The country’s economy is “ruled” contrary to logic and common sense

Example. Over the past thirty years, Russia’s industrial potential has halved. Who is to blame? NATO? Ukraine? USA? China? Türkiye? Did all these partners, past and present, forbid us to make aircraft, machine tools, cars, ships, electrical engineering – at least for the domestic market? Or, perhaps, the people themselves did not want to work in factories and factories, but rushed to become guards in order to guard other people’s property with “watches”? ..

Agree, it is very mysterious: to join the WTO (2012), knowing that this step will lead to further technological degradation and dependence on developed countries. The Russian machine builders who survived at that time became worried: maybe the top officials do not understand the consequences of what is happening, they just need to be explained how the economy works? There are few practitioners in the government, more and more theorists of the Gaidar-Chubais generation.

This is how the idea of ​​the Moscow Economic Forum was born. The IEF was held for the first time in 2013, and this spring the seventh forum took place. All this time, on its sites, they were talking, in essence, about one thing: dear government, give us the opportunity to develop Russian production! There are three mechanisms: cheap credit (now it is still expensive), low taxes (they are still high) and customs protectionism (there are “good times” here – last year’s sanctions removed foreign companies from our market).

For ten years, the government listened to the voice of the MEFs many times, but … nothing was done. What for?! Whatever the economic result, in Russia top officials are not responsible for it. Here is the legendary Chubais. State Duma deputy Nikolai Kolomeytsev testifies: “We submitted a request to the Accounts Chamber to check the institutions of economic development. We must pay tribute to Sergei Stepashin, he was not afraid to give an answer, although in the end he left his post. What turned out? Chubais received 412 billion in public money and government guarantees. 47 billion immediately went through shell companies offshore. The entire state corporation paid itself untold salaries and bonuses for non-existent work, because “nano is small, you’ll see later,” as Chubais promised.

Now the famous nano-reformer has left Russia and distanced himself from its problems. The police have no complaints against him. The Moor did his job and went to where the reserves of the Bank of Russia were “frozen”. Why did hard-earned money need to be held in foreign papers? Mystery. In all G20 countries (except Russia), central banks are primarily responsible for the growth of production, and only then for everything else. And we have a “cunning plan”! And your way. We can’t be like everyone else. Due to “jumps”, “jumps” and devaluations of the ruble exchange rate, the current assets of enterprises instantly depreciate. Which leads them to inevitable collapse. A high key rate blocks the development of complex industries due to inaccessible loans.

“We have a clear indicator of the country’s anti-sovereignty – a trade surplus,” Vladimir Boglaev, general director of the Cherepovets Casting and Mechanical Plant, expressed his opinion on what is happening. “If last year the United States received a trade deficit of more than a trillion dollars, and we had a surplus of $332 billion, it means that we financed someone with this amount without receiving anything in return. Since 1994, according to the Customs website, our total surplus has exceeded $3 trillion. If you scale the figure taking into account the exchange rate and purchasing power, then – do not fall off your chair! is about a thousand trillion rubles. Such an amount, even in five thousand banknotes, cannot be represented in cash. And we say: we do not have enough finance for industry! .. “

Naturally, listening to such revelations takes some people out of their “comfort zone”. Therefore, the current members of the government ignored the invitation to the MEF. But some “ex” came, and they expressed cautious bewilderment at the results of “collective irresponsible management”. For example, Andrey Klepach, former deputy head of the Ministry of Economic Development and now chief economist at the VEB.RF state corporation, noted that the economic war can be won only if the share of mechanical engineering in GDP is several times higher. Now it is 3%. Our industrial potential is dozens of times (!) smaller than that of our opponents.

Is it possible to win the economic war with the help of TV, patriotic songs, prayers, appeals to great history, etc.? The history of such facts is unknown. Because faith without works is dead.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets, now president of the Russian Union of Commodity Producers, spoke even more harshly: “… we have lost about 100,000 enterprises that were potential competitors to Western firms.” Among the losses are machine-tool, aircraft and shipbuilding, metallurgy (the USSR produced 180 million tons of steel, Russia – barely 70 tons, and due to sanctions there will be a further drop). “I understand that in the government today no one is responsible for nails, bearings, or aircraft,” summed up Oleg Soskovets. – It is necessary to introduce practice so that everyone gets some kind of work area and at least once goes through this activity with legs from beginning to end. Maybe then something will change.”

But what about import substitution? It seems that government officials understand it as a replacement of European supplies with Asian ones. No one is in a hurry to develop the production of Russian high-quality analogues. For example, stainless steel for medical and food industries. The director of the enterprise from Yaroslavl, Konstantin Kutsevol, said at the forum that so far he manages to buy metal in Asia, but the Russian “stainless steel”, unfortunately, is rusting.

Corrosion affected and many bureaucratic papers. How else to explain that the current “getting up off your knees” in the field of real complex production occurs mainly in the form of propaganda cries, Manilov dreams and “Potemkin villages” (the transfer of Rosstat to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economic Development and the abolition of criminal liability for false information opened up a wave of crafty presentations, “ cartoons” and other bureaucratic fiction). Over the past eight years, industrial growth in Russia has amounted to only 12%. Which, apparently, inspired us to put forward “Ryabkov’s ultimatum” to the West. For comparison: during the period of the pre-war Stalinist five-year plans, the country’s mechanical engineering grew 30 times!

State Duma deputy Oksana Dmitrieva compared three industrializations – tsarist, Soviet and current. An interesting parallel with the times of the First World War. In 1913, 30% of imported equipment was supplied to Russian industry; four years later, “inefficient tsarist managers” managed to replace half. True, this apparent success did not save the empire from disaster.

Is Russia’s fate really a permanent “trouble”?! And the eternal dream of a carrot of a “bright future”? On the opening day of the IEF, a meeting of the Presidium of the State Council was held under the leadership of the head of Russia, dedicated to the development of industry under the sanctions. The President said many right words and made generous promises. But the speech of the head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina was short and evasive. Like, “having discussed with the government, we still offer other mechanisms to support transformational projects.” Translated into a common language, the financial rate will remain the same.

“In Russia, two industries are the worst. According to the international rating. Health care and finance,” said Abel Aganbegyan, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This is the time to recall that life expectancy in Russia is lower than in any country in Western Europe. The sick people, weakened by supermortality, are not capable of nominating a competitive ruling class from their ranks. Maybe this is the terrible secret of our state administration? ..

Recovery is necessary. At the ideological level, a new industrialization, real and not fictitious, can become a goal, a means and a motivation for millions of Russians. “Each hill is a pedestal for glory. Hello blue-eyed freedom! At the moment when metal is born, the strength comes from the people. Not financial speculation, but creative work is the basis of the life and stability of the state. This idea will inevitably take hold of the masses, and here neither the Unified State Examination, nor the Bologna system, nor “media blows” will help. Truth is the engine of history, it cannot be silenced.