Translated material
"Thank you, Alexey Leonidovich"
The Prime Minister allowed Alexei Kudrin to protect the stabilization fund
Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov seems to have decided to entrust the conduct of direct dialogue with business to his closest subordinates from the macroeconomic bloc. Until now, extremely decisive and harsh in his public speeches, Mr. Zubkov actually went into the shadow of representatives of the macroeconomic bloc of the government at the Council on Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship held on Friday. The Prime Minister prefaced his first conversation with big business after his appointment extremely simply: “Today we need to speak out.”According to the Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina, the purpose of the council meeting is to “consider the development of development institutions.” And she herself smiled at the forced tautology. Having outlined the structure of such institutions, the country's new chief economist moved on to the problems. There were five of them, where the simplest was the undercapitalization of development institutions. In addition to the lack of money, there is no certainty in tasks, no control, no transparency, no coordination. And most importantly, there is no decision-making mechanism.
With regard to financial stability, they acted simply - they decided, as the president demanded in his message, to increase capitalization. Development Bank - by 180 billion rubles, investment fund - by 90 billion, Housing and Communal Services Fund - by 240 billion, Nanotechnology Corporation - by 130 billion rubles. But Ms. Nabiullina proposed to fight substantive problems, the risks of unfair competition and the danger of corruption in the only way known to her - publicity and independent audit.
“It was probably somehow calculated,” the prime minister asked, “how much private investment is attracted for one ruble of state support?” “I can answer about the investment fund. 3--4 rubles will be raised per ruble. So we’ll calculate the effect,” Mr. Kudrin promised.
Entrepreneurs, as it became clear from their speeches, were not too worried about development institutions. Each had their own more mundane interests. One of those present asked Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to recapitalize Rosselkhozbank not next year, but this year. He agreed to issue 5.7 billion rubles, but on one condition: that the bank would take this money “from ministries that do not choose budget funds.”
The head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Yevgeny Primakov, wanted to catch government macroeconomists, especially the Ministry of Finance, in a lie: “Out of ten development institutions, you financed only five from the national welfare fund. This is a complete failure to comply with the president’s instructions!” Mr. Kudrin explained that five other institutes, which, according to Mr. Primakov, had a “zero” rating, were funded in the first half of the year. The Prime Minister immediately reacted and asked the Minister of Finance to “specify the money more precisely so that no one has any doubts.”
But at this moment it finally became clear that development institutions are only an excuse for council members to talk about painful issues. About His Majesty's Stabilization Fund. Yevgeny Primakov formulated, in essence, no alternative. “How to spend funds received from oil and gas?! Today 10% goes to the reserve fund. So let them prove this necessity to us!” - He cast an unkind glance towards Mr. Kudrin.
“I will take the floor right away!” - the country's chief financier bluntly suggested. And he took it. “We would not have been able to withstand the current financial crisis five years ago. Only thanks to the stabilization fund we are not afraid of the situation if our entire oil and gas sector receives less than half of its revenue. And we are not afraid of capital outflow from Russia, whatever it may be. Even if 30-50 billion dollars go away. The Stabilization Fund and gold and foreign exchange reserves are insurance for the complete freedom of Russian enterprises in any market. We have ensured the stability of the Russian economy for the long term!” - the head of the Ministry of Finance concluded his monologue victoriously. “This was another report from Alexey Leonidovich. Good,” the prime minister rejoiced at the persuasiveness of his deputy.
But if business representatives thought about their funds, then Mr. Primakov and the academicians did not want to come to terms with the inviolability of the stabilization or, as it is now called, reserve fund. Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician Alexander Nekipelov, although not as aggressive as the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, still very persistently tried to open the bottle. “The country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves have exceeded the optimal level and are operating in the red today. Question: is there a correct mechanism for using these reserves?” - he addressed the council members. And he put forward an idea: to create a certain institution using the “surplus”, which will lend to our business for the purchase of imported equipment that is not produced in the country. And he immediately prefaced Mr. Kudrin’s remark: “This cannot have any impact on inflation in Russia!”
The chief financier was about to turn on the microphone, but the prime minister beat him to it: “Oh. I think now there will be Alexei Leonidovich’s third report. And we won’t be able to stand it. He can do this for about forty minutes, just short. I know.”
Then he added: “Today, both in the kitchen and in the bathhouse they are discussing the stabilization fund. Alexey Leonidovich, thank you! Everyone has been answered!” “We must act in such a way that resources do not dissolve, are not smeared, but work effectively,” the prime minister concluded. But he didn’t say exactly what to do.