A Corrupt Colonial System: Russia’s Northern Regions Not Allowed to Develop Their Own Resources or Get Them from Neighbors but Forced by Moscow to Bring Them from Far Away

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 29 – Officials in Moscow and in the regions regularly celebrate the Northern Supply Operation which brings food and supplies to the people along Russia’s Arctic littoral, something that is essential if the Northern Sea Route is to become truly effective, Dmitry Verkhoturov says.

            But Siberian economist Dmitry Verkhoturov says that the way in which the Northern Supply Operation functions is a waste of money, with the federal subjects there compelled by Moscow to purchase raw materials like coal and timber from distant parts of the Russian Federation or even abroad rather than using resources of their own or neighboring regions (sibmix.com/?doc=19659).

            He gives as an example what has been happening in the Yamalo-Nenets AD. There. Moscow has compelled the region to import coal from as far away as Kazakhstan when in fact the region could provide as much energy and heat by harvesting its forests. But if it did, then Moscow’s profits and leverage would be less.

            The regions on the Arctic littoral, he continues, are forced to spend an enormous share of their resources and as a result constantly seek loans from Moscow to do what Moscow wants, something that gives enormous profits to people in the capital but prevents the northern regions from developing as they should.

              Verkhoturov does not use the words “corrupt” or “neo-colonial” to characterize this situation; but they certainly apply and help to explain why Moscow does what it does and why so many people in the Russian North suffer even as Moscow pockets the profits and drives their regions deeper into debt and dependency.