Radio Liberty - Programs - Correspondent's Hour

In this issue:

- The war in Chechnya as an advertising campaign for Tula weapons;
- How many people were killed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle?
- Nizhny Novgorod rear officials declare everyone who does not want to die in Chechnya to be traitors;
- Kostroma Dagestanis are forced to prove at every step that they are not bandits;
- Why do refugees avoid Mordovia?
- How much does it cost to cut apart a Murmansk nuclear submarine?
- Kazan: AIDS testing will be forced;
- Rostov-on-Don: journalists from the oldest newspaper were allowed around the world;
- Amur region: territory of death;
- Stavropol: how much does free medicine cost?
- Ivanovo: the goose that lays the golden eggs suddenly decided to privatize;
- Astrakhan: teachers are waiting for gas, but it doesn’t come;
- Syktyvkar: the authorities are persistently pushing for higher prices and higher unemployment;
- Arkhangelsk: collective farmers load double-barreled shotguns with salt.

On the air Nizhny Novgorod, Oleg Rodin:

Chief of the Russian General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin paid a short visit to the Nizhny Novgorod region. He inspected part of the 22nd Army stationed in the village of Mulino and had a secret conversation with Governor Ivan Sklyarov, inquiring about the state of Nizhny Novgorod military-industrial complex enterprises, which could now count on new government orders. He visited the temple, where he was presented with icons for the Russian army, and held a press conference.

Regarding the war in the North Caucasus, the Colonel General spoke definitely: the troops must prepare for the winter in the Chechen Republic. The Chief of the General Staff was presented with a petition from the regional leadership with a proposal to send local soldiers to serve in sponsored units or in the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod region. Consideration of issues related to alternative service was not included in the regulations of Anatoly Kvashnin’s visit, and attempts by public organizations to draw attention to this problem caused obvious irritation among the local leadership.

“The main reason, in general, is a reluctance to serve at all. The guys simply don’t want to serve in the army.”

This is what the head of one of the departments of the Nizhny Novgorod military registration and enlistment office said.

These days the Nizhny Novgorod Youth League held a campaign “For Alternative Service”. At the building of the regional Legislative Assembly in the Kremlin, boys and girls stood in the pouring rain and with banners reminiscent of Article 59 of the Constitution, waiting for representatives of the deputy corps.

“We expect that the State Duma - either this convocation or the next one, thank God, it is just around the corner - will still send an official request to the State Duma. And thereby, probably, will somehow advance the situation in the adoption of this law.”

The State Duma still cannot pass a federal law on alternative service. Therefore, members of the Nizhny Novgorod Youth League proposed that deputies of the regional Legislative Assembly adopt a corresponding law at the regional level. How does the military leadership react to such initiatives? Lev Pavlov, Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, says:

“I believe: all those public organizations that we have, including in our city, that call for the disruption of the draft are simply traitors to the interests, the national interests of our state.”

And now the military commissars decided to organize, with the help of the police, special groups to search for “draft dodgers” to conscript them for military service and then send them to the active army.

On the air in Tula, Sergey Novikov:

The other day, the director of the Central Design Bureau of Sporting and Hunting Weapons, Viktor Zimenko, said: “If soldiers distinguish themselves in Chechnya with Tula weapons, this will be our best advertisement.” The question arises: to whom is this “us”? Let me explain: these words were spoken at the presentation of the Tula Weapons Association. The association included the leading military factories of the city. So, for whom - war, and for whom - an advertising campaign. At the presentation, the following idea was also voiced: they say, it is necessary to supply the special forces, who are going on their next business trip to the North Caucasus, with the latest small arms produced by the Tula Arms Plant. And the mayor of the city, Sergei Kazakov, said:

“Today we are disunited and cannot be a serious competitor to the same Izhevsk. We cannot put up with the fact that the symbol of Tula - our weapons production - has lost its authority in the Russian and world markets. We cannot put up with the fact that we are losing perspective in the development of sporting and hunting weapons. We cannot put up with the fact that we have lost our skills and today the leading craftsmen have left production to work at home, or somewhere else, and often end up under crime, it is also impossible.”

