Suitcase Best Symbol of Russian Far East Because of Exodus of Its People, ‘Magadan Speaks’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 4 – The much-ballyhooed exhibition “Far Eastern Days in Moscow” has degraded to the level of a colony reporting to the metropolitan center, the independent Magadan Speaks portal says, with the colonials showing foodstuffs to satisfy the tastes of the well-off Russians in the center.

            The show now going on in the Russian capital will do nothing  to attract investments or people to the region, it continues; and the internet paper suggests that the best symbol of the exhibition and of the region is now the suitcase because so many people have left or want to leave (govoritmagadan.ru/dni-dalnego-vostoka-v-moskve-degradirovali-do-kolonialnogo-formata-ugoshheniya-zhitelej-metropolii-zamorskimi-yastvami/).

            The bitter vocabulary of this report is reflected in the numbers. Since 2013, half of the population of the Far Eastern Federal District  has moved to other parts of Russia; and 40 percent of those who remain say they want to go when they can (govoritmagadan.ru/i-snova-krajnie-pochemu-pochti-40-zhitelej-dalnego-vostoka-hotyat-pokinut-region/).

            Despite the high wages in the region, prices are even higher; and as a result, the standard of living in the Far Eastern FD is lower than in most of the rest of the country. None of its federal subjects ranks in the top third in terms of standard of living. And that has been made worse for the people there because Moscow has promised to change things but hasn’t.

            According to Ildus Yarulin of the Pacific State University, “programs for developing the Far East have been going on for quite a long time, much has been promised, a lot of money has been thrown around, but up to now, we see neither the money nor the results.  The population is simply tired of waiting for change.”