What was discussed at the RSPP

Yesterday, presidential candidates Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Prokhorov took part in the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP). Kommersant special correspondent ANDREY KOLESNIKOV analyzes the initiatives of both and comes to an unexpected conclusion: both candidates offer entrepreneurs to fork out for the benefit of their people. At the same time, Vladimir Putin’s scope is much broader, although he has not yet announced the final amount.

Yesterday's 19th Congress of the RSPP was an anniversary one, that is, the organization turned 20 years old. And now, at the age of 21, she lived to see Vladimir Putin fight for his third presidential term. Moreover, one of his most active opponents in these elections, Mikhail Prokhorov, heads one of the committees of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

Mikhail Prokhorov was scheduled to give a report at the congress yesterday. Not all the participants, judging by my conversations with them before the start of the congress, thought that Mikhail Prokhorov would appear at the Ritz Carlton Hotel (that is, even before the start of the event, its organizers gave Vladimir Putin a wonderful opportunity to substantively discuss the topic of the luxury tax with them).

In addition, some time ago, Mikhail Prokhorov, having refused to take part in the work of the government commission on innovation, noted that he should not participate in the events of his political rival.

Moreover, yesterday’s congress of the RSPP should have been considered an event of Vladimir Putin, and not of Alexander Shokhin or Mikhail Prokhorov.

But Mr. Prokhorov nevertheless appeared at the congress and promised Mr. Shokhin to keep within the themes of the work of his committee in the RSPP. However, Mikhail Prokhorov failed to fully control himself.

“If my plans come true,” he told his colleagues, “I will have to move here, closer to the center.” And I hope you will support me.

He was immediately supported - with applause, albeit a relatively long one.

It would still be very strange if a presidential candidate did not use such a platform as the hall at the Ritz Carlton, filled, in theory, with the cream of his electorate (at least to hint at the ambitions of his candidate maximum).

Meanwhile, the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin, responded immediately:

— Mikhail Dmitrievich, just don’t forget that your report at the RSPP is scheduled for June!

In this case, Alexander Shokhin acted rather as a confidant of another presidential candidate, Vladimir Putin.

- I remember! - Mr. Prokhorov answered vaguely.

He did not respond in detail to this hint that the best share prepared for him after the March elections was extended membership in the RUIE bureau, but said that private business, which now owns the majority of enterprises in Russia, has not done another very important thing.

- We gave away a political clearing! - said Mr. Prokhorov. - Meanwhile, there is a demand for a new political force!

Thus, he called on businessmen to go into politics - and first of all, by example. Such calls have not been heard since the times of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who, however, expressed himself even more cautiously on this topic.

Entrepreneurs, as it became clear from the presidential candidate’s report, have something to do in big politics.

— Our business is subject to a powerful corruption tax. The authorities, continued Mikhail Prokhorov, provoke kickbacks, salaries in envelopes, cash...

He spoke about this very confidently. He was, of course, ready to present the facts to anyone who doubted, and he would not have to go far to find them.

Mikhail Prokhorov suggested that officials and their family members have a business (as if it couldn’t be registered in the name of cousins who would only be happy) and reduce insurance fees to 25%.

He explained why this was needed in the first place:

— The main thing is that it will create an educated, conscious person!

The head of the RSPP committee voiced another consideration:

“Since we are reducing taxes... since they are being reduced...” he corrected himself, “then I propose a voluntary social project: 1% of each of us (obviously, members of the RSPP or at least the RUIE bureau - it won’t seem too small either .” . K. ) and send 0.2% of the profits of our companies to this project, to provide targeted assistance to orphanages, hospitals... You can, for example, take 200 boarding schools for gifted children and help them (in fact, this was the same purpose). one of the main humanitarian projects of Mikhail Khodorkovsky is aimed at).

Having finished and returning to his seat, the presidential candidate sat there for several minutes and left the room. Well-wishers immediately began to say that he did not want to collide with Vladimir Putin under any circumstances. In fact, Mikhail Prokhorov had a pre-scheduled filming of the debates on Channel One, so the day before he asked that his report be one of the first to be shown at the congress.

