Girl with peaches and grandmother with kuraga

Kaliningrad region without a special status - is a showcase of Russia in Europe or a horror story with Iskanders?

April 1 ceased to exist the status of a "special economic zone" for the Kaliningrad region. What will replace him is not yet clear. Two options are discussed-the status of "territory of ahead of socio-economic development (TOR)" and the idea to make the Kaliningrad region a "free port". Radio Freedom found out from the Kaliningrad politician and a deputy of the regional Duma, which is hiding behind these terms and whether the Russian exclusive in Europe will be able to survive in the new conditions.

According to official information in the "distant development territories" there is a free customs zone regime, but imported products imported without paying duties, as well as goods produced using imported components, can only be used inside this territory. The de facto in Kaliningrad has already the case-for example, in the 90s, residents of the region were exempted from paying duties for the import of cars from Europe, however, it was forbidden to operate them outside the region. In addition, the residents of the Thor are exempted from land tax and property tax. To become a resident, it is necessary to invest not 150 million rubles, as in a special economic zone, but 50 million. The second support mechanism, which is proposed to apply in KO, is the creation of a free port on the territory of the Enclave (a set of benefits has not yet been disclosed). The timing of the functioning of the Thor and the Free Port is up to 70 years.

Solomon Ginzburg

According to the Kaliningrad politician and deputy of the Kaliningrad Regional Duma of Solomon Ginzburg , back in February of this year, he transferred the legislative initiative "On the status of the Kaliningrad region" to the governor of the region Nikolai Tsukanov, and in March handed the same document to the business ombudsman Boris Titov. Ginzburg claims that no legislative framework for the creation of a free port in the Kaliningrad region is currently developed. The business ombudsman Titov during his visit to the region stated that it should become a visa-free zone: the region should have a special status, and not for 20 years, not for 50 years, but on an ongoing basis, urgently makes sense to solve the issue of visa-free for residents of Co., ”Titov said. Solomon Ginzburg, however, received no answer to his appeal. The deputy spoke about the problems of the Kaliningrad region in an interview with Radio Liberty:

- The Thor mechanism was supposed to begin its effect on April 1. Something in reality is happening or so far everything happens on the papers?

- This law, in my opinion, is not just not working, it will not even reach its logical conclusion, will not be submitted as a bill at the Federal Assembly. Dmitry Medvedev came here at the end of February, but he was not here as a prime minister, but as a leader of the United Russia party. They have a project to visit all of Russia from Kaliningrad to Sakhalin, but there was nothing besides high -profile statements.

- That is, in fact within the framework of the election campaign?

- This was the election campaign, everyone understood this perfectly, and it was not particularly hidden. I can imagine what it means to create the laws of the Kaliningrad region. Because, working in the first composition of our government, together with Yuri Matochkin, it was then possible to achieve the law on the special economic zone in the Kaliningrad region, which entered into force on January 31, 1996 and made it possible to create a middle class, which allowed not only to survive, but also to develop small and medium -sized businesses. It was a response to a challenge related to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now is a completely different geopolitical and geo -economic situation. Therefore, no Torah will roll here. We need a very simple, understandable, preferably constitutional, that is, stipulated by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Federal Law on the special legal status of the Kaliningrad region, in other words, the issue of status, the relationship of rights and obligations. My associates and I prepared such a version and handed over to Nikolai Tsukanov on the eve of the visit of Dmitry Medvedev.

-Some kind of reaction was to what you handed over?

Our vertical is not worth

- In fact, we have already passed it a lot, since 2011. I reported on the problem at a meeting of the socio-political council under the governor, but it is more comfortable to just imitate concern and do nothing. Because if you lobby, insist in the absence of federalism on respect for the interests of the territory, you can fall out of favor. Given that our vertical is not worth it, given that the federalism of the Russian Federation is in a semi -domestic state, the heads of the constituent entities of the Federation, not only Nikolai Tsukanov, do not raise the question of the interests of their territory at the forefront. The idea that Burykin and Zhukov promoted were launched from above, these are our current deputies who do not even want to report in five years of work that they have done for Kaliningrad in the State Duma - the idea of modernizing the law on a special economic zone, and we will discuss this idea. But this is complete nonsense when, for example, investment thresholds are reduced from 150 to 50 million rubles. They hoped that residents of a special economic zone would bloom here in violent color, that everyone would pour into the region to invest in the region. No, of course. Here we need the rules of the game that meets our geo -economic, geopolitical position. We need an intelligible development strategy for the region that would be approved, say, at a meeting of the Russian Security Council, so that, finally, the federal center determines who we are - a tankide, an unsinkable aircraft carrier or a region of cooperation, a bridge that connects Europe and the Russian Federation. In my opinion, the mission of Kaliningrad is obvious - to adequately represent Russia in Western Europe, because Russia, without a doubt, is Christian civilization. But the actions of the federal center, when it is said simultaneously about the liberalization of the economy and about the Iskander is like giving the patient, excuse me, sleeping, sleeping pills at the same time, and it is clear what comes as a result ...