This is the official justification for the birth of the Tula Weapons Association. But it’s no secret that, from an economic point of view, the idea is to create a structure opposing the Rosvooruzheniye company, or more precisely, its Tula branch. The company, which is the main intermediary in concluding deals for the sale of weapons, allegedly offends and deceives manufacturers. In addition, the money does not go to local budgets, but goes to Moscow. That is, we need to take the implementation into our own hands, or at least try to influence this process in some way. Moreover, the production of weapons in Tula has increased fourfold over the past year. And this trend will continue in 2000. The first practical step of the newly created association will be participation in the arms exhibition in Nuremberg, and there, perhaps, the results of the advertising campaign in Chechnya will play a role.

On air Izhevsk, Lyubov Chizhova:

The construction of the house-museum of Mikhail Kalashnikov, which has been going on in Izhevsk for five years, is being slowed down for a very banal reason - there is not enough money. The decision to create a museum complex was made after the pompously celebrated 75th anniversary of the famous gunsmith. Then almost the entire political elite, led by President Yeltsin, visited Izhevsk. Moreover, in 1994 they talked about creating just an apartment museum. Two years later, a new grandiose plan was born in the government of Udmurtia - to build a museum complex in honor of the creator of the legendary machine gun. And the authors of the project were not at all embarrassed by the fact that in Izhevsk there already exist at least 3 large weapons exhibitions, where you can find the brainchild of Mikhail Kalashnikov.

Without in any way detracting from the merits of Mikhail Timofeevich, and respecting his venerable age - one of these days he will turn 80 years old, I would like to note that this project is not popular among the people. Teachers and doctors are on the verge of another strike, and the head of the State Council of Udmurtia, Alexander Volkov, appeals to President Yeltsin with a request to allocate funds for the construction of the Kalashnikov house-museum.

And the president promised 10 million rubles from his reserve fund. Yuri Luzhkov invested 5 million into the common pot, 255 thousand are allocated by the Rosvooruzheniye concern. For some reason, no one can name the exact amount required to complete the construction of the museum complex, apparently due to the excessive scale of the project. The plans of the creators of the museum, which, by the way, is located in the prestigious Central District, are as follows: upstairs there are several spacious halls where you can see not only the machine gun, but also Kalashnikov’s personal belongings. Downstairs there is a library, conference room and shooting range. By the way, the name of the first exhibition, which should open in the only so far ready hall of the museum for the anniversary of Mikhail Timofeevich, is already known - “Kalashnikov: a man of legend. Pages of life.”

Among other things, there will be materials about the fact that the famous machine gun is in service in more than 50 countries around the world. It is unknown whether there will be data on the number of people killed from a Kalashnikov assault rifle. I think that peaceful museum workers do not set themselves the task of educating visitors to the house-museum in this direction. The killer machine gun has become a symbol of Udmurtia, and the official authorities are not at all embarrassed by this; rather, on the contrary, they use this card with great enthusiasm in political games. No one doubts that sooner or later the Kalashnikov museum complex will be built. Most likely, by November 10th - the next anniversary of Mikhail Timofeevich - decent amounts will be transferred to the museum’s account. And - in the next 2-3 years, construction will be completed. And then the official and very formidable symbol of Udmurtia of the 20th century will automatically become a symbol of the new century. And in the 21st century, guests of Izhevsk will be taken to a huge museum complex dedicated to one person - the man who invented the most deadly weapon of the 20th century.

On the air Kostroma, Arslan Saidov:

Dagestanis living in Kostroma insist that they be treated like other Russian citizens. Not long ago they created a local national public organization, designed mainly to protect the interests of people from the Caspian Republic.

Until now, the Dargins, Avars, Lezgins and representatives of other nationalities inhabiting Dagestan, moreover, being part of the Russian Federation, were actually equal in rights to foreign citizens. They had one thing in common with Azerbaijanis or Armenians - “a person of Caucasian nationality.” Representatives of the Dagestani diaspora demanded that this cliché, degrading human dignity, be removed from official terminology at a meeting with Governor Viktor Shishunov.

