Translated material
Kadyrov's arithmetic
Acting President of Chechnya refuses the agreement with Moscow, but insists on participating in the proceeds from Chechen oil
Acting President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov yesterday announced a tender for the formation of a program for the economic development of the republic. On Tuesday, he opened a special round table in the republic dedicated to the strategy of Chechen reconstruction. The event was planned in advance, and it was assumed that Mr. Kadyrov would open it as prime minister of Chechnya. But on February 15, Vladimir Putin accepted the resignation of President Alu Alkhanov , and it turned out that at the opening of the round table, Mr. Kadyrov actually voiced his own presidential program for the first time.It's hard to say whether this was a coincidence. In any case, the new head of the region himself assures that he was surprised to learn about Alkhanov’s departure to the federal Ministry of Justice on Thursday from the evening news on TV. He himself did not surprise the invitees and announced that he “saw no need” to sign an agreement on the division of powers with Moscow , but proposed using the republic’s natural resources, including oil and gas, for “the development and rise of Chechnya.” The last issue, according to Mr. Kadyrov, should be resolved through negotiations with the oil company Rosneft. Rosneft is the owner of a controlling stake in the joint stock company Grozneftegaz , a monopolist of legal production and export of Chechen hydrocarbons. 49% of the shares belong to the government of Chechnya, but this, according to Ramzan Kadyrov, does not bring much benefit to the republic: “They don’t ask us anything.”
Chechnya, therefore, continues to insist on revising in its favor the distribution of income from mineral resources extracted on its territory. It was this requirement that was central to the draft agreement on the division of powers with the federal center, which experts from the administration of Akhmat-Hadji Kadyrov began preparing back in 2003. But the agreement, despite numerous concessions from the Chechen side, was never agreed upon.
The logic of the federal center was quite transparent. The new authorities of Chechnya received almost complete freedom of action within the republic, but the only sector of the Chechen economy that could be of significant commercial interest—the production of hydrocarbons—was to remain under the control of Moscow. It is possible that the presidential post, which Ramzan Kadyrov needed only to formally consolidate his de facto status as the owner of the republic, was transferred to him precisely in exchange for renouncing claims to oil. As a result, the young Chechen leader has so far agreed to abandon the agreement with the center. Especially after I saw the absolutely symbolic agreement just concluded with Tatarstan. But at the same time, he is ready to continue to fight for oil.
Representatives of Rosneft have repeatedly explained that their subsidiary operates in Chechnya in accordance with a 2000 Russian government decree, according to which all oil and gas produced in Chechnya are sent for export, and the proceeds are sent to a special account of the Ministry of Industry and Energy. From there, the federal government takes them and spends them on the Chechen oil and gas industry as part of the federal target program for restoring the economy and social sphere of Chechnya. But the Chechen government did not agree with this state of affairs and cited its own arithmetic, referring to the annual reports of Rosneft itself. In 2005, for example, the company produced 2.2 million tons of oil in Chechnya. According to the most conservative estimates, income from its exports should have amounted to 20 billion rubles. (according to the head of the Ministry of Industry and Energy of Chechnya Amadiy Temishev, all 25 billion). Meanwhile, according to Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya receives only about 480 million rubles a year. At the same time, the entire annual cost of the federal targeted restoration program, within the framework of which, in theory, “oil” money should be returned to Chechnya, is about 5.2 billion rubles. - that is, four times less than the price of “black gold” mined there.
Chechnya would have somewhere to spend additional funds. For example, the recorded unemployment there is still 53% of the working population. Despite the fact that on average in the not very prosperous Southern Federal District this figure does not exceed 15%, and in Russia - 8%. The housing supply in Chechnya is almost half the Russian average. Nevertheless, the acting president expects to soon “take the republic off the subsidy needle” and even make it a donor region. Work on the restoration of Grozny is planned to be completed within a very foreseeable period - before the end of 2008, regardless of whether federal money is transferred to the republic in a timely manner or not.
In total, including the federal targeted restoration program, direct budget subventions, and revenues from various extra-budgetary funds, Chechnya receives about 28 billion rubles from Russia. per year (that is, almost the same as Chechen oil costs). At the same time, according to Ramzan Kadyrov, at best, 20% of these funds reach Chechnya - “just a smell.” The rest, Mr. Kadyrov says, remains in Moscow (50%), in Rostov-on-Don, the capital of the Southern Federal District (20%) and in Mozdok (10%).
Yesterday, the new head of the republic hinted that the federal center, which could have solved this problem long ago, is also to blame for the obvious delay in the post-war restoration of Chechnya. Meanwhile, an alternative to federal allocations has become the investments of Chechen entrepreneurs, which Ramzan Kadyrov achieved with the support of the Kremlin, and his own investments, the origin of which is not accepted to be discussed.
According to him, it was possible to overcome “the reluctance and inability to work, the hidden resistance of some bureaucrats and intermediaries associated with them, warming their hands on the troubles of the people.” The first stage of restoration, associated with the establishment of peace, is being replaced by the second - the “mobilization economy”. The “mobilization,” as expected, will be followed by the stage of the new economic policy. The main idea of the acting The president is that the Chechen economy should not be restored, but created anew. In reality, it often turns out that money, out of inertia, is allocated for years to restore charred ruins that cannot be restored. Moreover, in such quantities that nothing can be done with them even with the strong desire of the builders. If restoration is approached rationally, militant bases in the mountains may give way to elite resorts. These wonderful prospects, however, are still lost in the distant and very unclear future.