Meanwhile, Mikhail Prokhorov’s remark about the production need to return the “political clearing” was considered necessary by the head of VTB Andrei Kostin, who, by the way, recalled that playing politics for business does not end well, that is, it does not lead to good: entrepreneur Savva Morozov supported the Bolsheviks , and then committed suicide in the favorite city of today's Russians, Nice (read Courchevel - A.K. ).

True, Mikhail Prokhorov was no longer in the hall at that moment. And he went, as we now know, not to Nice or Courchevel and not to have lunch, for example, with Boris Nemtsov, but to Ostankino, which is not loved by Russians, to work.

The speech of Vladimir Putin, who arrived at the Ritz Carlton an hour and a half later, was much longer than that of Mikhail Prokhorov. There were a few surprises in it. Firstly, the prime minister proposed shortening the New Year holidays:

“Of course, they are protracted, New Year’s, and it would be entirely possible to limit all these Christmas holidays to, say, exactly January 7, Christmas. And everything that accumulates further should be postponed, say, to May! What do people want!.. (And not him, Vladimir Putin. - A.K. )

He explained what he meant:

— As a rule, weekends fall into this period of time, they are added to general holidays, it turns out 10-11 days. Apparently, it’s already a bit difficult for your health... It’s just a distraction, I wasn’t even going to talk about it...

And it seems like he was going to, and how. At least, they haven’t talked about anything else other than this since the RSPP congress (and mostly not about shortening the New Year holidays, but about lengthening the May holidays: this is to the people’s heart).

But they don’t say it in vain. For there was still a lot of instructive stuff at the congress.

The Prime Minister once again recalled the 90s (now, it seems, not a single one of his public speeches can be avoided) and the “simple division of the state pie.” It turned out that Vladimir Putin, together with businessmen, will have to “turn this page too....”

“I spoke with Grigory Alekseevich Yavlinsky about this, he is right here, I agree with him, we need to end this period,” the prime minister continued.

It was, of course, interesting why Vladimir Putin suddenly needed the authoritative voice of Mr. Yavlinsky for once.

“Different options are being proposed...” The prime minister was in no hurry to decipher his new initiative. “Of course, we need to discuss this with society... with the expert community... but in such a way that society actually accepts these options for solving the problems of the 1990s: dishonest, frankly speaking, privatization, all sorts of auctions. This should be either a one-time contribution or something else, but we need to think about it together with you.

No murmur was heard in the hall. He remained in the souls and hearts of these people. The words about a “one-time contribution”, of course, made a strong impression on them. Maybe they, of course, were still uneasy at the thought that at any moment they would come to them for this contribution. And in this sense, they might really be happy to give it away in order, as Vladimir Putin said, to solve problems (including non-existent ones, at least for now, for any of those sitting in the hall). But none of them can ever be convinced that this one-time payment is the first and the last.

Moreover, if Mikhail Prokhorov invited them to voluntarily hand over 1% of their own income and 0.2% of the enterprise’s profit, then Vladimir Putin wisely did not even name the figures. In any case, they won’t get by with one percent.

Meanwhile, the prime minister did not stop there and moved on to the luxury tax. This was a question that also concerned any of those sitting in the hall (including the absent Mikhail Prokhorov).

“It should become a kind of publicly recognized payment for the refusal of investment in development in favor of overconsumption and vanity,” Vladimir Putin formulated. “... But I would like to say this: this tax on wealth, so to speak, of course, is not fiscal in nature. The fiscal significance of this measure is minimal. This is most likely a moral and ethical norm.

It wasn't very clear. Money is money, and moral and ethical standards are moral and ethical standards.

In addition, the prime minister assured that the measure will not affect those who, in his view, are the middle class.

Meanwhile, two weeks ago, in one of his speeches, the prime minister formulated who, in his opinion, is a typical representative of the middle class: this is a person with an income of 30 thousand rubles, who has an apartment and a car.

Thus, everyone else (income more than 30 thousand or two cars instead of one) will be affected by the luxury tax.

And here the only hope is for the good will of Mr. Putin, who may himself be surprised at the number of people floundering in the luxury tax net and raise its threshold to a reasonable level - that is, to the level, for example, of members of the RUIE bureau.

