Press Release, 31.01.2018

Grigory Yavlinsky, Yabloko’s candidate for the post of the Russian President, met with the business community of the Pskov region in the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry during his visit to the Pskov region. Yavlinsky spoke with the entrepreneurs about the key issues of his economic programme and also told them why modernisation and economic development in the country are impossible without changes in Russia’s policies.

According to Grigory Yavlinsky, the problems of the Russian economy and its role in the global economy are obvious and do not cause any special disputes. In this sense, Russia is a peripheral country, which gives only about 2 per cent of world GDP. He also marked weak diversification of the economy, excessive presence of the state in business, monopolism, low labour productivity and, consequently, Russia’s low competitiveness in all fields, except for raw materials and armaments.

Yavlinsky said that the present ruling circles in Russia view the economy as a means of reproducing their own position in power and meeting their foreign policy ambitions; where as Russia needs the opposite: “All the state policies for the next 30 years should be reduced to one thing only: creation of a powerful economic system in Russia. Because a country with such [long] borders, such [vast] territories and lacking a powerful economic system can not exist. “We will do everything else later, we will solve all other tasks as soon as we become a real economic power,” he noted.

According to Yavlinsky, the present Russian system is not capable of changes from within, and the key criterion for the selection of management personnel in business and the economy is loyalty, rather than professionalism and ability of making the change.

“The motivation of these people is specific. They earn from the administrative rent, which stems from their monopoly position. Nothing will change without changing these people, without political changes. Only political changes can change motivation,” Yavlinsky added.

He also touched upon the topic of sanctions and isolation of the Russian economy. “The policy that led our country to a situation where all can impose sanctions on it, a policy that tears our economy away from the world markets and isolates it, a policy that creates barriers – such policy is wrong, it needs to be changed! Nobody [in Russia] has the right to put the country in the position of a target,” Grigory Yavlinsky said. “Everyone is discussing the idiotic list published in the US. The list is anecdotal. But everyone is discussing only this. Because we are a peripheral economy, we are an economy-appendage, but we act as if we are a leading economic power. But in order to behave like a great power, we must first become a great power! “, Grigory Yavlinsky said.

In the second part of his speech Yavlinsky spoke with the members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry about the steps that can change the situation and offered in his “Economic Manifesto” (i.e., the section of the his presidential programme). He noted that the key task for business climate and development is predictability: “It is pointless if you as the main economic subjects do not know what the rules of the game are and what will happen to them in a year, or two, or five. It is impossible to build a modern economy without confidence in the authorities and institutions,” he said.

Yavlinsky also spoke about the eight points that the government and the state must fulfill in order to create an efficient economic model:

not to look for exotic ways to stimulate economic activities such as mobilization of economy or achieving its full self-sufficiency; not to challenge property title for large assets of their current owners, except in case of serious criminal offenses against the individual; not to increase concentration of the assets in the main sectors of the economy and not to oppose private businesses in any industry, including strategic industries; not to create any additional obstacles and restrictions for foreign capital and investments, and not to impose restrictions on cross-border movement of funds and resources, including currency controls, except for temporary restrictions in some cases.

In addition, according to Yavlinsky, the state must coordinate any decisions that dramatically change the conditions of economic activity in the private sector, with the existing business associations and authorised expert centres, conduct its information policy in such a way that would not damage the foreign activities of Russian businesses, and develop and implement a system of personal responsibility of officials for unlawful actions causing damage to an enterprise or a company.