| German Gref held a reception for the population on personal issues On Friday, at nine in the morning, citizens gathered in the government reception building who wanted to personally tell the Minister of Economic Development German Gref about their painful situation. The minister treated this event informally. The meeting lasted forty minutes longer than planned, so that due to communication with the people, Mr. Gref was almost late for the opening Russia-European Union summit.
11 people came to the meeting with the minister. Of course, this is not a representative sample, but some conclusions can be drawn. Not a single woman came to meet the minister. Apparently, women care more about well-being in one particular home, while men care more about the well-being of the entire country. Moreover, the fate of the homeland begins to worry men already in adulthood. The only young people who attended the meeting were journalists.
Citizens were concerned about a variety of issues - from the ban on the introduction of electronic passports for religious reasons to the creation of “municipal people's enterprises”, which would spend all profits, with the exception of employee salaries, on social needs.
Igor Malkov, a deputy of the State Duma of the second convocation, came to share his plans for fulfilling Putin’s order to double GDP. The method he proposes is called emission-investment lending. According to Mr. Malkov, this method has existed for three hundred years, but is now undeservedly forgotten. The ex-deputy wrote a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov two months ago, but, judging by the appearance of Mr. Gref in the reception room, he never received an answer. The essence of the method is to stimulate production through increased consumer demand. According to this theory, a large-scale emission must first be carried out. Then citizens, having received additional money, will rush to the stores, and enterprises, in turn, seeing how all their goods are swept off the shelves, will begin to develop production capacities. Igor Malkov is convinced that thanks to this method the economy will grow by 10-15% of GDP per year. However, this theory did not make much of an impression on Mr. Gref, known for his liberal views.
There were also less global proposals. For example, Evenk farmer Konstantin Tsilin proposed introducing a state monopoly on furs. The minister politely refused, saying that “we will not revive Soviet power,” but promised to send employees of his department and the Russian Development Bank to Evenkia so that they could see on the spot how they could help. The inspired farmer came up with the idea of uniting his native Evenki Autonomous Okrug with Taimyr and the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Retired captain 1st rank, veteran of the Great Patriotic War Leonid Chernousko came with a request to stop the theft of non-ferrous metals. He said that they even cut the telephone cable in their yard, and proposed a radical solution: “to close the collection points for non-ferrous metals.” Indeed, who will steal if there is no one to sell to. Then Mr. Chernousko moved from the specific to the general and, showing the minister a newspaper with an article about Roman Abramovich’s purchase of the London football club Chelsea, asked whether it was possible to ban the export of capital.
The export of capital is normal, Mr. Gref began to explain the basics of a market economy to Mr. Chernousko: “Only freedom will make it possible to realize all the existing capabilities of people.” However, Mr. Gref did not want to defend the Chukotka governor: “If society does not accept this kind of purchase, then from a moral point of view it is impossible to make them.” Moreover, if a person has earned such capital, then he is morally obligated to invest it in his country. However, Mr. Gref is very far from the ideas of “taking away and dividing.” “This cannot be done by law, it must be in people’s heads,” said the minister, referring to the desire to invest in their country. Minister Gref was not asked about the purchase of Faberge eggs by Viktor Vekselberg... Vera SITNINA |
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