How Russia gets out of pipes and felling
“we export the principle with raw materials, we import everything else” brought the domestic frequency to a dangerous dependence on foreign countries. Now the Russian authorities are seeking trillions of rubles for food, technological and industrial security of the state.
Weak spots
The Russian Federation buys stem cardboard for berets in Turkey, and paper for medicine – in China, where it is made from Russian pulp, said Denis Kondratyev, head of the Center for System Solutions analytical agency.
“It’s the same with syringes: our fabric can be 100% matched to the needs of the domestic syringe market, but we also buy. [Компания] Sibur is bringing its [полимерную] pellet in China, they make syringes here and bring them in,” Kondratiev said.
The “weak points” of the Russian Federation are machine tool building and electronics, says Vasily Osmakov, First Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Kashin listed how we depend on foreigners:
- geological exploration (especially electrical and physical exploration);
- equipment for the timber industry;
- equipment for the oil industry;
- milk, berries and vegetables;
- seeds of corn, sugar beet, sunflower;
- planes, helicopters, tractors, combines.
“Imagine: for 47 thousand [гектаров] harvesting areas of legumes – 53 harvesters available?! Here we remove [урожаи] for a month and a half, what losses we gave out in the charts! Even in Belarus there are three combines per hectare, not to mention Germany and France, where there are five and ten,” said Kashin.
He believes that the excessive failure of import substitution is in the machine tool industry, agricultural engineering and medicine.
Deputy Head of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia Ivan Lebedev added planting material, plant products of cattle and chickens, plant protection products, and certain types of forage animals to Kashin’s list.
Another deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Oksana Lut, stated the difficult situation with domestic seeds. This is due to the importation in 2022 of the general agricultural agrarians of a large number of cases due to fear, “when the February situation arose,” she explained.
“As you know, several companies have refused to work with Russia. Some time passed – the companies left Russia.
Now the seeds are imported through third countries, this is unacceptable for us, because in practice it is a 100% risk that tomorrow any of these companies will not allow the import of seeds or it will be impossible to import them. And, accordingly, you and I will be left without seeds, ”Lut said.
She added that the state needs to encourage greater use of domestic seeds among agricultural producers, who are comfortable working with what he is used to – “mostly, unfortunately, for the special consumption of crops, these are seeds of foreign selection.”
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glad to be deceived
After the collapse of the USSR, “we were built into the system” of the impending destruction of the Russian economy, and “we had to serve the oil and gas pipe, logging and quarry,” said State Duma deputy Gennady Zyuganov.
The richest need of the country became seriously dependent: Russia, where fisheries and cattle were destroyed, imported “everything and everything for 45–50 million dollars in order to get food,” added Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Kashin.
The country lived “in the paradigm of the global economy” and calculated that the export orientation was great, because the Russian Federation was an outstanding part of this magnificent system, Denis Kondratyev, general director of the Center for System Solutions, stated.
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Crucial moment
The situation may have started in 2014, when the “president got worried”, Academician Kashin believes:
“It is inevitable here: the Crimean affairs, the situation begins to deteriorate, and several productions are immediately published, which are primarily aimed at import substitution in industry and agriculture.”
The first deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Vasily Osmakov agreed with him. According to the statement, in 2014 there was a turning point in relation to import substitution.
“The first mass assessments of the sustainability of enterprises from serious cooperative chains, there were signs that the Russian economy, built on the principle of “we export raw materials and import equipment,” “does not work very well” in the political situation,” the official noted.
Denis Kondratiev added that the destruction of communication was included: Russia “turned off the choice of logistics companies from international trade.”
“The first plans for import substitution were formed, and in fact, serious success was achieved in achieving the goals – this is agricultural engineering <...>. Good progress has been made in oil and gas engineering, in the woodworking and pulp and paper industries, in various types of chemistry,” Osmakov said.
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Trillions to nowhere
In 2014-2022, a set of tools for the implementation of import substitution plans took place in the country, the First Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade noted.
According to Osmakov, this is, first of all, the Industrial Development Fund – “the most demanded, most demanded development institution, in our opinion, in the country.” As well as special investment contracts, a system of prohibitions and restrictions on purchases, which are “very effective for themselves.”
The official said that in analyzing the gap with the global economy, Russia continues to seek “a balance between sensitivity, support for imports from friendly countries, and self-sufficiency.” After all, planning everything is “too expensive and an almost impossible task.”
“A portfolio was formed [из 126] projects, he has now received five and a half trillion rubles. These are key import substitution projects <...>which should be implemented by 2030,” added the First Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.
Academician Kashin recalled that the ex-Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Yuri Borisov, who was in charge of import substitution, reported two trillion budget rubles for these purposes, but an audit of various services revealed many problems:
“Individual developments with great use [бюджетных средств] – tens of billions of rubles – gives out our science, especially new [организации]such as Nano, Skolkovo. And when they start looking – out of 26, perhaps development can eventually lead to one project. This, of course, is a problem. For this, at the appropriate time for consideration, criminal prosecution should be brought.
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Dubious friendship
Denis Kondratyev, head of the Center for System Solutions analytical agency, has the following attitude towards friendly countries:
“Even in foreign countries, we have a problem with obtaining funds when paying for contracts. How banking systems between countries are protected by the dollar or euro atom. Accordingly, these beautiful countries [Запада]today, acting aggressively against us, including through the settlement system.
Such banking systems as, for example, pirates, drivers, India, Because they are afraid of imposing on their systems.
In his own way, he treats international countries and heads of agricultural enterprises Viktor Taranin, export of domestic production:
“Last year we bought a K-5 tractor for 6.2 million, this year the same tractor costs 11.9 million rubles. And when he began to understand, he said that the metal had risen in price. The tractor is 90% metal.
However, tractors from the Republic of China are now being considered. They are the same, but cost 6.2 million. Naturally, we will buy what is cheaper, especially since they have spare parts. And in this way, due to the fact that price competitors are not in the direction of domestic producers, they will occupy the market. And we will count on agricultural machinery from China.”
Today we are friendly, Taranin summed up, “but in general, you have to figure it out for yourself.”
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Alexey Lokhvitsky