In general, Dagestanis believe, such a conversation was possible only against the backdrop of recent events in the Caucasus. Dagestan did not become part of Ichkeria thanks to the residents of the republic themselves, who took the blow of Islamic fundamentalists. Now Dagestanis expect Russia to treat them as full citizens of the country.

So far, the facts indicate the opposite. In particular, according to one of the diaspora leaders, Gazim Agamadov, city hotels do not want to register his fellow countrymen; Without the appropriate stamp, these people find themselves outside the law and, by someone else’s will, become violators. Gazim Agamadov claims that there are often cases when young people are not accepted for admission to Kostroma universities and colleges only on the grounds that the applicant is from the Caucasus. At the same time, neither his mental abilities nor his level of knowledge matter. Such discrimination is skillfully disguised as formal reasons. And law enforcement agencies, being in a state of hysteria lately, are ready to see a Chechen terrorist in every black-haired horseman.

Representatives of the diaspora hinted to local authorities that cooperation with them was mutually beneficial. Dagestani businessmen are ready to invest money in the economy of Central Russia, but only on condition that they are not prevented from doing so by government officials who have a special understanding of patriotism.

As Gazim Agamadov assures, the governor listened to their delegation with interest and promised to make every effort to ensure that Dagestanis are no longer confused with bandits.

On the air in Saransk, Igor Telin:

Flows of refugees and internally displaced persons mostly bypass Mordovia. Today, 1,140 families are registered with the Republican Migration Service. According to Valentina Shuvalova from the Ministry of Labor and Employment, this figure is not comparable with the indicators of the Nizhny Novgorod, Ulyanovsk and Penza regions, with which Mordovia borders.

“The flow of forced migrants is greater to neighboring regions, probably due to the fact that the economy and employment opportunities for these citizens are more developed there.”

Back in 1993, the republican authorities refused to place a reception center for internally displaced persons and refugees on the territory of Mordovia, explaining this for reasons such as:

“The decline in production, the suspension of a number of enterprises, the reduction of people in them, high unemployment in the republic, forced leaves of workers at enterprises.”

And yet, people come to Mordovia. They come from the CIS countries, the Baltic countries and “hot spots” to their, as they say, historical homeland. But not everyone manages to obtain the status of forced migrants. According to Nikolai Biryukov, in most cases, the visitors themselves are to blame for this.

“Many apply late within the deadlines established by law. This is, apparently, ignorance of the laws. People apply untimely, and then we are already placed in more stringent conditions and cannot determine its status.”

Some visitors do not contact the migration service of Mordovia at all. While settling down on their own, they believe that the state cannot help them with either work or housing. One of them, Vitaly Arabets, came to the republic from Abkhazia.

“I applied to the migration service, received a certificate, and with that all the work of the migration service was completed. There was only one answer - you are Russian, you have returned to your homeland. I came here to see my son, applied to the migration service and realized: there is no point. I already knew what the result would be. And so I got a job on my own, brought my son, and then got married here and began to live with my wife.”

The main problems faced by people who have received forced migrant status are: work, money, housing. According to Nikolai Biryukov, head of the migration service of Mordovia, his department helps solve them quite successfully.

“I believe that our most important help, the migration service, is that we provide a sufficient number of families with a preferential, long-term, interest-free, repayable loan, it is issued on fairly favorable terms. To date, we have already been able to provide a thousand families with such a loan.”

Elmira’s family, who came to Mordovia from Uzbekistan, was not included in their number; she could not get a loan.

“We haven’t received it yet, because I don’t work anywhere. True, my husband works, but our amount, our income does not correspond to giving us a loan. They said: get a job, then come with certificates, with documents. You have to have your own housing, there should be such an amount of income - 2 thousand income. I won’t buy a house for 48 thousand, only in the area. But in the area I will buy for that amount - and where in the area have you seen two thousand incomes? I haven’t seen people anywhere, it’s unreal, I don’t understand what kind of help this is.”

