Windows to Russia

Hello,

Prime Minister Putin On Thursday arrived in Pikalevo, a town in northern Russia, to personally monitor a situation that local officials let get out of hand.

Putin said Thursday that should the owners of the three enterprises fail to agree between themselves, production will be restarted without them. “If the owners cannot agree between themselves, the integrated complex will still be restored… If you can’t agree between yourselves, it will be done without you!” (Time to say: “Yes Sir!”)

Looks like Putin laid the law down to the the heads of the plants, which are the major employers for Pikalyovo’s 22,000 residents in a meeting and it was not a pleasant meeting according to press in Russia!

Putin got the people their pay and will get the plants reopened. It was a corrupt group of business men that abused their power in the community. People in the world can say what they want. but Medvedev and Putin are serious about corruption in Russia. They want a strong good Russia!

Looks like heads are going to roll on this issue…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Update: Gettem Putin!

Oleg Deripaska, whose fortune was evaluated at $28 billion last year, was being very nervous during the meeting with Putin in Pikalyovo. He forgot to sign the contract about the delivery of supplies for idle enterprises to resume operations.

“Has Oleg Vladimirovich (Deripaska) signed? I do not see his signature. Come here and sign it,” Putin said, throwing a pen onto the table.

Deripaska signed the document, stood up and left holding the pen in his hand.

“Give the pen back!” Putin told him.

“You have made thousands of people hostage to your ambitions, your lack of professionalism – or maybe simply your trivial greed,” Putin told Deripaska and two other businessmen who own cement and alumina factories in Pikalyovo.

“Where is the social responsibility of business? Where is it? We keep talking about it non-stop. No one in the administration will ever convince me of the fact that the regional administration has done all they could to help the people. When I told you that I was going to come here, what did you tell me? You said that I shouldn’t, you said that you would show me a different enterprise. Why was everyone running about like cockroaches here before my arrival?” the prime minister said giving a heavy look to Leningrad region Governor Valery Serdyukov.

The problem has been solved. The enterprises in the town will resume their activities, the people will have their jobs and wages back. (Link)

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee here in Moscow, Russia. I was doing some thinking about the Russia – Ukraine – Europe gas situation. While Obama is trying to build bridges in the Middle East and the Western news can only concentrate on that event. Russia is and has been for years now, trying to figure out how to build a bridge to the European Union and keep Ukraine from pulling the pilings out from under the bridge.

The Western press nor the Western Governments – have hardly acknowledge the problem that Russia has been trying to be very front and center about. Then – when Ukraine does not pay her bills, the Western press will start in spouting about “Bad Russia!”

How serious is it going to get?

Watch the Russia Today interview and let Vitaly Ermakov, from the Cambridge Energy Research Associates, gave his verdict on the possible complications of Ukraine’s suspending gas payments.

Now lets touch on what Putin says:

“No one in Russia is intending to rejoice or gloat over Ukraine’s difficulties in paying for the product it receives from us,” Putin said in Helsinki. “But we cannot pay for this either.”

Putin also said: “I want to stress that without pumping gas into its underground storage facilities, Ukraine won’t be able to survive and will be forced to tap gas from its export pipelines. It will be forced to do this, you can’t even blame them for it.”

Putin also stated: “We have appealed to Barroso, the president of the European Commission, as well as the president of the Czech Republic, the prime minister of Sweden and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on coordinating these efforts.”

Putin also expressed: “We have intensified monitoring over the transit of Russian gas to Europe,” he said. “This monitoring shows that, unfortunately, Ukraine has so far not begun pumping gas into underground storage facilities. This may create problems with gas deliveries during the wintertime.”

This is not something to take with a grain of salt. Putin is trying to let the world know that Winter is coming and Ukraine has no gas in her storage. That is about 5 billion dollars of gas that has been sold and lost.

I have already posted about this up and coming issue. Russia: The Murmurings of a Ukraine Gas Row are Beginning!

Europe knows that this is a problem and looking the other way will not make Ukraine a good transit partner.

I hope that the people in Ukraine who have taken the gas money and squirreled it away in hidden bank accounts are happy. The citizen of Ukraine has paid their gas bills and they know who takes their money.

Ukrainians deserve an honest government to take care of them…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.