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The Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation The State Duma The Yabloko faction

Address On Urgent Measures to Overcome the Energy Crisis in Maritime Territory, November 22, 2000

To the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation M.M. Kasyanov

 

On Urgent Measures to Overcome the Energy Crisis in Maritime Territory

Today it is obvious to everybody that the situation in Maritime Territory is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster. Virtually all the main life support systems of the Territory are in a critical condition.

The fuel crisis has affected most districts and settlements. This is only part of the systematic crisis that has embraced our energy system, housing and communal services and the budget sphere of the territory. The situation has recurred every year, but has deteriorated each time.

All the aforementioned critical conditions are attributable to a crisis of management. The Administration of the Territory is unable to manage this

strategically important region of Russia. However, the federal authorities cannot absolve themselves of responsibility for the millions of Russian

citizens who have become hostages to the failure of the administration of Maritime Territory.

To avert the energy disaster, we need to find today 2.5-3 billion roubles, and expenditure should be put under strict control of federal structures.

We propose that President Putin establish a State Commission responsible for the situation in Maritime Territory. Such a Commission should include the plenipotentiary representative of the President in the Far East Federal District, a representative of the administration of Maritime Territory, as well as representatives of the Control Department of the Administration of the President, Control and Audit Department of the Finance Ministry and the Federal Treasury. The Commission should dispose of all the necessary proxies on control over the movement of all the funds allotted from the budgets at all levels to maintain the life support systems of Maritime Territory.

We propose that the Government of the Russian consider the following variants for resolving the energy crisis in Maritime Territory:

 

Variant 1. Grant a short-term loan to the administration of the Territory controlled by the federal authorities, provided that the money is offset

against signed treaties for the delivery of fuel and energy resources and ensure allocation of these funds directly to fuel suppliers, thereby bypassing the accounts of the administration of the Territory.

 

Variant 2. Grant the guarantees of the RF government on the attraction of short-term loans from commercial banks that will be allotted to the purchase of fuel for Maritime Territory with an automatic repayment of these loans from the transfers envisaged for Maritime Territory in the federal budget for 2001.

 

Variant 3. The Finance Ministry should resolve, together with the Defence Ministry, the issue of granting the administration of the Territory a necessary volume of fuel as a commodity credit under the guarantees of the Finance Ministry and return of the corresponding means from transfers envisaged for Maritime Territory in the federal budget for 2001.

Variant 4. The funds for the purchase of fuel should immediately be allotted from the reserve funds of the government and the President of the RF, or for this goal the reserve fuel funds of the Defence Ministry and the Ministry of Extraordinary Situations should be used.

To avert any recurrence of the energy crisis in Maritime Territory in other regions situated in an area with high energy crisis risks (Kamchatka, Magadan, Sakhalin, Omsk, Ivanovo, Chelyabinsk and other regions) we propose the development of a special order to finance the purchase of fuel for such regions. The order should include the following:

1) Prior signing of contracts with fuel suppliers by the administration of the federation subject under the control of the federal structures. 2) Financing of fuel deliveries exclusively through the Federal Treasury. 3) Sanctions for any officials violating the order of priority financing for the measures within the framework of the heating season.

The Yabloko faction is ready to send its specialists to assist with implementation of any of the proposed variants for overcoming the crisis.