in his notebook. Even from a distance it was obvious that the man was not fascinated by oil.
Having solved the problem of severance taxes, Mr. Gref suddenly turned to a much larger project. He began talking about a network of hub airports in the country.
– They will help Russia get straightened routes from Europe to Asia. This can be done in three to four years. We would have to spend somewhere around a billion dollars. That's not a lot of money for a project like this, – he shrugged.
The governors took this news to heart and began whispering animatedly to one another. This idea obviously touched a chord in hearts hardened by thankless work.
Mr. Gref also talked about how construction of the nuclear-powered icebreaker 30th Anniversary of Victory was finally complete (it was renamed twice in the process) and how it would help solve the North's critical problem of the Northern Sea Route.
Mr. Gref noted that the regions should be given as much initiative as possible to solve northern problems.
– Since we handed down the northern delivery problem, the governors have coped very well with it.
I noticed that at these words one governor nervously tried to burst out laughing in Mr. Gref's face, but the minister was already looking at the president, obviously expecting moral support from him.
The governors in turn were as usual expecting material support from the president. No one got either this time. The president merely gave the floor to Minister of Health and Social Development Mikhail Zurabov. I was amazed at how zealously Mr. Zurabov took advantage of it.
– Don't smile so derisively! – he said to Mr. Shtyrov, when the latter showed what he evidently thought was a scornful reaction to the information on how well the new regional coefficients used to calculate “northern” pension supplements were working.
– I'll tell you everything straight to your face! And I'll remind you of everything! – said Mr. Zurabov. – You've obviously forgotten about it! How it was for us in Moscow; everyone agreed with everything, and then they went away and began saying something totally different. Then they came again in 2004 with a new offer… We met you halfway, you agreed… It's unfair to say that people in Moscow don't want to solve problems! Vladimir Vladimirovich, I'm sorry about this…
Mr. Putin nodded (did he excuse him as a person from Moscow?) and looked significantly at Mr. Shtyrov, who in turn glanced good-naturedly at Mr. Zurabov. He was clearly an easygoing person, unlike the ambitious and overbearing Muscovites, because he was well aware of his own worth and his region's.
– The new regional coefficients were introduced a year ago, – he said calmly. – Now the regions aren't entitled to anything. Whereas previously we were able to solve problems ourselves.
That seemed to strike a nerve. Mr. Zurabov paused to collect himself. The president was already looking at him with interest.
– I must say Vladislav Anatolevich has managed to confuse me, – he began nervously. – The fact is, I don't know anything about this. What's more, the government hasn't received anything.
Mikhail Zurabov meant that the President of Yakutia was deluding everyone. Mr. Shtyrov was clearly at a loss. There was nothing he could say against it. Thus, the victory unexpectedly went to Mr. Zurabov.
Yury Neelov, head of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area, spoke next after Mr. Shtyrov. His speech was impassioned but utterly loyal to the center, although at the end he tactfully mentioned that Yamalo produced all of Russia's gas but 100% of the taxes went to the federal budget. He thought that was unfair. However, in spite of everything, being an honest person, he said that the North had been and always would be Russia's support.
A moment earlier, Mr. Gref had just picked up a bottle of water but immediately put it down. Vladimir Putin tried to suppress his laughter for several seconds, but in vain.
– You upset German Oskarovich so much, – he said, unable to contain himself and turning to Mr. Neelov, – that he was about to start throwing bottles!
The joke had evidently occurred to the president a few seconds earlier, and this is what had made him laugh.
However, the president reacted to Mr. Neelov's remark about Yamalo gas and taxes to the federal budget, and to the point:
– You're saying that you don't receive any taxes. But the whole appearance of your city suggests otherwise. It looks like that because you probably do have money.
This was probably meant to be a compliment.
Governor of Irkutsk Region Boris Govorin proposed the immediate transfer of ownership of small airports to the regions.
– Immediately! – he exclaimed with emotion. – This has to be done immediately. That's the whole point!
Naturally, there was the impression that the governor meant that a substantial chunk of property should be immediately turned over to him. I mean, it was obvious: yesterday was too early, and tomorrow would be too late. And he spoke very persuasively.
Governor of Tyumen Region Sergei Sobyanin asked for nothing for himself. He discussed the overall problems of the North; he noted that he was a third-generation northerner and that there was no longer any need for forced settlement of people in the North by the square-cluster method. He believed that the North was created for extracting minerals and not for building garment factories.
Mr. Putin strongly disagreed with the governor. He did not hesitate to cite the example of Finland, which by all indications was also a northern country. In spite of everything, there was a company, Nokia, which produced high-tech telephones in this country. So here was an example for Yamalo.
After this, the president asked the head of Gazprom, Aleksei Miller, to speak. You rarely have a chance to hear anything from him these days. Mr. Miller talked about how “the North has been and will continue to be Russia's main production base, and new fields must be developed by the shift method.”
Then Mr. Miller turned to more important things. He declared that there should be no competitions at large fields to determine which company would be the resource user. Only the Russian government should make these decisions.
It is safe to say that this was a sensational announcement. Mr. Miller had obviously prepared for it and had chosen what he felt was a fitting moment. A harmless meeting on the north… And a harmless topic: government policy for developing the northern territories… To give out fields by government decision without any competition – isn't this government policy?
– It's question of Russia's energy security, – Mr. Miller concluded.
The President of Russia reacted immediately to Mr. Miller's idea and said that it was necessary to be more careful about any kind of security.
– There's been a lot of talk about security: environmental, energy, – the president said, literally wincing.
This implied that he did not like Mr. Miller's idea very much.
Strange as it may seem, the last person to give his opinion at the meeting was Governor of Chukotka Roman Abramovich. He had never spoken at this kind of meeting before, at least in their open part. But he had obviously decided it was embarrassing to remain silent.
His speech was short but extremely jumbled. He said something about how Northern minorities would never leave for the mainland under any circumstances, whether they lived well or badly.
– You have to consider that the kinds of work northern native people do can't be justified from the economic standpoint. This has to be taken into account and given careful consideration, – said Mr. Abramovich rather confusedly.
– You mean to say that these people need government support, – Mr. Putin clarified, showing unexpected sympathy (towards Mr. Abramovich).
– Exactly! – said the Governor of Chukotka.
– Thank you, – said the president, nodding.
These people apparently caught each other's meaning at once.
Andrei Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 29, 2004
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