The Russian Far East

russian analytical russian analytical digest 82/10 digest Analysis Putin■Is■Turning■Vladivostok■into■Russia’s■Pacific■Capital By Andrei Kalachinsky, Vladivostok Abstract■ This report provides a snapshot of political and economic life in Vladivostok today. A local journalist de- scribes the current situation, including preparations for the upcoming international summit, the on-going construction projects, economic difficulties, the political position of Governor Sergei Darkin and the pol- icies of Vladivostok Mayor Igor Pushkarev. Overall, the federal government is pouring billions of dollars into the region, but so far having little impact in terms of creating new jobs or stemming the flood of qual- ified workers leaving to find opportunities elsewhere. The recent appearance of a band of young men seek- ing to kill local policemen, winning them some public sympathy, shows the depths of protest feelings in Russia’s eastern outpost. A■Time■of■Change The Population of Vladivostok 1986–2010 The idea that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is turn- 660,000 ing Vladivostok into Russia’s Pacific capital may sound like propaganda to some, but anyone who has been to 640,000 Vladivostok recently can confirm that the city has be- 620,000 come a giant construction site. 600,000 Bulldozers are flattening hills and ripping out trees 580,000 in forests just beyond city limits to make way for new 560,000 highways. Dump trucks are pouring a dam into the sea in order to build a 4 km bridge across the bay which 540,000 will ultimately shorten drive times to the airport. At the airport itself, workers are building new terminals for passengers and a new runway to handle the most Sources: see p. 9 modern planes. fense factories in the city have lost their customers and In the very center of Vladivostok above the main closed. The best scholars from the impoverished Far street, the framework for a new bridge which will cross Eastern Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences are the Golden Horn Bay is taking shape. It will be 1,388 leaving for foreign universities. The largest sea-faring meters long. The bridge creeping toward Russky Island and fishing companies have collapsed. Primorsky Krai, is even more ambitious, with a length of 3,100 meters. home to 2,200,000 people in the Soviet era, has start- The central part will soar above the strait at a height of ed to lose its population. 1,104 meters. It will be longest cable-stayed bridge in With most of the elite already gone, the once intellec- the world! tually vibrant Vladivostok has turned into an ordinary These projects mark the first time that Russian firms provincial city where uncouth and boorish traders deal- have built bridges over the sea. In the past, they only ing in used Japanese cars now set the tone. It is easy to built over rivers. The builders are working with Finnish understand why these people behave the way that they and French companies, which are providing high qual- do. The car-import business started under the control of ity parts. criminal groups and it was necessary to speak with them Where are these roads and bridges struggling to go? in a language that they understood. But, over the course of ten years, the business which began with bandits who Selling■Japanese■Cars simply stole cars from the people who brought them over During the past 20 years, Vladivostok has been dying. from Japan turned into a civilized and contemporary Once the city was the capital of Russia’s Pacific Ocean trade. A buyer can now purchase his car on-line through fleet. However, in recent years only a few large ships and Japanese car auctions. Once you pick a car, it arrives submarines remain of the once proud group. Thanks within two weeks, already having passed through cus- to reductions in the navy, officer uniforms and sailors’ toms and the state inspection service. Importing used caps have disappeared from the streets. All the large de- cars from Japan became the main occupation of the city. 2 russian analytical russian analytical digest 82/10 digest This business allowed the city’s citizens to survive the tively declared Vladivostok the capital of the Pacific re- most difficult years of the post-Soviet era. Tens of thou- gion in naming it the host of the Asian Pacific Economic sands of people in Primor’e were involved with Japanese Cooperation (APEC) Summit in 2012. cars, buying, delivering, registering, repairing, and ship- The federal government has set aside 426 bil- ping them to other parts of the country. Everything was lion rubles for this purpose. To put this into context, fine until fall 2008, when the federal government, in its Vladivostok’s revenue in 2009 was 7.5 billion rubles; efforts to address the global economic crisis, decided to Primorsky Krai as a whole brought in 50 billion rubles. raise the customs duties on importing used cars in or- Thus, Vladivostok suddenly had funds worth 60 