Give me the money

Taimyr threatens to leave the Krasnoyarsk Territory

The Duma of the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous Okrug officially announced the district's intention to secede from the Krasnoyarsk Territory. They officially notified the regional governor Alexander Lebed and the regional legislative assembly about this yesterday. Their message, distributed in the media, states that Alexander Lebed and his predecessors have not fully returned payments to the district for the use of mineral resources over the past five years. As a result, a debt arose that has already exceeded 37 million rubles. If the Krasnoyarsk residents returned this money, each resident of Taimyr would receive almost thirty thousand. This is normal - such misunderstandings occur regularly between “matryoshka” territories (including several autonomous okrugs). What came as a surprise was the threat of the Taimyr Duma to “consider the issue of reassigning the district directly to the Russian Federation.” It is hard to believe that such statements are made without the consent of the head of the district.

A significant part of the deputies of the Taimyr Duma were elected with the direct participation of Norilsk Nickel. Many of them worked in Norilsk and, like the current governor Alexander Khloponin, represent the interests of this industrial giant in the district Duma. Less than two months have passed since Krasnoyarsk Governor Alexander Lebed’s loud statements about full mutual understanding with the then candidate for head of the Taimyr administration, General Director of RAO Norilsk Nickel, Alexander Khloponin. It seems that, having received the reins of government, Mr. Khloponin changed his orientation. True, no one has heard Mr. Khloponin promise that he will not seek the secession of Taimyr from the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Both Alexander Lebed and his closest associates have so far refrained from making any public comments. Obviously, within the next 24 hours they will hold consultations with the leadership of Taimyr. Residents of the region really hope that this is just a misunderstanding. Everyone still has fresh memories of the long political war waged with the Arctic region by the previous Krasnoyarsk governor Valery Zubov. Four years ago, Taimyr also wanted to secede from the Krasnoyarsk Territory, and also reassign the Norilsk Industrial District to itself. Then the president intervened in the conflict, and only thanks to this the status quo was maintained. If separation occurs now, then a real social catastrophe will break out in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. 70% of regional budget revenues consist of payments to the Norilsk Mining Company and RAO Norilsk Nickel.

Alexander MAKAROV, Krasnoyarsk