Forest deja vu

State Council, April 2013. President V. Putin:

" Dear colleagues! We must admit that the huge economic potential of the forestry sector remains unrealized. Its contribution to the country's GDP is constantly declining. Thus, in 2003 it was 2.3 percent, today it is 1.6 percent. At the same time, we have every opportunity to increase here the state's income is several times greater."

State Council, June 2002. President V. Putin:

“Good afternoon, dear colleagues! Today we once again - we have done this more than once - are returning to a very important, sensitive issue for Russia, the issue of forestry. I must say right away that, despite numerous discussions of this problem, we must work out a clear solution, which would make it possible to move the problem forward has not yet been possible. Huge forest resources, without any doubt, are capable of generating a stable and solid income for the state. However, as I already said, this is not happening, and the production of the main types of forest products has not been achieved in recent years. 10 years, despite all our conversations, has been reduced by three times."

Perhaps you can find ten differences and understand what has changed for the better in the forestry industry over the past 10 years. I was unable to find any changes or understand why Russian timber must first be sold cheaply to Finland, and then paper must be bought at high prices from the Finns...

On the other hand, those unfinished skeptics who, in all sorts of enemy echoes for cookies, broadcast that stability is over are wrong. Here it is, stability is obvious: all the same problems in forestry, which the same people talk about in the same words. Why not stability? But they don’t change horses in midstream, they need great upheavals, but we need a great Russia, and if not Putin, then who? So anyone who wants “shocks”—as Kremlin slang means long-overdue changes—can go through the woods.

Here’s more from the transcript of the State Council (April 2013): “The conservation, protection and reproduction of forests is of key importance. I’ll say right away that today we do not have complete and, most importantly, reliable information about either the quantity or quality of forest resources. Such Information is available for only 19 percent of forest areas."

This is also from the transcript of the State Council (June 2002) about the same thing:

“Another problem is the improvement of statistical reporting. The Forest Cadastre in this sense is an objective assessment within the framework of this document of our forest fund. It is extremely necessary. We must clearly know where, how much, and what quality of forest there is in our country. We say a lot, more everyone, but we can’t say exactly what and where exactly.”

There are 10 years left until the next meeting of the State Council on the problems of the forestry industry. The transcript is ready. Never before has the collapse of manual control of the country's economy been so obvious...