From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 6/21/2007 10:24 PM
© Akhmedkhanov
15/06/2007 | Moscow News,№23 2007
Ingushetia President Murat Zyazikov: Peaceful Caucasus is Key to Strong Russia
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Two weeks ago, Vladimir Putin held yet another meeting with Murat Zyazikov, the president of Ingushetia, the smallest republic in the North Caucasus. Analysts point out that the Russian head of state meets with Zyazikov more often than with leaders of any other republic or Federation member in South Russia. What is the reason for this?
Zyazikov explains in an interview with MN's Tatyana Gantimurova and Bakhtiyar Akhmedkhanov.
MN: According to some reports, Vladimir Putin called you to account over unemployment related problems in your republic. Is that true?
Zyazikov: Unemployment was one of the problems that we discussed during our meeting. It is still rather high in our republic. But the positive dynamics are unmistakable. Official unemployment has declined, and the situation will continue to get better.
Over the past four years, the number of small enterprises has increased by more than 500 percent. Do you know what the average wage in the republic used to be? Just 1,187 rubles [$40]. Over the past four years that has grown by 200 percent, whilst the proportion of people earning less than subsistence levels has declined by 30 percent.
MN: So you relate this to an increase in the number of small enterprises and the creation of new jobs?
Zyazikov: You know, our people do not work in Chechnya or Vladikavkaz [the capital of North Ossetia], but in their own republic.
Last year a digital TV tuner assembly line, Russia's first, was put into operation at the Nazran Antenna Plant. Graduates of the Ingush State University School of Physics and Mathematics, among others, started working there after taking a special training course. This high tech, state-of-the-art facility is unparalleled anywhere in Southern Russia.
Following an extensive modernization program, new jobs were provided at the Baokham state unitary enterprise in the city of Malgobek, a major producer of modular structures for residential and industrial buildings.
MN: Your opponents say that Baokham was a commercially viable enterprise long before the present administration came in, so it cannot claim credit for it.
Zyazikov: A shell building with empty workshops and antiquated equipment, huge wage arrears and utilities debts, with a ‘staff' of three to four office workers and a sleepy guard, can by no stretch of the imagination be called a ‘viable enterprise'. That was the situation in 2003, when Sultan Maskurov was appointed director. He presented the government with a realistic program for turning it around. We provided him substantial assistance, specifically in helping to acquire modern equipment and facilities. The company settled its debts, won a major contract, and started gaining momentum.
Today the enterprise is operating at full capacity. It has diversified into producing reinforced molding for metal and plastic window frames, corrugated and shaped boarding and metal tile, all of which meet international quality standards.
Baokham continues to expand its operations, creating more jobs and paying more taxes: over the past two years it contributed more than 3.5 million rubles [$140,000] to the republic's budget.
Needless to say, it is all but impossible to resolve the unemployment problem in three to four years. It's not enough just to make plans or adopt programs. Investment is the key to success. Not long ago, we held an international conference designed to enhance Ingushetia's investment appeal.
MN: Have there been any results yet?
Zyazikov: Investors are not crowding into my reception office, but there are some very interesting, mutually beneficial proposals. We are considering them, and already drafting contracts and agreements for some.
MN: But apart from extra budgetary investment, state financial support is of the essence. Did you take up this subject with Putin?
Zyazikov: The [Russian] president is well informed about the situation in the North Caucasus and Ingushetia in particular. He understands the importance of job creation programs and fully supports and approves all our proposals.
What was the outcome of the latest meeting? The president directed the RF government to provide Ingushetia with assistance in building cement- making and timber-processing plants. Resources will be allocated from the RF Investment Fund to create an engineering infrastructure; the republic will receive financial assistance in the form of RF state guarantees and there will be closer interaction between federal agencies, the government of Ingushetia, [energy giant] Gazprom, the Unified Energy System (RAO UES), Russian Railways [the country's railroad monopoly], and [Russian state controlled foreign trade bank] Vneshtorgbank (VTB), specifically to implement large-scale housing construction, social and transport infrastructure projects. Negotiations are underway on a project to build a hydroelectric power station in Ingushetia. Despite the great potential of its fast flowing mountain rivers and streams, the republic still does not have its own source of electric energy.
A contract was recently signed with Agentstvo po tsementnoi promyshlennosti [Cement Industry Agency] to build two cement-making plants.
These facilities will not only provide 5,000 new jobs but will meet the republic's need for cement. Today we have to bring it in from neighboring regions, but there is still an acute shortage. Our republic today is reminiscent of a giant construction site!
MN: Hydrocarbons have been produced in the republic since 1915. Are you suggesting that during these 92 years your oil reserves have been depleted?
Zyazikov: The oil reserves have certainly not been depleted. But in the past production was conducted erratically, unsystematically, and by barbarous methods with the grossest violations of technological and environmental procedures. That was a major factor in a series of landslides, which came to a head in the 1980s.
MN: So nobody cared about the consequences?
Zyazikov: Exactly. Almost all the oil wells were damaged beyond repair, whilst soil reclamation was not exactly a priority, to put it mildly. It would probably take too long to list everything that has been done to restore the oil wells. But in addition to that, extensive geological surveying and prospecting was conducted and eight new oil and natural gas deposits have been discovered, five of which are controlled and operated by the Ingush Nefte Gazprom joint stock company.
