How Vladimir Putin’s work in the Far East began

Vladimir Putin on September 11, arriving on Russky Island in the Primorsky Territory on Eastern Economic Forum (WEF), discussed the development of Far Eastern cities, the creation of cultural and educational complexes in Russia and talked with the head of the region Oleg Kozhemyako. Also, even before the start of the meetings, the Kremlin press service finally released a message that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would visit Russia. The New York Times was the first to report his visit on September 4. Later the media wrote that the meeting would take place on September 13. The Kremlin’s message does not indicate the date of the visit, it only says that Kim Jong-un’s official visit to Russia will take place at the invitation of Putin. The South Korean TV channel YTN reported on September 11 that the DPRK leader had already left for Russia by train.

On Russky Island, Deputy Prime Minister and Plenipotentiary Representative in the Far Eastern Federal District (its capital is Primorye) Yuri Trutnev and Minister for the Development of the Far East and Arctic Alexey Chekunkov showed the president an interactive presentation of the development of the Far East. Then three enterprises were launched – residents of priority development territories: a mining complex for the production of titanium-magnetite and ilmenite concentrates of the Baikal-Amur Mining Corporation (Amur Region), the second stage of the Pavlik gold extraction plant (Magadan Region), and a mining and metallurgical plant. Udokan” (Trans-Baikal Territory).

The EEF annually hosts a discussion on master plans for the development of cities in the Far East. Now the president has paid attention to this topic. Last week he had a meeting where the development of Yakutsk, Anadyr and Magadan was discussed. And within the framework of the EEF, a discussion took place with Trutnev, Chekunkov, members of the government, heads of regions and mayors of the Far Eastern capitals of Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Birobidzhan and Blagoveshchensk.

The President noted that the master plans of these four cities take into account their proximity to China, and accordingly, attention is paid to tourism, logistics and investment cooperation. The Amur region has the potential to increase inbound tourism and the opportunity to become one of the centers of international business cooperation, Putin said. Birobidzhan, according to him, needs to solve a set of problems in the economy and social sphere, create new jobs, including those related to the production of medical products and processing of minerals.

Khabarovsk has good prospects for economic diversification, but now we need to pay attention to the development of the historical center and improvement of urban spaces, while Vladivostok has “tremendous prospects,” and special attention needs to be paid to the transport infrastructure in the city, the president said. In addition, in Vladivostok it is necessary to improve the city and restore the historical center, he added. In addition, Putin told the head of Primorye that it is necessary to publicly discuss master plans for the development of cities: “Oleg Nikolaevich, I’m looking at your presentations, on every page it is written “strictly confidential.” What’s confidential here? On the contrary, we need to discuss it publicly.”

Putin also emphasized that these four cities need to create opportunities for students to stay in their regions after graduating from universities in the Far East. According to the president, this will be achieved through the creation of creative industries and the creation of comfortable conditions for small and medium-sized businesses. The head of state especially noted the protection of cities from flooding, citing the example of Ussuriysk, where more than 44,000 people were affected by a recent flood – and the cause of the disaster was a dam failure.

Then, with Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, the president discussed the construction of museum and theater and educational clusters in Vladivostok, Kemerovo, Sevastopol and Kaliningrad. Putin emphasized that it is necessary to speed up the construction of facilities – out of 46, 29 have been put into operation. Khusnullin said that the creation of these facilities will provide 5,000 new jobs in four regional capitals. He cited the example of Vladivostok, where the construction of a theater and museum complex on the Eagle’s Nest hill will be completed by the end of 2024: “This will require additional mobilization, revision of delivery schedules and financing.”

The president ended his working day on September 11 (though already at night on September 12) with a meeting with the head of Primorye Oleg Kozhemyako. To Putin’s question “how are you?” Kozhemyako began to talk about the flood in the region that occurred on August 12 and the elimination of its consequences. He asked for financial support for this. Kozhemyako also spoke about the proposal of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences to create a laboratory for forecasting hazardous weather phenomena due to climate change.

On Tuesday, September 12, the President will take part in the plenary session WEF, in which the Vice President of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Pani Yathothu, will also participate. Vladimir Putin will also hold meetings with the heads of foreign delegations and communicate via videoconferencing with session moderators WEF.