Many migrants in Mordovia face this problem - they cannot get a loan because they do not work anywhere; they don’t work because they don’t have registration and housing, they can’t get housing without a loan, and so on, the circle is closed.

On air Murmansk, Andrey Korolev:

Russia plans to dismantle more than 150 submarines by 2007, 90 of them in the north of the Russian Federation. Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Valery Lebedev stated this in an interview with Radio Liberty. At the same time, he noted that Russia's need only for containers for storing the cores of nuclear submarine reactors until 2006 is, according to various estimates, from 210 to 430 units. Moreover, to dismantle one submarine you need from 4 to 12 containers. According to the deputy minister, this year spent nuclear fuel will be unloaded from 8 submarines, and in 2000 - from another 18 submarine cruisers of the Far Eastern and Northern fleets.

“There is a government decree to speed up the dismantling of nuclear submarines. And first of all, this is the issue of handling spent nuclear fuel. According to the state defense order, the state has allocated 167 million for this year and Minatom has found the possibility of another 500 million from its own funds. Thus, 667 million have been allocated for dismantling for this year. 70 percent of them have already been mastered, that is, this year there has been an acceleration not only in your region, but and in the Primorye region. You understand that there is an Arkhangelsk region, there is yours, and you have made sufficient progress in this work.”

Next year, funds for the disposal of submarines are planned to be increased to one billion rubles. In addition, in 1999, 12 containers for the transportation and temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel will be manufactured in St. Petersburg, while in 2000 it is planned to manufacture 88 such containers.

Valery Lebedev also noted that the cost of one container is 150 thousand dollars. The containers are manufactured within the framework of the trilateral American-Russian-Norwegian program "Military Cooperation on Environmental Protection in the Arctic "Amek", implemented over three years. The total cost of the project is 16 billion rubles, of which two thirds were financed by the Russian side and one third by the American side.

The Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy also answered a question about the prospects for a bill, widely discussed in State Duma committees, on the problem of dumping nuclear waste from European countries on Russian territory.

“There is a concept developed by MGAT - spent nuclear fuel is a material, it is not radioactive waste. Radioactive waste is the waste that is subject to burial. And spent material, spent nuclear fuel in all countries... excuse me, in 16 countries they are reprocessed. There are two plants in the world, in England and France, which have a profit of about 150-160 million from waste. And note, all European ones are reprocessed countries. Japan is building the plant. We are used to saying that - like civilized countries, but when we want - like civilized countries, for some reason no one wants to import any radioactive waste. Therefore, we are talking about sending only part of the supply of spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing, and after reprocessing, creating fuel so that it can be used again at nuclear power plants in the form of fuel. I don’t think that the Duma will accept this. at the stage of discussion in committees."

It remains to add that the Amek project began to be implemented in February 1998 by the intersectoral coordination scientific and technical center for nuclide products of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy, as the second authorized contractor of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy, and the cooperation of Russian enterprises formed by it with financial assistance from the governments of the United States and the Kingdom of Norway.

On air Kazan, Olga Yukhnovskaya:

People in Tatarstan are increasingly talking about the possibility of forced testing for AIDS. This was especially facilitated by reports in the newspaper "Kazanskoye Vremya" and reports from the local television company "Efir" about cases of deliberate infection of passers-by by certain persons with the help of syringes directly on the street or in transport.

In Naberezhnye Chelny, the decision to compulsorily test for AIDS was made more than a year ago with the entry into force of the order on the interaction of doctors and law enforcement agencies to prevent the spread of HIV. And although there is no wording “forced examination” in this order, the Naberezhnye Chelny Department of Internal Affairs is recommended to assist in the delivery of persons evading examination. This method is especially common when it is necessary to examine someone admitted to a pre-trial detention center, or women engaged in “sex work.” Every month, a team, which includes a police officer, an AIDS center doctor and a nurse, goes on a raid on city facilities.

