Translated material
Money from Space
The Ural authorities will try to use the United Russia congress for lobbying purposes
Two weeks before the VII Congress of United Russia, the Sverdlovsk branch of the party in power turned into the headquarters for holding this event. Back in the spring, the leadership of the ruling party determined that the congress would be held in Yekaterinburg on December 2, but now is the hottest moment - we need to think about where to accommodate the guests and what to feed them.As the Vremya Novostey correspondent was told in the Sverdlovsk executive committee of United Russia, two thousand party members from all regions of Russia will arrive in Yekaterinburg on December 1. Among them are expected at least fifty governors, the head of the presidential administration Sergei Sobyanin, and the entire party leadership led by State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov. President Vladimir Putin is not a member of the party and will not attend its congress this time.
Traditionally, before the congress, a meeting of the Economic Council will be held on Friday, interesting primarily for its ending: a reception will be held in the best city hotel (the only one with five-star status). At the same time, the hotel administration does not know exactly how many guests will be invited, and therefore they voice a figure from 300 to 1000. In parallel with this event, another gala dinner will be held - Sverdlovsk Governor Eduard Rossel intends to gather a “narrow” circle of his colleagues, as well as top officials party and thus, separately from hundreds of ordinary delegates of the congress, celebrate the upcoming event.
At the same time, the most senior party members will feel as comfortable as at home, because the reception will take place in the village of Maly Istok, where Mr. Rossel’s house is located, as well as a government cottage community. Federal ministers and presidents of friendly countries who come to Yekaterinburg stay there. The facility, which was shown to journalists only once, was built ten years ago, when the then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President Jacques Chirac wanted to come to Yekaterinburg for a “no tie” meeting. The first president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, wanted to show his friends the place of his birth. For convenience, a modern complex was built, which neither Helmut Kohl nor Jacques Chirac visited - the three heads of state were unable to meet there.
However, the complex in Maly Istok is small, so the vast majority of delegates will live in city hotels and mini-hotels. Already, all places for party members have been reserved. At the same time, few can count on a separate room: the headquarters for organizing the congress, which includes representatives of the Sverdlovsk executive committee, the mayor's office of Yekaterinburg and the governor's administration, decided to accommodate separately only the most prominent participants and guests from those who did not get a place in Maly Istok, but whose status should be noted. For other guests (including governors) double and triple rooms are available. It was decided that if the governor were housed together with the governor, then this should not cause offense to the heads of regions.
Moreover, the party members stubbornly insist: their guests are going to the congress to work, and not to have a good time. The congress itself will take place in the recently restored Cosmos cinema and concert complex, in the second entrance of which the very first Yekaterinburg casino is located. By the way, the Yekaterinburg congress is not the first in the history of the party to be held in “Cosmos”: in 2004, United Russia members gathered in the Moscow hotel of the same name.
According to the regulations, the first report will be made by the leader of United Russia, Boris Gryzlov, who will report on the work done, as well as voice the party’s program for the elections to the State Duma in 2007. The following two reports are promised to the Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, Eduard Rossel, and the Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Ural Federal District, Pyotr Latyshev. If a year ago in Krasnoyarsk United Russia members discussed the possibilities of developing Siberia, now they will be asked to help in the industrial rise of Russia and the development of circumpolar deposits. Mr. Rossel’s administration says that the head of the region has already prepared his report on the situation in industry: based on the successes of his own region, he plans to list documents that need to be adopted at the federal level.
Plenipotentiary Representative Pyotr Latyshev is also already ready - he will lobby for the project “Industrial Urals - Polar Urals”, which implies the completion of the railway in Yamal, which began to be built under Joseph Stalin, but was later stopped. United Russia officially supported this project, but its implementation requires finance, and the Urals intend to repeat last year’s path of the Siberians, who even named specific figures for the required investments. The fact that no special assistance was received for the Krasnoyarsk Territory after last year’s congress does not bother anyone, since the more often you talk about your idea in Russia, the greater the chance that it will be implemented.
At the end of the congress, another banquet is planned, after which United Russia members will disperse. Most likely, most party members will fly to Moscow on charter planes. Just as it was during last year’s congress in Krasnoyarsk.