BORIS KAGARLITSKY, MOSCOW
EVERYONE HAS HIS OWN PROBLEMS
The subject of the global financial crisis is getting less and less interesting. Many articles about the crisis have been published and a lot of conclusions have already been drawn. It’s another matter that the conclusions differ from the decisions that are being made.
Meanwhile, Russian officials as well as ordinary people would like to hear good news. It would be so nice to arrange a little holiday against the background of the crisis.
So, the people do their utmost to maintain good mood in the society and among their subordinates.
The last piece of news is really touching: the Kemerovo region’s administration organizes an auction of making 30 gold wrist watches with 26 cut diamonds and with an inscription “From governor Aman Tuleev”. According to an official report “the watches should be furnished with special varnished gift case made of valuable wood (oak, beech, ash, cherry tree, nutwood, mahogany) and having a cherry red, walnut or chocolate color”. You must admit that it would be very good to receive a modest present from the governor at the height of the crisis! It would help officials and ordinary people to increase self-confidence, to overcome the depression and to have a higher opinion of themselves. By the way, those are the ladies’ watches, so one can do justice to progressive thinking of the Kemerovo governor on gender issues. There is a need to support women at first, while men will manage without outside help. Of course, this piece of news is to gladden feminists and all political correctness advocates.
Only 2.52 million roubles will be spent on the watch manufacturing, which is a “mere nothing” in comparison with the region’s budget.
The Russian Ministry of the Interior officials seemed to be guided by the same considerations when they intended to buy two gilded beds for themselves for over 4 million roubles. It is unclear why the officials needed the gilded beds. Not all government officials support their colleagues’ initiatives. In August 2009, the Moscow Public Prosecutor’s Office on Law Enforcement in the Air and Water Transport obtained the annulment of the auction tender put in by the state enterprise of aviation protection of woods “Avialesookhrana”, which wanted to buy a luxurious Lexus car having a massage chair and a TV set for the back passengers for just 6 million roubles. A car does not fly and does not extinguish forest fires, but it was intended for organizing a mobile command post to let the enterprise officials manage the protection of Russian forests in comfortable conditions that would be consistent with their high qualification and level of responsibility.
In St. Petersburg the steps to make the city administration happy are also taken. The tender was announced to buy 8 sets of shish kebab skewers for 461 thousand roubles. So, one skewer costs 8.7 thousand roubles. The quality justifies the means!
According to the official Internet website zaks.ru, the St. Petersburg authorities will buy 100 expensive fur headgears and 139 fur sleeveless jackets for patients of the St. Petersburg psychiatric hospital within the state purchases. The blue fox and mink fur caps are ordered solely at mental patients’ request, which indicates how deeply humane the St. Petersburg authorities are. This touching care for the mental patients will cost the city’s budget a very “small” sum – 1.700 million roubles!
It is possible that the governments of the Kemerovo region and St. Petersburg were guided by economic considerations rather than by moral and psychological considerations. The information about the Kemerovo auction is published on the website of the Administration of the State Order of the Kemerovo Region. Is it possible that the authorities sought to support the domestic commodity producers? This is a graphic example how the authorities help the Russian jewelers to overcome the crisis. True, the watchworks will be made in Switzerland, but the watch cases will be made in Russia. It means that some people in Russia will be employed.
However the authorities rarely take care of domestic manufacturers. When Merkury hotel, where the St. Petersburg government’s guests are accommodated, ordered expensive furniture made of the best wood, the members of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly were indignant when they came to know that a supplier of Italian elite furniture, not “a St. Petersburg supplier, who should be supported during the crisis” had been invited to perform that order. It is a pity that Russia does not produce elite cars any more. If the Lexus car for the aviators had been made in Russia, would the prosecutor’s office have accepted that initiative?
Unfortunately, it is more difficult to prevent Kuznetsk Basin miners from losing their jobs than to back the jewelry manufacturing. The coal recession in the Kemerovo region continues although it is said that the crisis will be overcome soon. The meeting of the Kemerovo region government discussed the question of shutting-down of the mines. If such a decision is made, about 10 thousand people will lose their jobs in the Russian town of Prokopyevsk alone.
Decline in industrial output is an embarrassing and inevitable fact existing in the Russian economy. Unfortunately, this circumstance prevents the population from appreciating at its true value the official’s care for themselves and their friends.
Boris Kagarlitsky is a Director of the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements
September 24, 2009
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