Paul Goble
Staunton,
February 17 – Moscow, which has some of the worst traffic jams in the world, desperately
needs new roads; but plans announced in 2014 to open several key sectors have
been repeatedly postponed because Russian government plans called for foreign
investors to finance up to a third of their cost and such investors have not
come forward.
The failure
of foreigners and especially Middle Eastern ones that the Russian authorities
have actively pursued has forced Moscow to turn to Russian firms, many of which
are at the brink of bankruptcy and promise more government assistance. As a
result, Rimma Polak of Vestnik Civitas says, the costs of these problems have shot
up (vestnikcivitas.ru/pbls/4206).
Now, in the wake of the arrest of
Micahel Kalvi of Baring Vostok, she suggests, foreigners will be even less
willing to participate in such projects; and the Russian government will have
to postpone their completion dates still further. Indeed, these delays are end
with cancellations, something that will give Russians another reason to be
angry at their government.
Once again, Russia’s two greatest
misfortunes in the minds of many, its roads and its fools, have converged and
done so in a way that can’t be hidden from Russians living in the capital – and
also in ways that the powers that be can’t easily blame on someone else.
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