Our oil producers are pinning high hopes on the Western Alkhanchurt oil-bearing province. At the end of the third quarter of this year, the first oil well will be brought online with a capacity of 100 tons a day. Prospective drilling is ongoing at several other sites. Each well is expected to yield up to 2 million tons of crude a year, and possibly more. Ingushetia's total proven oil reserves are 11 million tons.
MN: On the issue of large-scale construction, is it true that such programs are only being implemented in Magas, Ingushetia's new capital, which your opponents have dubbed ‘Potemkin village' - a pleasant facade with little underneath? [reference to the elaborate fake villages allegedly built in the 18th century by Prince Grigory Potemkin to impress Catherine the Great during her tour of Ukraine and to prove to her how well her people were living] And why do you need a new capital? After all, there is already Nazran, the largest city in the republic.
Zyazikov: People do not live in Potemkin villages. Incidentally, the relatives of those opponents you mentioned also received apartments in the new capital. As for Nazran, it is already an over-developed area: building a modern city around it would come with a much heavier price tag. Furthermore, Magas is well located, especially from the environmental perspective. Besides, the two cities are only a few kilometers apart so it's not impossible for Nazran to eventually become a borough of Ingushetia's capital.
In 2002, there were just three administrative buildings in Magas - a university campus and a few structures - but now there is an entire city. Not only administrative but also residential facilities are being built, including 22,000 sq m of housing provided to date. Apartments go primarily to those who especially need them - war and labor veterans, teachers, doctors, specialists returning to the republic, and large families.
Magas is being called a Potemkin village? Well, then, this description could be applied to the whole republic. First Deputy Mayor of Moscow Vladimir Resin was stunned by the pace and scale of construction in Ingushetia.
Most recently, 15 secondary schools have been built or renovated with another 14 on the way, to accommodate a total of 8,000 students. Another ongoing project is a prenatal center. One problem is that Ingushetia does not have a single specialized medical institution. This prenatal center has been under construction for quite a while, but for some reason federal funding almost stopped in 2006. For your information, the republic's birth rate has consistently exceeded the Russian average by 40 percent over the past few years.
But now Vladimir Putin has ordered the Economic Development and Trade Ministry and the Health and Social Development Ministry to rectify the situation. Our center will join a nationwide network of prenatal centers to be created across Russia in 2008-09. Just a few days ago, a maternity center was unveiled in Ingushetia. Before, the republic did not even have one - there were only maternity wards at district hospitals. The first 10 newborns received a present from the Ingush president - 50,000 rubles [about $2,000].
We also asked the Russian president to authorize the release of federal funding for the resettlement of people living in landslide-prone areas in-and- around the city of Malgobek. The president pledged his support, which means that this problem, which affects more than 2,000 families, will be resolved.
MN: What is the reason for all this attention to the republic - perhaps as a former ‘trouble spot'?
Zyazikov: It is simply that the country has a leader who understands the importance of the North Caucasus for the Russian state. The tragic events of the early 1990s arose primarily from the lack of such understanding.
This region has always been an area of overlapping and conflicting geopolitical interests, but our peoples threw in their lot with Russia once and for all. A peaceful Caucasus is the key to a strong Russia.
The stigma of restive, troublesome, constantly warring peoples was created by propaganda, and we must get rid of this dubious image. Incidentally, this also applies to other peoples in Southern Russia. The Ingush are builders and defenders of Russia. Ingushetia is a border republic, and this imposes a deep obligation on us.
MN: Ingushetia bore the brunt of two wars with all the ensuing consequences, including the refugee problem. But whereas the situation with the Chechen refugees was settled, what about the Ingush who since 1992 have been unable to return to their homes in the Prigorodny district in North Ossetia? Is it your impression that the problem is being artificially aggravated by certain officials?
Zyazikov: Those who had to leave North Ossetia 15 years ago are citizens of Russia, and under the current Constitution, they have the right to live wherever they want.
MN: It has been suggested that there are almost no Ingush contract servicemen in the Dzheirakh border unit. This is a particular issue given the high unemployment levels, especially in the highland areas where life is far more difficult than in the lowlands.
Zyazikov: I would advise you, after this interview, to travel around the republic - as you said, it is not very large. Talk with locals and look at high mountain villages that have been rebuilt after a series of landslides. All the villages have roads, electricity, running water, and natural gas supplies - something no one could even dream of just five years ago. Even people who live in remote villages can watch four television channels. All the villages have telephone services. But when all is said and done, the final judgement is always made by the people.
Indeed, there are not enough jobs in highland areas. Several mineral bottling and construction material plants have been built there. More new jobs are on the way. But I repeat, this is not enough. As for saying that there are no Ingush young men in that border guard unit, that is a lie. We have good, business-like relations with the border guard unit command, and they readily hire our boys, not least because they know all paths and turns in the mountains. And please do not forget that these boys are protecting their homes, their villages and their motherland. It would be difficult to find better defenders.
By Tatyana Gantimurova,
Bakhtiyar Akhmedkhanov
http://www.mnweekly.ru/national/20070615/55258191.html
