what happened all day in Veliky Novgorod

On September 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin held an expanded meeting of the State Council Presidium in Veliky Novgorod on the development of the labor market. Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov from Veliky Novgorod – about the paradoxes of this market and the paradoxical poems of German Gref.

In Veliky Novgorod, the main activities took place in the innovation center “Intelligent Electronics – Valdai”. Construction of this ambitious structure began in 2019 using extrabudgetary funds. The center was supposed to become a center of high technology and various activities. Novgorodians, who by nature are distrustful of any kind of activity, were suspicious of this idea. The most optimistic assessments were formulated as “well, well.”

But now, when the center is ready, newlyweds come here after the registry office to capture themselves against its background, too. Recently, just one such couple stopped by at the moment when presidential aide Maxim Oreshkin, Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov and Governor of the Novgorod Region Andrei Nikitin were leaving the center. The couple rushed to them with a plea for a selfie as a souvenir. Messrs. Kravtsov and Nikitin frivolously agreed, not thinking about the consequences (I don’t know exactly what), and Mr. Oreshkin prudently smoked on the sidelines.

The presidential aide did not strive to be visible even now, when several dozen governors gathered at the innovation center for an extended meeting of the State Council, who had arrived here the day before and participated in the training, which, judging by their appearance the next morning, was given to them not without effort.

Meanwhile, nothing, except for the event scenario, foreshadowed Mr. Putin’s imminent arrival.

– Who’s at the hotel? – one of the organizers shouted to the governors at the exit from the dining room.

Yes all.

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, when asked when something would start, answered honestly: “I don’t want to upset you.” By the way, from the very beginning, unlike the others, she did not take a single step from the dining room.

And it was late in the evening. But Mr. Putin was scheduled to visit the “Return” center (we are talking about rehabilitation after military operations), visit the “School 21” opened by Sberbank and the Novgorod region, meet with the winners of the high-tech championship (attempts at the Russian analogue of WorldSkills) … And only then a meeting of the State Council was supposed to take place – obviously already in the night.

At the same time, not all members of the State Council left the Valdai Center to wait for the president at the hotel. So, the head of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia, Mikhail Shmakov, and the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin, went into the press center and stayed here to grieve. They sat for a long time in front of a huge monitor and listened intently to watching the Rossiya 24 TV channel. So before, soldiers in the army doomedly watched the “Time” program every evening.

Meanwhile, the head of Sberbank, German Gref, told reporters that artificial intelligence will replace people in all areas, but not earlier than in two or three years. But not later.

It was difficult to resist asking German Gref whether artificial intelligence could replace the top manager of Sberbank, or, to put it bluntly, him, German Gref.

“This will happen later anyway,” the head of Sberbank gathered his strength, “than artificial intelligence will replace you, Andrey.”

It is interesting that when Vladimir Putin asked German Gref the same question some time ago at one of the meetings (I remembered this later), he did not say that. “I hope not in my lifetime, but everything is heading towards this,” Mr. Gref said diplomatically then.

However, a minute later German Gref even conciliatoryly recited a quatrain that he once wrote to Alexei Kudrin:

— Among the rates and tariffs,

Just lies, legends, doubts

We fight hotter than the Scythians

For the dissimilarity of misconceptions.

German Gref, quoting himself, obviously meant that everyone will be wrong in the end.

Then I decided to distract Mikhail Shmakov from watching the news channel and asked what kind of labor market they would talk about at the meeting if, as we know, there is almost zero unemployment in the country.

– In fact of the matter! — Mikhail Shmakov even stood up. “Much more people are needed than there are human reserves!” This has never happened before. The topic is: how to involve those who are still not working for some reason!

— Maybe Mr. Shokhin will finally begin to appreciate the working person? – I suggested.

“Yes, workers have the opportunity to tighten their demands on the employer,” agreed Mr. Shmakov. “And this is a philosophical thing!” There is no need to destroy the employer at all! Then there will be no jobs at all!

This is how trade union leader Mikhail Shmakov spoke. This is what is called – from a position of strength.

The meeting started later than everyone expected. That is, they expected it from 11 o’clock in the morning, but it started at 20 o’clock in the evening. The room where all this happened turned out to be simply huge, the size of a full-size football field and 25 meters high.

The entire wall screen (and this is called “as far as the eye could see”) reported: “On the development of the labor market in the Russian Federation.” There were seven tables in the hall, each made up of four more. All without exception are extremely targeted, table No. 1 – “Forecast of labor market needs.” Seats at this table were occupied by Tatyana Golikova and Igor Levitin (assistant to the President of the Russian Federation.— “Kommersant”), Maxim Oreshkin, Igor Shchegolev (plenipotentiary representative of the president in the Central Federal District.— “Kommersant”) and Sergei Sobyanin (Mayor of Moscow.— “Kommersant”), who seemed to have completely let go after the elections and inauguration. He was carefree, laughed and talked a lot, not even counting, it seems to me, on any response from his colleagues at the table.

Table No. 2 – “Training of personnel in organizations of secondary vocational education.” The interests of this direction were represented by the Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Head of Karelia Artur Parfenchikov, the Governor of the Primorsky Territory Oleg Kozhemyako, the Governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Dmitry Artyukhov…

Table No. 3 – “Training of personnel in higher education organizations” (Governor of the Novosibirsk region Andrei Travnikov, Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov, Governor of the Sverdlovsk region Evgeny Kuyvashev, Rector of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University Mikhail Gordin) … “Support for regions with high unemployment” for Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov, Governor of the Altai Territory Viktor Tomenko, Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region Alexey Teksler, Governor of the Trans-Baikal Territory Alexander Osipov were ready to provide table number 4…

It seems that everything was invented so that it would not be boring. And it was.

— How to help people find work? – Mr. Putin really asked.

Everything went according to the scenario briefly described by Mikhail Shmakov.

“We see a growing demand for labor. And on the other hand, there is a shortage of supply in this market,” reported the governor of the Novgorod region, Mr. Nikitin.

Those present spent the next hour and a half studying this paradox.