- That is, the idea of a free port in which you are now seen by a kind of fantasy?

- The phantom rattle, which without the law on the status of the region, will not work about the special legal status of the Kaliningrad region.

- To create a free port, integration with the West is needed, because the port is an open thing.

Good neighborhood for us is evidence, we cannot develop, being in confrontation with Poland and Lithuania, I'm not talking about the whole European Union

- Absolutely correct. And the idea of Hong Kong is good, and the idea of Singapore, there are many good ideas. If I will be registered with a candidate for the State Duma, if this happens because the elections in Russia are permissive, I will definitely do this to the head, core, nail part of my program, I will promote the draft law, where in addition to economic innovations, institutional things should also be kept, the regional management procedure should change. For example, the governor should act as a special representative of the head of state in interaction with the European Union. Because good neighborliness for us is evidence, we cannot develop, being in confrontation with Poland and Lithuania, I'm not talking about the entire European Union.

- But the rollback in relations with neighboring states has already occurred.

- This is sad, but you can correct the situation. Because the euro, and a zloty, and the ruble vote for cooperation. The Kaliningrad economy suffered very seriously when on August 6, 2014 the regime of the so -called counter -sanctions was introduced. We imposed sanctions against ourselves, creating a situation of unemployment. For example, thousands of people who were busy in the processing of Norwegian salmon were without work after the ban on its import. So, such institutional things as a change in the management procedure, visa -free entry into the territory of KOs should fall into this law in order to increase its investment attractiveness.

Russian-Polish border

-I regularly read that a visa-free entry is about to be introduced, but so far we are talking about three days for foreign citizens.

This is a demagogy, a demonstration of concern that it is not today tomorrow the federal center will make everyone happy. The impulse should go from below

- Yes, we have achieved the border movement mode, but this is a pipeline, drip method, a capillary solution to the problem. Here you need to go to asymmetric, or as diplomats say, disimetric decisions, amended the law of August 18, 1996. This law is 20 years old, it is called "on the entrance and departure to the territory of the Russian Federation." We have already developed these amendments. It is very easy - if the State Duma makes such a decision from the submission of the government and the president - to organize a visa -free entry here, and at the same time try how this mechanism will work and whether it is extrapolated, distribute it to the entire territory of the Russian Federation. It is clear that such powerful, large formations as Russia, the EU, will not go to a visa -free regime at once.

- That is, you believe that it is easier to run into such a situation in the enclave?

- Undoubtedly. This is an experimental site, and in two years it would be possible to draw the appropriate conclusions, which is more - pluses or minuses. We are convinced that there would be more advantages.

“But so far everything is stomping in place?”

- Yes. This is a demagogy, a demonstration of concern that it is not today tomorrow the federal center will make everyone happy. The impulse should go from below. The government of our region should not live on the principle of "the day has passed, and okay." Look: they are now recruiting their officials to the State Duma, from here the candidacy of Alexei Silanov appeared, who, perhaps, is a good person-this is the first deputy prime minister of the Government of the Kaliningrad Region, but he appeared in order to block the road to the representative of the opposition, who will seriously pose problems of the development of the Kaliningrad region. That is, they recruit an official to the State Duma, who will rely not on the support of the people, but on a powerful administrative and state resource, and who will represent the interests of the governor, the interests of their corporate government clan, and not the interests of most residents of KO.

-If we have already talked about the economy and development of the Kaliningrad region, maybe these are private issues, but it seems to me that somewhere they are international. How does the situation develop with investors who are not paid for the stage of the stage? In March, the general contractor for the construction of the theater in Svetlogorsk, the BaltiTlitstroy company sued the court for 162 million rubles. This was recently talked about by the Ambassador of Lithuania. Is something positive in this direction?

