Translated material
Unpreparedness number one
The story of the “unexpected” rise in food prices has become the quintessence of the flawed nature of the current system of power. Demand for grain began to grow sharply in February, for sunflower oil - in the spring. But only in October “suddenly” the rise in food prices for several months in a row began to be recognized by the state machine as a problem. At the same time, the method of explaining all internal problems exclusively by external factors or the machinations of enemies, which has proven itself as powder for the brains of the population, is actively used in the case of a sharp rise in prices for basic food products. As if people feel better about the fact that pasta or bread have become more expensive due to the sharp increase in the production of biofuels from grain in “damned America” and the alleged failures of the food policy of the reformers of the 90s (version of the Minister of Agriculture Alexei Gordeev).
Again, the Russian authorities, embedded in this very vertical of power, are focused on telling their superiors only pleasant things, and not reporting the real state of affairs. Only Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and ex-Minister of Economic Development German Gref allowed themselves at least some cautious criticism of the economic situation in Russia in the governments of Putin’s second term. The same Minister of Agriculture Alexey Gordeev, for example, invariably bravuraly reported to the head of state that food prices were under control and that everything was going as it should. And, of course, the notorious “external factors” are to blame for everything.
There is no doubt that the current situation, when the rise in prices in Russia is superimposed on the liquidity crisis in banks, which, on the one hand, forces the monetary authorities to tie up “extra money”, and on the other, to pump it into banks so that we don’t have August again 1998, is difficult for any state. But the Russian government has completely forgotten how to respond to crises. Or even at least see them on time.
Oil on the world market has been rising in price throughout the 21st century, filling our treasury with almost free windfalls. The artificially created banking crisis of the state itself in the summer of 2004 (by the way, not without the participation of Viktor Zubkov, who suddenly started talking about blacklists of unreliable banks and thereby provoked panic in the financial markets) was only dealt with by an emergency two-fold reduction in the required reserve ratio of banks. The half-hearted and ill-conceived monetization of benefits, which caused protest demonstrations throughout the country with the participation of more than 1 million elderly people (according to the federal authorities themselves), was extinguished through emergency “firefighting” with additional budgetary financial flows. The crisis in the system of additional drug provision has not yet been resolved.
Faced with a sharp rise in food prices on the eve of two federal election campaigns, the results of which are being tried to be predetermined in the corridors of power, this very government must finally demonstrate its ability to act not only in its own commercial or political interests. And what do we see?
The deputies, who unconditionally support all the actions of the government and especially the president, who criticized only those ministers who were the highest permitted to criticize, propose regulating prices by directive. And for this reason we are ready to urgently pass a law on food security. The word “security” in a country ruled by state security has completely replaced any reasonable actions of the authorities. First Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, United Russia member Oleg Morozov, innocently admits on the main state TV channel that the party in power will ask leading business organizations like the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and Business Russia to talk to entrepreneurs about artificially freezing prices. State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov tells horror stories about “conspiracies” of chain stores. The president acknowledges the “collusion” of traders with local authorities, but does not admit, for example, that one of the destabilizing factors was his own decision to expel foreign traders from the markets.
A market economy is not about taking over someone else's business with the help of temporarily acquired power. It is objective and cruel, its laws do not recognize PR and attempts to deceive human nature. The current government has been incredibly lucky: until now, precisely because of those same external factors and as a result of the unpopular, but only necessary basic economic measures that we had to take at the beginning of Yeltsin’s rule, we have avoided real crises. But the luck cannot be endless.
And therefore, the Russian power elite, which would like to preserve the current political regime for as long as possible, will still have to learn to do their immediate work - to effectively govern the country in any situation. Otherwise, the collapse of power is inevitable, no matter how “vertical” it may be.