Will Kazan follow the Chelny path? If we remember that there are more than 4 thousand officially registered drug addicts in Tatarstan alone, and almost two thousand prostitutes in Naberezhnye Chelny alone, then the thought creeps in: God be with them, with rights, to save themselves and their loved ones. But if you multiply all the numbers by 10 to get a true picture of the spread of drug addiction and prostitution, then the temptation to support compulsory examination increases tenfold.

Recently, an order was also signed in the capital of Tatarstan to prevent the spread of HIV. But it applies to those convicted, suspected and accused of committing crimes. As for the forced examination of other risk groups, that is, drug addicts, prostitutes, homeless people, there is debate.

However, the director of the Republican AIDS Center, Oleg Romanenko, is confident that Kazan must urgently adopt the experience of the city of Naberezhnye Chelny. The discussion in the Tatarstan press is developing in the following vein: if the idea of ​​compulsory examination of part of the population is developed to its logical conclusion, then all anonymous offices should be closed and preventive work should be stopped. Why waste money in vain? It’s better to oblige all citizens to donate blood for AIDS every month, and if they don’t want to, force them to be tested.

And here is the result: on October 20, at a meeting of the Ministry of Health of Tatarstan, a final point was put in the matter of anonymous treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. It is prohibited to treat diseases, including AIDS, in anonymous rooms. Our information: in the anonymous office of the Tatarstan AIDS Center alone, more than 80 thousand requests were registered over three years. In Kazan there are 5 such offices, in Tatarstan - 47. So the latest resolution of the Ministry of Health of Tatarstan means that citizens have actually lost the right to keep their diagnosis secret.

On the air in Rostov-on-Don, Sergey Sleptsov:

“Let's save our colleagues” was the motto of the Rostov regional newspaper “Our Time”. By “colleagues” we mean the very few journalists of the oldest newspaper on the Don, “Molot”.

More than a year ago, a criminal case was opened against the editor-in-chief of Molot, Anatoly Dovlekaev, on suspicion of large-scale theft. But even today, things are set up in the editorial office of the Molot newspaper in such a way that the money the newspaper receives for advertising goes to an advertising agency specially created by the editor-in-chief, and the journalists last received their salaries (if you can call it that) at the beginning of summer. And any demands are fraught with serious trouble for them.

Journalists of the newspaper "Molot" Evgeny Kasyanenko and Elena Kozlova, driven to despair, attended a reception with the vice-governor of the region Valery Khripun. The editor-in-chief immediately fired the journalists. Alexei Kalashnikov, the father of three children, also faces dismissal. Considering that almost all the journalists working at Molot are people who are said to be over 30, it will not be easy for them to find a new job.

It is interesting that their colleagues, competitors and rivals from the newspaper “Our Time” decided to save them from complete impoverishment. Its editor, Vera Yuzhanskaya, has already ordered that money be given to her colleagues from Molot at the cash desk of her newspaper. The amounts of these payments are small, around 250 rubles, but journalists from the Dar newspaper and the North Caucasus news agency intend to take part in this action. True, the presidium of the regional organization of the Union of Journalists of Russia maintains traditional silence.

On air Blagoveshchensk, Anton Luzgin:

Since the beginning of this year, four Amur residents have been killed and five injured while extracting non-ferrous metals from ammunition. More than 10 years ago, the entire Soviet Union learned about the village of Arga, Serzhinsky district, Amur region. There, a fire broke out at an ammunition depot, explosions were heard, shells flew through the streets, there were casualties among the population, and dozens of people were left homeless. In this case, time did not become a healer, and today the residents of Arga do not feel safe.

The new commander of the 35th Army, Kutikov, commented on the situation. According to the general, “in the region, in addition to the military units that are part of the army, there are many other units subordinate directly to the Far Eastern Military District and the Ministry of Defense. The army cannot be held responsible for their training grounds and other facilities.”