I wanted to promote the interests of our region from the point of view of its investment attractiveness, but I had to answer Belarusians, Poles, Germans, Spaniards to questions regarding the non -fulfillment of the contractual obligation by the executive branch of the region

- At the end of March, Boris Titov was with a working visit here, he acted not only as an Ombudsman on business issues, but also as the head of the new party, which appeared on March 26 in Moscow, the growth party. The other day, a collegium was supposed to take place at the General Prosecutor's Office, where the situation with BaltiTlitstro will be considered because this situation is inaccurately beaten not only on the image of the Kaliningrad region, but also for the investment attractiveness of the whole of Russia. This fundamentally diverges with those theses that sound from the mouth from Alexei Ulyukaev and Dmitry Medvedev. They say that in the conditions of our complex and difficult relationships with the West, it is necessary to find opportunities to attract investments here. Of course, this is a completely egregious case that lays a shameful spot as an ink blot on the image of our region. I just returned from the European Forum, which was held in Krakow, made a report there on the topic "Kaliningrad region as a product". I wanted to promote the interests of our region from the point of view of its investment attractiveness, from the point of view of its brand, from the point of view of his face, and not impersonal. But I had to answer the Belarusians, Poles, Germans, Spaniards who were present at this conference, to questions regarding the non -fulfillment of contractual obligations by the executive branch of the region.

- As I understand it, there is also an outflow of capital, that is, not only Kaliningraders are sitting in anticipation that powerful investors will come now, active construction will begin, and workplaces are needed. But there was an outflow, some companies left the market, some balancing on the verge. Suppose the same paper processors - they are completely dependent on Lithuania, they have been on the verge of profitability for six months. And we are talking not only about the businessmen who will leave, we are talking about specific people who work in these industries. There is a social problem, not only economic, because a social comes for an economic problem.

If you look at the power structure of Kaliningraders over the past three years, it is negative. If you look at diseases in the territory of CO, then the number of cancer patients is growing

- A girl with peaches gradually turns into a grandmother with dried apricots. Time goes on, does not go - it leaves, investments are coming past us. Because even in conditions of not very favorable from an international point of view there are possibilities here, in an exclav, to attract money. And this is the creation of jobs, it is a stabilization of the standard of living. The standard of living falls, the quality of life is deteriorating. If you look at the power structure of Kaliningraders over the past three years, it is negative. If you look at the diseases in the territory of Co., then, unfortunately, the number of cancer patients is growing. This is largely due to a very large landfill of household waste in the village of Kosmodemyansk on the outskirts of Kaliningrad. This training ground was supposed to be closed a few years ago. This is a landfill that has existed for 35 years.

-There are some samples, there is some confirmation that such a connection between a landfill and health problems exists, ecologists talk about this?

- Undoubtedly. The landfill is located on the territory of my constituency. Thank God, we have a sane minister of ecology in the regional government, perhaps the only non -partisan who is the Minister. We are now achieving money with him from the federal center for reclamation of landfills. Because it is a bomb of a slow action. Both the garbage processing plants, and treatment facilities, and many other tasks could be solved, if not for our short -sighted investment policy, associated not with attraction, but with repulsing investors from us.

- The Ecological Program is also claimed by the Preparation Party. They actively say that the agenda is a solution to environmental problems.

-I think that after all, their main mission is the exposure of the “fifth column”. Their local leader is the former head of the “Nashists” in the Kaliningrad region, and the “Homeland” is a spoiler of “United Russia” because it is founded by Rogozin, which is the deputy prime minister of the government. Alexey Zhuravlev, the official chairman of this party, is part of the United Russia faction.

- That is, you have doubts that they will deal with real environmental problems?

- I am simply convinced that this is such a one -time project, associated with shaking people, exploiting the pseudo -Patriotic theme, so that these voices do not leave opposition parties, namely, to be absorbed in the "homeland". It is like activated carbon - the Parent Party, which will sooner or later be bred.

- Probably one of the painful moments in the Kaliningrad region is a criminal situation. It cannot be said that in the field of criminogenicity is higher compared to Russia as a whole, but if we talk about some things related to the opposition, then, probably, yes, there is something to worry about. In 2014, an attack on activists of the world march was committed, people were beaten and doused with green. Then there was an attack on the forum of Orwell and Kafka . Moreover, the most piquant in this situation is that the attack was committed during the speech of a member of the Presidential Council on the Rights of the Russian Federation. All paths lead to the Baltic Cossacks, there is, in particular, such a person Maxim Bug, the chieftain, who is in a friendly company "Dolphin". Judging by what the people who live there say and write about him, he not only terrorizes this partnership, but he sells the earth there, he beat a man who tried to find out where the money went to gasify the village and so on. The most interesting thing is that in the region a good police and the disclosure of crimes is quite high, but as soon as the case comes about the beating of the picket and throwing green, there are no people guilty of all these attacks. The last example is the attack on the journalist and deputy Igor Rudnikov. He wrote about the ataman, it is known that the chieftain threatened, the specific people who threatened him are known. Nevertheless, nothing changes.

