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Sergei Mironov: "The Government must have political will – the key point we fail to see nowadays" 23 àïðåëÿ 2014 Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev reported on the Government’s performance at the State Duma. According to him, the Russian economy will be able to remove any restrictions from outside; moreover, it will eventually win. Unlike the United Russia faction which gave a positive assessment of the Government’s performance last year, the faction of A JUST RUSSIA did not share their optimism. Sergei Mironov, the leader of the A JUST RUSSIA Duma faction discussed the economic situation with Alexey Korneev, the Kommersant-FM radio presenter. – How would you estimate the Prime Minister’s speech today? Didn’t it sound too optimistic, in your opinion? – It’s far too optimistic, I spoke about it in my speech. At present, we have been facing big problems connected, first of all, with social differentiation in our country (the facts speak for themselves), and the Government’s unwillingness to move in this direction, at least somehow, There are submitted numerous proposals, and we have also put forward some of them. That’s why the report of the Government and its Chairman is excessively optimistic but we do not share their optimism. In my speech (as I have already mentioned) I gave a critical analysis of the aspects in the Prime Minister’s speech that we disagree with. As usual, our constructive criticism was followed by some proposals we made. It is worth mentioning the Prime Minister’s rather positive reaction to some of them in his concluding speech. Judging by experience, a public positive reaction not always means further work of the corresponding ministries at the definite problems, at promotion of the laws we submitted and the ideas we put forward. For this reason, in our normal activity, we are going to strive to implement these laws and ideas which are sure to help the majority of people of Russia but not a narrow group of persons, as it is now. – Now in brief, which proposals did you make today? As I take it, the Crimea and the UNE (United National Exam) are the two main issues. – No, our proposals were different. We offered to try to implement our pilot draft law about the municipal police and public safety right in the Crimea – this is our first proposal. Secondly: we persistently recommended that our problems and all our thorny issues such as our entrenched corruption and bureaucracy, heartlessness and indifference of our officials should not be automatically transferred to the Crimea. Here, by the way, Mr. Medvedev’s positive reaction is absolutely correct, I mean his words about practicing the new forms of management regarding the Crimea, in particular, transfer of many federal functions to the regional authorities. We offered to return to the progressive scale of the income tax and to make the final decision on the UNE which is sure very harmful to Russia. It is high time Mr. Livanov admitted his mistake at last and acknowledged that the UNE was really a calamitous error, and it is really necessary to give it up once and forever. We were critical about reforming the Russian Academy of Sciences, and stick to the opinion that in this case it is necessary (as the lawmakers put it) that the situation be monitored and changed for the better whenever possible. Moreover, we highly recommend (from the point of a real fighting corruption) that our law on the estate confiscation from the corruptionists and their family members be adopted and Article 20 of the UNO Convention on Corruption Combat be ratified. These are our specific proposals. – I’d say rather a bulky list. – Of course, because we are a constructive opposition, and whenever we criticize, we offer something. We really have a lot to offer. – What is your opinion about the following: first, do you agree with all the statements in the Prime Minister’s speech today? Did he touch upon every issue or not? Did he try to avoid any topics in his speech...? – When the Prime Minister says in public that he is proud of our Russian village and its current state, I have an impression that Dmitry Anatolievich has not been in a real village for a very long time. I do not mean the rural enterprises and facilities used as a showcase which he visits being the Prime Minister but the real rural areas and villages. – And what about you Sergei Mikhailovich? How often do you go there? – Rather often, I visit real villages very often, and can see the empty houses there. I can see the villages where the last school is closed, and there are already no children; I visit the villages with actually two or three villagers who are old women and old men. These villages just live out their remaining days. There are villages with absolutely no work to offer or the ones where people have taken to drinking because they are unemployed but the trickiest thing is that they manage to find money to buy counterfeit vodka. All this is really terrible. I can see how our rural enterprises that are eager to operate and manufacture products (the agricultural ones) cannot do it because they are choked with taxes, high prices and disparity of prices, for example, the one between the cost of oil and lubricants and an opportunity to sell grain or beet and potato. I can see all of it. – It is the responsibility of not only Prime Minister but the deputies as well. – Well, I agree with you but you must admit that here we are talking about some sort of an emotional estimation. First of all, it is the Government that shall bear responsibility; on the other hand, how is it possible to say that everything is good there, that "I am proud of our village and its state..." If any rural resident could hear that, he would say: "Dmitry Anatolievich, my dear, which planet have you come from?" Frankly speaking, that’s what does not suit me at all. I believe it was a mistaken statement of our Prime Minister. In addition, when he speaks about a total growth of agricultural production by 6%, I’d like to say I have a bit different figures: in general, if we have a look at the financial results, the so-called funding revenue is by 43% less in 2014 than it was in 2012. This is a direct consequence of Russia’s joining the WTO. I don’t know why but our figures are completely different. – Sergei Mikhailovich, in spite of the above-mentioned, you are not going to solidarize with the CPRF and demand resignation of the Government? – No, we are not going to do it just for one reason – it is not an appropriate time. Now it is time all forces started to consolidate. It is time we got united, and this is the reason why I said today that at present the Government has no right to be just a technical cabinet, it shall become a strategic assistant of the President at solution of all external and internal issues. That’s why if now we get down to resignations and formation of a new Government, we will only lose time and (speaking in a figurative sense) we will put aside even the fingers that shall be twisted in a fist today. So, let the CPRF deal with its promotional events by demanding resignation of the Government. It is more important for the Government to hear criticism, get down to business and doing something. start doing something. It is highly important that the Government get an impulse. Maybe it will get, at least, some impulse after making its report. But of course, the main impulse is given by the President who says from month to month: "When are you going to start with implementation of my May Decrees? In return, the Government says: "We can’t, we have problems here and there". –Well, Sergei Mikhailovich, maybe, it is not possible to enforce them? It is, and I didn’t say it by chance today that the Government must have a political will which is its key point that we fail to see now. Ïî ìàòåðèàëàì èñòî÷íèêîâ: Kommersant-FM
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