At the beginning of February this year, a fire broke out on the territory of an ammunition depot in Tomichi, Belogorsky district, Amur region. It’s good that this happened in the morning when everyone was at work. It was possible to quickly involve parts of the state fire service of the Internal Affairs Directorate, a fire train of railway workers, and military firefighters in eliminating the source of fire. The fire was quickly extinguished and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Literally a few tens of meters away there was a warehouse with powerful aerial bombs. A tragedy could have happened, not inferior to the one that happened in Argue.

The head of the administration of the Shimanovsky district of the Amur region, Sergei Pasyuk, said that in May of this year, on the territory of a disbanded military unit, two local residents were injured while trying to extract non-ferrous metal from an unexploded shell.

It is typical that when a fire broke out in a dangerous area, forestry workers did not dare to approach it, so as not to be blown up by ammunition. As a result, the fire spread unhindered to other areas and engulfed a vast area.

The villages of the Belogorsky district of the Amur region, Vasilievka, Tomichi and Vozzhaevka, where military units are located, are considered constant risk zones. More than a thousand units of armored vehicles have grown into the ground and are not guarded by anyone. In local landfills you can easily find mines, grenades, and artillery shells, and in considerable quantities. Both adults and children find them, begin to disassemble them and die or become disabled.

The head of the local government of the Zaletinsky district of the Amur region, Melnik, gave examples when, when military units are disbanded, not only explosive objects are left behind, but also dangerous chemicals. Thus, aviators outside the unit hastily buried containers with rocket fuel components. In the same area, near the village of Chervona Armiya, a secret burial of a container with nitric acid was discovered, which could become a source of contamination of a large area.

On air Stavropol, Nikolay Pchelintsev:

Medicine in the Stavropol region has become paid. Doctors were informed about this by a document under the inconspicuous title “Regulations on the procedure for payment of medical services in the system of compulsory health insurance for citizens in the Stavropol Territory.” The signature of the regional Minister of Health Nikolai Shipkov means that the regulation has been approved by the local government. Moreover, it has already entered into legal force. Doctors were asked to forget the previous practice when they presented bills to medical insurance companies, as they say - in fact: how much money was spent on the patient, so much was demanded to be paid. Now they are forced to “dance” from the average tariffs per unit of medical care. As for medications, for example, a doctor can spend 7 and a half rubles per patient per day. Anything above this amount must be paid by the patient himself.

Since the regional government took the unpopular step towards universal paid healthcare quietly, fearing noisy publicity, neither the population nor the head doctors of the clinics were ready for the innovation. Doctors are racking their brains over questions: how to inform patients about the cost of an operation - at the moment when he is writhing in pain in the emergency room, or not even sending an ambulance for a penniless person? Some hospitals decided to enter into individual contracts with patients. In this case, clients undertake to reimburse everything that doctors spend on them. In maternity hospitals, in complex cases, costs range from 7 to 10 thousand rubles.

Other institutions went for average pay. For example, in the largest hospital No. 4 in the regional center, an applicant for an operating table must have 350 rubles in his wallet for anesthesia and another 130 for auxiliary materials. This is in addition to over-the-counter medications, which he must first buy at the pharmacy and bring with him.

The transfer of the region's medicine to a paid basis caused outrage among local parliamentarians. At the next meeting of the State Duma of Stavropol, they angrily rejected the request of the governor’s team to increase allocations for government bodies this year by 23 million rubles. It was decided to give half of this amount to the regional Ministry of Health, which not only has nothing to buy medicines and food for hospital canteens, but also has nothing to treat patients with. So the allocated millions will most likely be spent on the purchase of medical equipment and ambulances. They will not abolish paid healthcare.

The most remarkable thing is that many practicing doctors and their clients perceive the resulting excitement as a storm in a teacup. They argue that the new regulation only legitimizes unofficial tariffs that have existed in recent years. As the director of the Essentuki maternity hospital, Lyubov Sorokina, noted, patients had previously brought everything with them to the poor hospital, with the possible exception of beds. Patients' only concern is that the official tariffs may become an addition to the unofficial ones. Low salaries may encourage doctors to maintain individual paid services, bypassing the cash register.

