[Deb Palmieri on Russia Table of Contents] The following article was published in the Russian Commerce News, January-February 1999. The Russian Commerce News is the official publication of The Russian-American Chamber of Commerce®. |
Mr. Sergey V. Kalashnikov
Minister of Labor and Social Development
Dr. Deborah Anne Palmieri conducted this exclusive interview with Mr. Kalashnikov and several of his deputies in mid-December 1998.
Q: Does Russian need humanitarian aid?
Kalashnikov: There is no question that we need it. We can manage the winter on our own, but it is a question of the quality of life. Yesterday I arrived from the Caucasus. Their president said we are lucky that people there don't realize how poor they are. The quality of life can't begin to compare with Western countries.
Q: What are your priorities for humanitarian aid?
Kalashnikov: First, we understand the impossibility of solving all of our problems through international humanitarian aid. But we recommend to all our foreign partners, first of all, to provide humanitarian aid to children homes, hospitals, and educational facilities.
Q: Are there regional priorities?
Kalashnikov: There are ten territories are among the twenty eight that are considered socially depressed in Russia.
Q: What is the most practical thing that people can do who want to donate assistance to Russia?
Kalashnikov: There are possible ways, and one is to work with an already existing representation on the territory of the Russian Federation, for example American private non-government organizations, like the Red Cross.
Q: Could you please give me a general statement on the humanitarian problems faced by Russia?
Kalashnikov: It's not a very easy question. We do understand, though, that without humanitarian aid it is impossible to solve Russian problems. For example, if we take those 10,000 tons of food that I have already mentioned, where we signed a protocol of intention between the governments of the United States and Russia, and take 10 regions out of 89 existing in the Russian Federation and, also, if we take only social sphere entities, then to fulfill not the daily diet but only how much we can afford using these products, then it will last around 3 months. From our point of view this is the most efficient help.
Q: Will Russia survive the winter?
Vinin: As of today, there is no question that Russia will survive through the winter, with or without humanitarian aid. But there is a question of the level of subsistence we are talking about. That's why I have a reverse answer to your question. The more aid we have, the higher our quality of life will be.
Q: Can you comment on Russia's standard of living?
Vinin: Right now in Russia, after the August 17 financial crisis, the percentage of the population living below the poverty level increased. The Ministry of Labor sets that minimum living standard and it is now 600 rubles a month per person. 67.5% of this budget people spend on food. And today a third of the population, about 42-43 million of people have revenues lower than the minimum standard. It is 29% of the total population. When you were talking here about a humanitarian aid, one of the criteria is to chose the territory where help is most needed. These are the territories where more that 40% of the population have a living standard below the minimum standard. These are the territories where due to different reasons indicators of poverty are the highest.
Q: Could you give an example, please?
Vinin: For example, Ivanovo Oblast, Omsk Oblast and various Siberian territories.
Q: We hear that there is an evacuation of communities because it's impossible to supply them with food and fuel.
Kalashnikov: Yes, mostly fuel. We are talking about some regions in Magadan Oblast or Chukhotka where the provision of oil products is possible only through the sea. And because we didn't have time during the summer to provide them with certain provisions mazut there is a critical situation with fuel. Mostly fuel, not food. But food as well.
During the last week we held very intensive negotiations about Chukhotka. They hosted a mission from Canada for two weeks. And as of today, the question about providing humanitarian aid from Canada to Chukhotka and Yakutia is solved. Today we had negotiations with a United Nations representation regarding possible humanitarian aid to Kamchatka Oblast and to some of our Caucasus territories. Events are happening pretty fast and the information changes fast too. For us it's very important to receive some definite picture now because soon there will be the Christmas holidays in Russia, and the second part of winter is the most complicated problem for the most remote territories. Sure, we would like to know now if we can expect some help. So we can coordinate efforts of our government and international charities and non-governmental organizations or governments because I would like to repeat that we hold the same negotiations with Japan, Italy, Spain and so on.
Q: Are you satisfied with the international response so far?
Kalashnikov: Yes, we are satisfied. We really appreciate all the help. During the last year, help never stopped. There was just no contact between governments to produce formal agreements. But all kinds of non-governmental, religious, private organizations have continued and still continue to help us.
Q: Do a lot of people need food aid?
Vinin: Along with those 42 million that live below the poverty line, but are able to get 25 different food items which are necessary, there are 8 million people that can't even buy these 25 products. Most likely they need humanitarian aid in addition to the aid that our government provides them with. There are a few questions there that are addressed to our department that deals with poverty and the needy. One of the most important tasks is how to determine those categories of population that are in need of that help.
Q: How do you insure that people who need aid get it?
Kalashnikov: Within the framework of our work with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development we developed a method of providing help to the regions that need it. I am talking about Komi, Voronezh, Volgograd. In Volgograd, for instance, they use guidelines provided by the World Bank. It is the same method that the Bank has used in Armenia for distribution of humanitarian aid. One of the directions of our work is to use our experience that we gained to determine who really needs that help in those 10 territories. Another question is to estimate those forms of providing help that were used before and determine whether they are effective or not. Our chosen regions in Komi, Voronezh and Volgograd have showed that one of the most important moments is not only a distribution of the poverty grant but also to provide some jobs to those who are in need. Exactly what you have said. It is the same way that America went when Roosevelt developed social programs during the Depression. But there are a few points here that we have to solve through the legislation. For example, we provide help to an unemployed as an additional poverty payment, but in the same time according to the law he can't receive that type of help and work on the public projects. So, there are a few things we need to work on.
Q: There are reports of problems getting donated food and clothing through Russian customs. Would you comment?
Kalashnikov: It is true we request that our foreign partners itemize all incoming aid items. But this is to prevent corruption and pilfering. We are doing the best we can to speed the process of distributing donations.
Q: What do you consider the Russian unemployment rate? What is your official estimate?
Vinin: We have a few numbers, official and unofficial.
Q: OK, give me both.
Vinin: As it is registered, nearly 2 million people. In Russia, there are economically active 100 million people, so it's about 2%. But according to the international labor organizations it is about 12 million.
Q: Is it accurate?
Vinin: These are figures that our statistics show. But besides that there is a concealed unemployment and these figures, depending on the source, vary.
Q: Let me ask you one final question. How do you characterize the situation of the pensioners? The retired people? If you would say that 33% of the population lives below the poverty line would the significant number of those be from the population 65 and older?
Vinin: There are 37 million pensioners in Russia today. Eight million of the pensioners work. Talking about the situation with pensioners we should take into consideration the whole difficult situation with the population that is able to work. The amount that is owed to working population is huge - 86 billion rubles. Comparing to that pension debt is much smaller. And in many families pensioners are the only source of income. The minimum wage in Russia now is about 13% from the living minimum of the population that is able to work. But pensioners have 80%. That's why the situation with pensioners is not that bad comparing to population that is able to work. Comparing to other categories of the population the situation with pensioners is not the worst. The poverty is among the families that have a lot of kids, invalids or pensioners who are 70 or 80 years old and live by themselves. If they live with families then it's not that bad.
Kalashnikov: In the meantime, I would like to add that what we discussed in the very beginning about an agreement about a food help that will be sold according to the market price on the territory of the Russian Federation. Mostly all the profits from that will be directed to the pension fund. This is what our two governments have agreed on. This will decrease the problem of pensioners.
Q: Very good. I thank you very much for your time and I have a much more enlightened perspective now on what the issues and problems are.
Kalashnikov: Thank you.
Deborah Anne Palmieri
Russian Commerce News, January-February 1999
Copyright 2001 The Russian-American Chamber of Commerce®