Three glances at one country

The International Economic Forum ended in St. Petersburg

In St. Petersburg, another-14th in a row-the International Economic Forum. He gathered almost 2.5 thousand representatives of “political, economic and business elites” in the city on the Neva (as said in the greeting of the forum organizers). The “elite” detachment, landing in the LenExpo building,, however, was not the most numerous of those who flooded the City on the Neva into the weekend. A detachment of police and fighters of the internal troops, of which was pulled from different regions to St. Petersburg as much as 11,600 (according to the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Mikhail Sukhodolsky) turned out to be much larger. Thus, almost five guards accounted for each representative of the “elite”. They say that they were looking for terrorists, extremists and anti -globalists, but at the time of signing the number to print, it is only known that they detained five representatives of the United Civil Front, who tried to distribute the forum of the forum Boris Nemtsov “Putin. Results ".

This year, police officers installed their cordons within the radius of three quarters around LenExpo. As one St. Petersburg colleague living on Opochinin Street said in a house literally opposite LenExpo, his family members can come home and leave the house only by presenting a passport as much as three posts of policemen, including those who are constantly on duty at the entrance. In the quarter, a grocery store was closed, the other after a few streets, and the passage there is also a passport.

Meanwhile, representatives of the "elite" in all ways assessed the prospects for the exit of the Russian economy from the crisis. Their assessments diverged so much that the doubt could have arisen in the present - whether respected speakers speak of one country? President Medvedev in his speech was rarely optimistic. According to him, Russia is preparing to become a co -founder of the new world financial order, Moscow should become a world financial center, Skolkovo - the second homeland for innovators around the world, a ruble - one of the world reserve currencies. At the same time, the president is quite satisfied with the current macroeconomic situation. The economy, he said, increased by 4% in five months, deposits of individuals - by a quarter per year, gold and foreign exchange reserves exceeded the pre -crisis level ($ 460 billion), and inflation in the annual calculation is the lowest in 20 years - 6%. This picture was very different from the one that Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin painted in his speech. He talked about the things of very disturbing - for example, about a sharp drop in GDP in the country. According to Kudrin, in 2010, GDP in the country is 21% lower than it should be according to long -term government programs, approved before the crisis. And this is evidence of the depth of the fall of the domestic economy - as well as the calculation of the federal budget deficit given by Kudrin, if it is cleaned of the oil factor (super -planned revenues from a favorable conjuncture). In this case, the hole in the budget of this year will no longer be 5.4%, as the government plans, but 13.5% of GDP.

And finally, business gave his assessment of the economic situation in the country. Most of all, it was formulated by the head of Rusnano Anatoly Chubais. “It is obvious that the process of getting out of the crisis will be very long and difficult,” he said. - This process is not far from completed, and it does not even happen with the letter W, as the pessimists were afraid a year ago, but according to the symbol, well -known users of the Internet - www. " So, judging by performances at the forum, President Medvedev leads one country, Minister Kudrin runs the finances of another country, and the innovator Chubais builds his business in the third - although this country is called one name.