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Rosbalt

Deputy of the State Duma Sergei Ivanenko: Government complacency may cost Russia dearly

August 26, 2002

Moscow, August 26, 2002. “The draft budget for 2003 demonstrates the apathetic approach of the Government to the resolution of the country’s financial and economic problems,” noted Deputy Head of the YABLOKO faction in the State Duma Sergei Ivanenko in an interview with the Rosbalt correspondent on Monday.

“The budget for 2003 is the younger brother of the present budget, an exact copy: the developers of this document simply borrowed the figures from 2002 and multiplied them by a certain coefficient,” stressed Ivanenko. Such an approach, says Ivanenko, could be used only at a favourable time in the country. However, he added that the abrupt fall in financial reserves, failure of regional budgets and drop in tax collection indicated that the situation in the financial and economic sphere in Russia was far from favourable.

“Government complacency may cost Russia dearly,” thinks Ivanenko. In particular, a change in the oil price in the world in 2003 would inevitably threaten the implementation of the governmental variant of the budget, stressed Ivanenko. At the same time, he is convinced that given the present division of forces in the Duma the draft budget would be adopted in the first and other readings without considerable changes to its main parameters. “The Government has already made an agreement with the centrists and so there will be no problems with approval of the budget,” said Ivanenko.

“YABLOKO is going to prepare and submit to the Duma its own draft budget alternative to the government’s variant. This document will be more realistic and economically justified,” noted Ivanenko.

See also:
Draft Budget for 2003
Alexei Kudrin: Discussions of the draft budget for 2003 in the State Duma will be tough. RIA Novosti, August 27, 2002
Second version of the draft budget under preparation. Vremya MN, August 27, 2002

Rosbalt, August 26, 2002

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