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St. Petersburg Times
June 11, 2002
Putin Slams Anniversary Planning
By Claire Bigg
STAFF WRITER
President Vladimir Putin slammed local officials at a meeting with representatives of city and regional governments over the weekend, criticizing them for mismanaging funds allocated for the construction and repair of city infrastructure and cultural monuments ahead of St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary next year.
The meeting, which took place on Saturday at St. Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev's residence on Kamenny Island, and focused on social and economic problems in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast, was attended by a number of federal and local officials, including Yakovlev and Northwest Region Presidential Representative Viktor Cherkesov.
In his opening comments at the meeting, Putin singled out discrepancies between documents he had received from different government bodies, including state construction agency Gosstroi, the Trade and Economic Development Ministry and the St. Petersburg administration. The documents, he said, provide conflicting information concerning the list of architectural objects to be restored as well as the cost, date of completion and financial reports for the projects.
"What is this? Money is allocated - millions. I agree it is not enough, but even what is allocated is not used effectively," he said at the meeting, part of which was televised.
According to Putin, developers responsible for carrying out the work on 12 of the 21 sites listed in the city-center reconstruction project have yet to receive the proper documents.
Putin was particularly displeased by the Mariinsky Theater restoration project. The Ministry of Culture has earmarked 20.6 million rubles ($665,000) for repair, of which 20 million rubles have not been used for the project, he said. He did not specify how the money was spent.
"Everyone is complaining that the allocated funds are insufficient, but we can't even deal with what we're given," Putin said. The Russian National Library, the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Smolny Cathedral Concert and Exhibition Complex were among the other sites Putin named as being handled less than satisfactorily.
While many of the projects were originally planned to be concluded in conjunction with the 300th-anniversary celebrations, Putin said that this might actually be part of the problem, and he urged local authorities to put a stronger focus on the city's restoration than on the organization of the festivities. He cited the construction of the Ring Road and the reconstruction of the Kirovskaya-Vyborgskaya metro line as priorities. The metro line has been closed between the Lesnaya and Ploshchad Muzhestva stations since December 1995, when part of the tunnel connecting them collapsed. He also mentioned reconstruction in the city's historical center, roads and communications infrastructure as needing attention.
The comments simply added Putin's voice to those of a number of critics of the various facelift and reconstruction projects who have condemned the work as being sluggish and inefficient.
"Most projects that were announced as part of the city's 300th-anniversary preparations have yet to be realized. All of these projects are simply badly organized," said Lev Savulkin, senior analyst at the Leontief Center for Socio-Economic Research. "Of course we would like to see St. Petersburg as a cultural city, as the northern capital, but, with the number of communal flats in the city and the poor conditions of the buildings, this is impossible. Four buildings have already collapsed this year."
While there seems to be a fair bit of agreement that funds are not being used as effectively as they might be, who is to blame for the misuse is a thornier question, as the restoration projects are financed both by the local and the federal budgets.
"I think Putin was criticizing the federal structures as much as the local administration, said Nikolai Petrov, scholar-in-residence at Moscow's Carnegie Endowment. "In my opinion, Cherkesov actually deserved Putin's criticism more than Yakovlev, because, as the presidential representative in the Northwest Region, Cherkesov is responsible for overseeing federal activities in the region, and most of the restoration projects are being funded by the federal budget."
Cherkesov's spokesperson, Alexei Gutsailo, however, was quick in dismissing the idea that Putin's criticisms were aimed at the presidential representative, although he admitted that Putin's anger was founded.
"I don't think Putin was criticizing Cherkesov at all, and I don't see why he should," Gutsailo said. "No one can really be blamed for this situation, and I don't think Putin is looking to accuse anyone in particular," Gutsailo said. "There are only 11 months left before the celebration, so this is not the time to try and find scapegoats. We have to work together to solve this situation."
While Smolny's immediate reaction to Putin's comments was to agree that the criticism was justified, city-administration officials were putting a happy spin on the event by Monday.
"The governor isn't taking Putin's comments as criticism. In fact he is very happy about the outcome and the fact that funds will be used more effectively from now on," said Yakovlev's spokesperson, Svetlana Ivanova.
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