On air Ivanovo, Elena Smagina:

The executive and legislative branches showed rare unanimity last week. From November 1 to 2, letters from deputies of the regional Legislative Assembly, the mayor of the city of Ivanovo Valery Troeglazov and deputies of the city Duma of the regional center arrived on the desk of the governor of the Ivanovo region, Vladislav Tikhomirov. All three documents contain a convincing request to reconsider the governor's decision to privatize Ivanovo Bakery No. 3. This is the only bread-processing enterprise that is completely owned by the region. The plant produces a third of bakery products and 60% of pasta products sold on the Ivanovo market. This is the only consistently profitable enterprise that has, I’m not afraid to say, strategic importance.

For the poor, who make up the vast majority of the region's residents, bread is the main food product. As long as the enterprise is state-owned, the government can maintain prices for bread products not only at this plant, but throughout the region. State ownership makes it possible to avoid unfair competition and supply disruptions. But as soon as the plant is transformed into a joint-stock company, the main goal of which will be making a profit, there may be those willing to play the card of grain riots, and not only in elections. The existing legislation on pricing control will not be able to protect the population. To increase profits, regulated by the percentage of profitability, it will be enough to purchase raw materials at a higher price. As experience shows, other market participants will not put a spoke in their colleagues’ wheels.

In connection with all of the above, the privatization of the bakery seems, to put it mildly, not well thought out. But this is only at first glance. For example, none of the initiators of privatization could name either the future owners of the plant’s shares or the estimated value of the enterprise. And the privatization resolution turned out to be signed without the participation of the State Property Committee. Upon closer examination of the case, the names of the region's top officials once again surfaced, in particular, Deputy Governor for Agriculture Vitaly Melnikov. But even if you close your eyes to such details, any sane person’s desire to get rid of the cash cow will at least cause bewilderment.

On the air Astrakhan, Vladimir Timkov:

Residents of some villages in the Astrakhan region will meet the coming winter in cold houses without heating. This situation arose due to the fact that gas was not supplied in a timely manner. Of course, using natural gas instead of coal and firewood is more convenient and economically profitable, but the gasification process itself was unjustifiably delayed and placed a heavy burden on the shoulders of rural residents. However, Natalya Vladimirovna Illarionova, a resident of the village of Tataro-Bashmakov, will tell you better about this:

“We were promised gas for a long time, and they promised to do it for free. First, they provided gas to those who could pay, they promised to provide the rest later, until the year 2000. But they promised to supply it free of charge. And now they say that we still have to pay, even for wiring a common line. But we have to pay a lot, as much as 10-12 thousand.”

Another conflict situation arose during the gasification of villages in the Astrakhan region. For a long time now, the regional administration has been promising to prepare a resolution according to which Astrakhan residents will be able to gasify their homes to pay off the state’s debt to them for child benefits, as well as the debt to teachers for methodological literature. During the 4 years that allowances for the purchase of methodological literature have not been paid, the state has owed each teacher from 3 to 4 thousand rubles, and teachers cannot receive this money even through the courts.

Moreover, there is already a court decision, but there is no money. Even taking into account inflation, the amount for teachers receiving from two hundred to a thousand rubles is significant. However, the regional administration is in no hurry to fulfill its promises. Some rural teachers have already installed gas, while others have not been able to raise the necessary funds and are now waiting in cold houses for help to get heat. Some teachers are already driven to despair. And at the end of October, the chairman of the trade union committee of the Ivanchuk school, Filippov, announced that he intended to go on a hunger strike. He was supported by teachers from five other schools in the district. But all they were able to achieve were the next promises of the head of the region, Anatoly Petrovich Guzhvin. He again promises to pay the teachers and help them equip their homes, but the promises cannot warm the cold walls of the houses.

On air Syktyvkar, Nikolay Zyuzev:

About a month has passed since the law on imputed income tax in the Komi Republic extended to small retail trade. And during this time, more than 500 enterprises have already closed. The reason is that the prohibitively high tax deprives the trader of the meaning of his work. Ukhta businessmen decided to boycott this tax starting in October. Member of the city’s Union of Entrepreneurs Tatyana Lavrenenko:

“If you don’t boycott, it means that no steps will be taken towards reducing this tax. And many entrepreneurs, small entrepreneurs who cannot afford this tax, will simply go bankrupt.”

