Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 21 -- Although they rarely attract much attention
from the national media, the predominantly ethnic Russian regions of Central
Russia and the Middle Volga represent and are seen by Moscow officials to
represent an increasingly serious threat to the political stability of the
Russian Federation.
Indeed, according to Vladimir Gusev,
a regional affairs expert at the Stolypin Institute of Administration, these
Russian provinces are now “a zone of political and economic instability on the basis
of which can arise the most fantastic forms of political relations between the
main subjects and branches of power” (isras.ru/files/File/Vlast/2013/08/Gusev.pdf).
The
reasons for this conclusion, he suggests in the current issue of “Vlast,” a
journal of the Moscow Institute of Sociology, are to be found in the
socio-economic situation in which these “provinces” find themselves: “dying
villages, aging infrastructure, abandoned agricultural centers, the absence of
young people not to mention the creative class, and bad roads.”
To
make his case, Gusev focuses on the situation
in Balashov, a city and region inside Saratov oblast, whose residents
have been trying to secede from Saratov oblast and join the wealthier Voronezh
region, and who having been blocked in that effort by the authorities are still
seething and forcing Saratov officials to pay attention to their plight.
Balashov
was briefly between 1954 and 1957 an oblast in its own right, but since that
time, the city and surrounding territory have been part of Saratov oblast. It had been a major industrial center, with
an increasing population, and a place, Gusev notes, that as recently as 1998
was selected as one of the best small Russian cities in which to live.
But
today, its population is declining, its economy is collapsing, and its ability
to finance its government increasingly shaky.
This year, for example, the oblast provided two-thirds of its bare-bones
budget, but even with that subvention, Balashov had enough money to fund that
budget for ten months. The city had to borrow the rest, something that is not
sustainable.
Face
with this situation and convinced that Saratov can’t or won’t address its
problems, a group of Balashov residents earlier this year formed an initiative
group to seek a referendum on the secession of their district from Saratov
oblast and its transfer to Voronezh. They collected sufficient signatures and
in May presented this demand to Saratov.
On
June 5, Saratov officials turned them down flat. Dmitry Chernyshevsky, a deputy in the Saratov
oblast duma, said that Russian law would require not one referendum on such
question but a whole series: one in the district, another in Saratov oblast as a
whole, and a third in Voronezh oblast.
And
other Saratov officials made arguments that will be familiar to anyone who
recalls Soviet objections to the disintegration of the USSR: The appearance of
new entities would undercut economic efficiency, they suggest, and the burdens
on the tax payer for new administrative costs would only increase.
Gusev
concludes his article with the hope that the two sides in this dispute,
Balashov and Saratov, will come to their senses, that “no one will leave
Saratov oblast,” and that more money will be found to improve the economy of
Balashov and meet the social needs of its aging population.
Whether
the citizens of Balashov and the officials of Saratov will be able to do so,
the scholar says, only “the immediate future will show.”
Two
events this week suggest that the prospects for progress are not good. On Monday, Denis Fadeyev, the vice governor
of Saratov oblast, made the latest of a series of recent visits to Balashov,
but according to the local media, his visit did not calm the situation but may
have made it worse (nversia.ru/news/view/id/42743).
The Saratov official held a meeting
only with Balashov officials and not with the members of the initiative
group. According to Viktor Volkov, the
secretary of the local KPRF organization, that meant that Fadeyev was “not
capable either of deciding or even becoming familiar with the problems” of the
district.
Volkov added that he had nonetheless
been able to meet with him and “for more than an hour” told the Saratov
official “about the serious problems of the district and city, the theft,
corruption and criminality” and about the ways in which the authorities had
ignored these problems or were even complicit in them.
Fadeyev’s reaction, the KPRF
secretary and a member of the initiative committee said, shows that Saratov has
no intention of addressing the problems in Balashov. As a result, the citizenry
is increasingly distrustful of the oblast authorities who “are not ready for
constructive dialogue and are not able to function.”
Today, the Balashov media reported
yesterday, Balashov residents plan to demonstrate against the Saratov officials
and demand the replacement of the officials Saratov has imposed on them before
and after their as yet unsuccessful campaign to “secede” from Saratov and join
Voronezh (nversia.ru/news/view/id/42770).
No comments:
Post a Comment