times der to protect the domestic auto industry. the usual city budget floating around. The city had nev- During 2008, customs in the Far East processed ap- er seen so much money. proximately half a million imported cars. The largest However, at least two times in its history Vladivostok Russian automobile factory, VAZ, makes about 600,000 had become the object of such intense attention from cars a year. In 2008, Russia produced 591,000 foreign the federal government. The first time was just after the make cars. Thus, used Japanese cars constituted about Russian-Japanese war of 1904–5, when the leaders began one-third of the automobile market in Russia. to build fortresses and military bases. Years later, in the Raising the customs duties cut the import of autos beginning of the 1960s, Nikita Khrushchev promised to one-twentieth its previous size and dealt a destruc- to turn Vladivostok into a “socialist San Francisco” and tive blow to the economy of the Far East. The car im- began to build massive numbers of new apartments and port business employed shipping companies, ports, and factories in the city. Additionally, when Putin was pres- the railroad. Every third worker in Primorsky Krai had ident, the presidential administration decided to build a some relation to the automobile business. Therefore it “presidential residence in Primor’e.” Under Medvedev, the is not surprising that the residents of the region and presidential advisers chose a spot of land near Vladivostok the local authorities spoke out against the higher tar- where this building will eventually stand. iffs and the people went into the streets to defend their The enormous amount of money poured into livelihoods. But the Kremlin silenced the local author- Vladivostok has not yet stopped the outflow of popula- ities. And ultimately the OMON special police demon- tion from the city and region. Paradoxically, this mon- stratively dispersed peaceful demonstrations of citizens. ey has not helped to create an impressive number of Moscow could not understand why its Far Eastern jobs for the locals. Additionally, local business did not citizens were protesting because at that moment the re- have a chance to participate in carrying out the federal gion had begun to receive federal funds through the pro- orders. Only construction companies with close ties to gram entitled “Economic and Social Development of the Governor Sergei Darkin were able to benefit. According Far East and the Trans-Baikal for 1996–2005 through to the current system in Russia, most of the contractors 2010.” As usual, the money disappeared and ended up for big construction projects are distributed either within some individuals’ accounts rather than serving the out auctions or in competitions in which all potential purpose for which it was intended. competitors have dropped out before the winner is an- nounced. This was the case in the choice of construction Moscow■Sends■Money companies for the bridge to Russky Island. The Japanese, After the protest meetings, where Far East citizens for Korean, and Chinese firms who might have submitted the first time raised anti-Putin slogans, the federal au- a bid considered the deadlines and conditions of work thorities decided to send more money to the region. The unrealistic. As a result a Russian company which never federal program for developing the Far East was extend- before had built a bridge like this won the right to com- ed until 2013. Rumors insist that Putin was personally plete the work. The other firms would have brought their deeply offended by the protests of the Far Eastern citi- own specialists, but now low-paid immigrant workers zens and their demands for his resignation. Therefore it are carrying out the project. It seems that once again became a matter of honor for him to show that the gov- the “golden rain” is not falling on the residents of the ernment really cared about the citizens on its periphery. region. However, at least the new infrastructure will re- The federal authorities quickly rewrote the federal main after the construction is completed. program for the Economic and Social Development of What are they building in Vladivostok? First a gi- the Far East. It included an important new section on ant station to process raw sewage. Earlier the authori- developing the city of Vladivostok as a center of inter- ties thought that it was fine to dump this sewage into national cooperation in the Asian Pacific region. It effec- the sea, where marine life would process it organical- 3 russian analytical russian analytical digest 82/10 digest ly. But practice showed that the waste water is so full of What are federal universities? In the USSR, there poisonous chemical substances—from household deter- were approximately 20 classical universities, that is gents to oil and industrial waste—that the denizens of large-scale teaching and research centers.

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