The city authorities are taking a wait-and-see approach. But it is unlikely that there will be any support from this side. Deputy head of the city administration Svetlana Korepanova:

“As for boycotting the imputed tax, we can generally agree - let’s not pay taxes at all. This is not a solution to the problem.”

The situation is similar in other regions of the republic, in particular in Sosnogorsk, neighboring Ukhta. Here they decided to abstain from the boycott for now, but 20% of entrepreneurs were unable to pay taxes for the last month. Deputy of the Sosnogorsk municipality Aleksey Timoshev predicts the further course of events:

“The mood of the majority of entrepreneurs, after almost half a month of work under the new rules, is not the most rosy. Most of them will most likely close before the end of the year, because they will not be able to bear the burden of such a tax and will go into the shadows. This means, as they previously agreed with representatives of various structures that approached them, say, for a certain bribe - so now they will negotiate with government officials, with tax inspectors, with someone else, and in the end - the state will not receive additional amounts of tax payments, because these entrepreneurs will not officially work."

Protests by businessmen displeased the head of the republic, Yuri Spiridonov. He is a strong supporter of this tax.

“I will not deviate from this tax, and we have already gone through all this. After all, these are the same stallholders who will never make Russia Russia.”

Budget revenues from this area of ​​business are small, so the authorities will not even notice the disappearance of small trade. The common people will notice this. Alexey Timoshev says:

“They will notice, and in a very simple way: when they come to the monopolist who remains in this market and see prices that will “pleasantly” surprise them.”

The so-called “stall” business employs up to 10% of the republic’s citizens; this is not counting their families. A significant part of them will inevitably join the ranks of the unemployed and will become a burden on the republican budget. A budget that they have been regularly replenishing so far.

On air from Arkhangelsk, Vladimir Anufriev:

To protect the remains of the crop and property from thieves, the Zaostrovsky breeding farm in Arkhangelsk dug up all the roads leading to the fields and summer farms with deep ditches. According to the head of this collective farm, Valery Razgon, the collective farmers were forced to take such an extraordinary step by constant raids by motorized thieves, which even the security could not cope with. At night they come straight to fields and farms, steal potatoes, cabbage, dismantle brick by brick, plank by plank buildings, hay storage facilities, summer farm buildings. The damage from the robbers to just one farm is estimated at 60 thousand rubles. Not only visitors operate under the cover of darkness, but also their own - former collective farmers, who then sell stolen vegetables and building materials, cheaply - for a bottle of underground alcohol, which is sold, not particularly secretly, in every village, Valery Razgon said bitterly.

Now it is no longer possible to drive cars to the collective farm property; the ditches dug by excavators resemble anti-tank ditches. True, these fortifications do not save you from foot soldiers. But on the Zaostrovsky collective farm they believe that the scale of theft has immediately decreased several times - after all, you can’t carry much on your own.

The barrier ditches also cause inconvenience on the collective farm itself. Thus, two villages were cut off from vehicles - Levkovka and Nizhnee Ladino. Both old and young are now forced to walk. Two events of the current harvest campaign in private gardens received wide resonance here. The first was when, in the suburban Primorsky district, the owners found a married couple in their field digging tubers. The man's legs were broken with an iron rod, and the woman was stripped naked and driven through the entire village in this form.

The second happened in the outskirts of Arkhangelsk Maimoxi, where a 70-year-old caretaker of his potato beds planted a charge of shot from a hunting rifle into a night thief just below the back.

This, of course, is all extremes for which there is no justification. And in the unannounced battle for supplies for the winter, alas, it is often not those who work who win. Thousands of Arkhangelsk summer residents are now in a state close to panic. Devastating thieves' raids on summer cottages and storage facilities have become widespread on a daily basis. After all, you can’t assign a policeman to every field, bed, cellar or dacha.