– Я знаю действительно достойных атаманов казачества – это Владимир Соколов, это воин-интернационалист Валерий Баслык, их организации вне политики, вне партий. С господином, которого вы упомянули, я не имею чести быть знакомым, хотя он существует, и более того, он недавно был введен губернатором в состав его общественно-политического совета, как я узнал из документов. Правда, совет не собирается, но, тем не менее, он стал членом совета при губернаторе. Я ставил этот вопрос неоднократно не только в средствах информации, не только в депутатских запросах, но и совсем недавно, в конце марта, когда перед нами отчитывался Евгений Мартынов, глава калининградской полиции, с моей точки зрения, крепкий и порядочный профессионал, находящийся вне партии и вне политики, – по поводу нападения на Балтийской косе в августе прошлого года, и по поводу нападения в сентябре 2014 года, и по поводу ситуации в Светлогорске, и по поводу политической коррупции в целом у нас в регионе. У меня такое ощущение, если это так, и казаки, о которых вы говорите, или те, кто прикрывается казачеством, имеют к таким экстремистским действиям отношение, то они действуют, очевидно, под "крышей" для того, чтобы апробировать механизм неких черносотенных отрядов на Балтике, дабы иметь зондеркоманды, готовые выполнить указание "партии и правительства" в любой момент для того, чтобы пресечь или запугать какие-то действия, которые могли бы представлять угрозу для правящего клана. Я надеюсь, что все-таки от этого будет зависеть карьера местных полицейских руководителей и все эти преступления будут раскрыты.

Фасад на улице Образцова в Калининграде

– Когда приходят люди и говорят, что "нас много, мы вернемся и всех вас ночью сожжем, так что готовьтесь", после этого становится страшно. Когда кидают 5-литровые бутылки с водой, то это не совсем смешно. При этом нападавшие совершенно не понимают, что происходит вокруг них и что они сами делают, они видят портреты Кафки, Оруэлла и говорят: "Кто это? Это ваши американские наймиты?". С одной стороны, это комично, с другой стороны, понимаешь, что удар 5-литровой бутылкой по голове – это 5 килограмм веса, и очевидно, что это запугивание.

Любое инакомыслие ставилось под сомнение, и мракобесы, которые действовали под крышей власти, становились той силой, с помощью которой потом дымили печи Освенцима, Дахау

– Что касается почерка, о котором вы говорите, я почему-то сейчас вспоминал события середины 30-х годов, Нюрнберг, Дрезден, когда после победы Адольфа Гитлера на выборах в 1933 году очень часто нападениям со стороны штурмовиков подвергались не политические мероприятия, а разного рода коллоквиумы, семинары, дискуссии, когда просто обсуждалась та или иная философская, культурная проблематика, вопросы, связанные с перспективами медицины. Потому что любое инакомыслие ставилось под сомнение, и мракобесы, которые действовали под крышей власти, становились той силой, с помощью которой потом дымили печи Освенцима, Дахау. Это страшно, когда государство закрывает глаза на подобное проявление экстремизма, который может перерасти в нацизм. Я думаю, что такие неправовые вещи должны давиться в зародыше, потому мы являемся витриной, мы являемся индикатором тех процессов, которые происходят и в Москве, и в Красноярске, и в Петербурге, и в Новосибирске. Конечно, это бьет по нашему будущему.

– С другой стороны, люди должны понимать, что никто не будет отстаивать их личные интересы. Есть какие-то общие интересы, например, та же онкология, о которой вы говорили, ведь это может коснуться абсолютно каждого. Строительство онкологического центра затягивается – все говорят о том, что выделят деньги, но пока как во всем. Я смотрю истории болезней – это 17 лет, 18 лет, 20 лет. У людей выученная беспомощность, есть такой термин в психологии. Это проблема очень многих вообще в стране и, в частности, калининградцев.

– Насчет выученной беспомощности – это очень правильно и сильно сказано. Потому что политика, которую проводит нынешнее руководство, направлена на то, чтобы если выборы, то с определенным предсказуемым результатом. Ведь демократия – это жесткая процедура с непредсказуемым результатом. А у нас – мы же знаем, кто у нас в 2018 году будет президентом. Нынешние политтехнологи, – мы собираем эту фактуру для того, чтобы передать в случае необходимости в Генеральную прокуратуру России и в Следственный комитет Российской Федерации, – прогнозируют и уже с высокой долей уверенности говорят, кто будет депутатами в Государственную Думу, отчитываясь перед федеральным руководством партии. Но я думаю, что легкой прогулки за мандатами не получится, хотя вся политика направлена на то, чтобы показать, что от меня ничего не зависит, что все предопределено, что против политического лома нет приема, что административный и государственный ресурс сильнее, чем гражданская солидарность. Но думаю, что Калининград, как это было в 2009-10 году, станет, пожалуй, первым регионом в России, где адепты подобной политики сломают себе зубы.