Moreover, what Vladimir Putin said just now could not be called election rhetoric. He voiced unpopular measures - but they were unpopular only among those who were now sitting in the Ritz Carlton hall. Those who will vote for Vladimir Putin are already happy. Many of them, however, do not yet understand that he may have been talking about them too.

However, the prime minister alternated carrots and sticks. He announced the details of the repurchase of VTB shares - at 13.6 kopecks per share, that is, at the initial offering price. More than a hundred thousand people will breathe a sigh of relief. All this should happen before May 1, 2012, that is, by the holidays (more precisely, by the inauguration).

Unexpectedly, the prime minister acknowledged his own helplessness. He talked about the problem of building permits.

“Here Russia,” noted Vladimir Putin, “is in one of the last places in the global competitiveness ratings; unfortunately, there is still no unified procedure for the approval and implementation of investment projects in construction. That's how many times we talked and talked... And gave instructions. Still missing!

And he again proposed to radically simplify the mechanisms for obtaining the necessary documentation in construction.

The head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin, mentioned in his report the idea of a commissioner for business rights. The idea, strictly speaking, was not his, but Alexander Shokhin had comments on it:

“I’m afraid that such an ombudsman for children’s rights might become...

He was in vain to say this, because if the Commissioner for the Rights of Businessmen worked like this, his colleague for the rights of children, business could, I dare say, relax.

“We need,” said the prime minister, “for this to be a person who can feel confident in government structures... So that he can work effectively.”

“Today Elvira Nabiullina (Minister of Economic Development of Russia - A.K. ) admitted that she began her career at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs,” Alexander Shokhin said joyfully. “We can offer her for this position!”

“Let’s say,” the prime minister shrugged. “It’s just that when it comes to working with your and our foreign colleagues, Shuvalov performs this function... But if it’s a person not connected with the government at all, I don’t care either.” I'm against it.

Then Alexander Shokhin said that this could be a person associated with the Kremlin (taking into account the immediate political prospects of Vladimir Putin - A.K. ).

The Prime Minister laughed:

- In the Kremlin, only a person who, however, has already left the hall can get an office. He can do it!

It is interesting that the more fiercely Mikhail Prokhorov criticizes Vladimir Putin, the warmer he speaks of him. Perhaps Vladimir Putin wants to show in this way the great distance between them, the distance that allows him to be so generous. Or maybe there are other reasons.

During the speech of Alexey Mordashov, a member of the RUIE bureau, the prime minister managed to praise the metallurgists.

- Here are the metallurgists! - he said. - I have been to some enterprises. There is just a feeling of pride for the people who work there! And immediately, when you visit such enterprises, all doubts about the success of Russia disappear in one second!

Before that, they were apparently still present. And then, when the prime minister leaves the metallurgical enterprise, where “people in white coats walk around,” they appear again.

During a speech by the head of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant, Viktor Rashnikov, the prime minister suddenly returned to the topic of the luxury tax. By this time, the monotonous speech of Mr. Rashnikov, who was not accustomed to publicity, led to the fact that they began to clap for him, preventing him from speaking. The prime minister stood up for him.

- This man was standing at the blast furnace! He'll finish anyway!

“Guys,” Mr. Rashnikov pleaded, addressing the audience, “well, my topic is what you want!”

Judging by the laughter that rang out, after this confession they were ready to listen to Mr. Rashnikov for the rest of the day. But the prime minister interrupted him:

--Viktor Filippovich, how do you feel about the luxury tax?

The question was, without exaggeration, cruel to the 11th number on the Russian Forbes list.

- Vladimir Vladimirovich! - Mr. Rashnikov looked pleadingly at the Prime Minister. “You just voiced it.... We need to digest it now, see...

The hall went wild. There were no indifferent people. Everyone probably now imagined themselves in the place of Viktor Rashnikov on stage and thanked God and Vladimir Putin that it was not him.

“But if this time has come, then...” Viktor Rashnikov finally exhaled.

To the groans of those who could no longer laugh, applause rang out in the hall. He, Viktor Rashnikov, went through this too. These are the kind of people, metallurgists. They stood by the stove.

“Okay,” Vladimir Putin told him. - Thank you, the answer is good.

It seems that the time has indeed come.

Time to choose and time to pay.

Andrey Kolesnikov

Vladimir Putin met with the richest