Sergei Glazyev does not deny Vladimir Putin’s political responsibility

Yesterday, in Central House of Journalist in Moscow, a press-conference of Sergei Glazyev took place, in which he, in particular, reported that he could be proposed for governor of Krasnoyarsk Region. Though, Glazyev was not sure about it, because the final decision should be taken probably in June. First, the situation in the region must become more clear: Glazyev would like to know whether it is really possible for a Moscow economist to win the election in Siberia. Second, the CPRF leadership must take certain decision, both in the Central Committee and in the region. Therefore, Glazyev does not deny his possible participation in the election. The Communist Party seems to relieve Prime-Minister Kasyanov of responsibility through raising the question about no-confidence to his government. Because it is known, that Mikhail Kasyanov did not decided anything in the staff appointments, which he inherited from Vladimir Putim as Prime-Minister. Moreover, all the strategic decisions were taken by him according to the President’s instruction. Sergei Glazyev admitted that the President is politically responsible for his government. Though, on the other hand, the President long ago got out of all decisions taken by the government. Moreover, according to the results of the March meeting with the President, Glazyev made a conclusion, that the President seemed to share most of the opposition’s views on the economical situation in the country and on some ways to stimulate economical growth. Really, one of the President’s main reproaches at the government is the too low economical growth. Kasyanov forecasts 3 percent, while Putin insists at least on 8 percent. What is significant, that Sergei Glazyev, while belonging to main economical ideologists of the opposition called the same 8-10 percent of yearly economical growth the direct consequence of realizing the programme communists and their allies intend to present at the moment of initiating vote of no-confidence to the government. Therefore, an impression appears that the President and his opponents really base themselves on the same programme of activities. But this is not right: the President and his economists see in privatisation, including earth resources, some reserves for internal investments and hope for afflux of foreign investments. This is that investment reserve they hope to use to reach the 8-percent growth of economy. According to Glazyev’s speech, opposition does not see any serious reserve in privatisation of agricultural funds, at least taking into account their too low today’s price. On the contrary, they see the investment reserve for manufacturing industry in nationalization of natural rent, first of all, of oil and gas. This point of view differs from views of Chubais, Kudrin, Gref, and Illarionov. Though, Glazyev is too optimistic about his evaluations of the industry’s state. For example, he reported that, according to Russian Academy of Science, the industry is loaded today only on 50 percent. While answering the question about the methods of evaluating the state of the industry’s main funds, which seem to be disputable and are most likely only a comparison with the level of 1991, Glazyev said that now really one could speak only about 50-percent loading of the idle capacities. Here, he again referred to the specialists of Russian Academy of Science. And this is the main problem. To obtain a growth, productive capacities should be loaded. While to load the productive capacities, serious reconstruction and modernization are demanded. While for these aims, investments are necessary which would arrive only after some reviving of industry and of the whole people’s economy. To be short, this is an exclusive circle. Some reviving of industry was obtained by the Primakov-Maslyukov government at the expense of the crisis: a strict worsening of Russians’ living standard made their labour cheaper, therefore necessary investments for restoration of productive capacities were reduced. Moreover, decreasing of effective demand caused to the process of substitution of import, which additionally stimulated the industry. Though, any government cannot long parasitize on post-crisis processes. While nest governments did not made further steps. Therefore, the reproaches hurled at the government should be equally shared between prime-ministers Stepashin, Putin, and Kasyanov. While the latter is even less guilty than the first two, because he only followed the course of the today’s President. And here, Sergei Glazyev said an important thing: the opposition, before producing vote of no-confidence, has to openly call the President to discharging the cabinet without waiting for this question to be raised in the parliament. And if Putin refuses to do it, this will mean that he admits his full responsibility for the government’s policy. Hopefully, the CPRF leadership will not be frightened at the last moment.

Anatoly Baranov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Vera Solovieva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/05/21/41477.html