Putin in Naberezhnye Chelny: ‘debts’ of the Russian defence industry
On 12 February, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin visited Naberezhnye Chelny again, that is to say, after 4 years since his last visit. The 40th anniversary of the first KAMAZ vehicle was the formal purpose of the visit. In fact, its appearance in Chelny had a 'consolatory' nature: it was necessary for the enterprise in a difficult financial state to know about the intention of Moscow to continue the financial support of the factory. Besides, the President visited two enterprises of the Military and Industrial Sector that are also situated in Chelny – Remdizel and Plant of Special Vehicles, held a meeting of the Military and Industrial Panel and was surprised with that the volume of unutilized funds exceeded all 'sound parameters'.
About how Putin saved the automotive industry 7 years ago
Yesterday's event reminded more December 2008 – today KAMAZ is suffering from very serious economic difficulties. It is clear that Putin needed to assure the company the city of 500,000 people depended on that the federal centre would support it… The author of these words remembered how the federal centre urgently saved not only KAMAZ but also the automotive industry in general: it was decided to save it by means of bond placement.
KAMAZ by Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The very event was held in the automobile factory. 3,000 of KAMAZ workers participated there, in other words, factually it was the tenth part of all KAMAZ employees. A transparent proudly saying that by February 2016, the company produced 2,173m KAMAZ vehicles. The scene of the automotive factory was creatively made of two KAMAZ chassis like in 2012.
The vehicle (anyway, it formally represented that KAMAZ) that rolled off the production line in 1976 'KAMAZ N.000001 by XXV Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was near the scene. Another KAMAZ was placed next to it for comparison; its cabin was white and 1,5 times more than the red Soviet one. Most KAMAZ workers were standing there with branded small flags and having blue caps on. About 20 veterans of the automobile giant who worked on the production of the first KAMAZ 40 years ago sat in front of the scene. They had red sashes and decorations. A Soviet chronicle in black and white was shown on the screen.
Sergey Kogogin, the head of the company, appeared when 20 left before Putin's arrival. He came suddenly without advertising his arrival to the people and directed to the veterans to salute, hug and shake their hands. Having greeted the order bearers of KAMAZ and bowed before them, he stood aside to welcome his own boss, the head of Rostech Sergey Chemezov.
Waiting for the first person, KAMAZ workers were shown a touching movie where today's old employees saw themselves young.
Putin's appearance was perceivable by ear: 3,000 of workers welcomed him with applauses. Having heard them, the very President decided to greet them and shake hands of the workersinstead of going up to the scene. The President was followed by a row of federal functionaries, including the Vice-PM of the Russian Federation Dmitry Rogozin who had a portfolio (he is responsible for the defence industry and chairman of the panel of the Military and Industrial Commission of Russia) and the Minister of Defence Sergey Shoygu.
The purpose of the visit of one of the largest petroleum companies in the world became known later. An agreement on strategic collaboration was signed by the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin and Kogogin in the presence of the President of Russia. According to this agreement, Rosneft purchases 2,000 of vehicles of Chelny.
'Kazan behaves very ambitious and aggressively in a good way'
Having expressed his gratitude to the veterans, Putin noted that for 40 years KAMAZ 'has become one of the leading enterprises of the sector in the world, it takes the 11th place, which is a very good indicator; KAMAZ vehicles account for over 50% of the freight market of heavy good vehicles – it is a very good figure.'
'KAZAN behaves very ambitiously and aggressively in a good way', said Putin praising Kogogin's modernization programme. 'Undoubtedly, we all know, the whole country knows you excellent KAMAZ team that takes part in the most prestigious international competitions and takes first places. It doesn't happen always (Editor's Note: 3,000 of KAMAZ workers sighed with sadness and remembered the first not the first place in Dakar rally), but the team is taking the lead during many years among the winners!'
After the official speech, Putin did not hasten to leave the automobile factory. He stopped for 5 minutes in the plant and immediately was attacked by all twenty veterans of KAMAZ. The President had a heart-to-heart talk with them amid a swarm of photographers.
Execution of Plan of Defence Procurement 2015 has been 97%
On the same day, Putin and the functionaries visited two enterprises of the Military and Industrial Complex – Remdizel and the Plant of Special Vehicles. The directorate of the auto giant hosted a meeting of the Military and Industrial Commission of the Russian Federation mostly behind closed doors.
The very meeting was dedicated to the problems of the Military and Industrial Complex and mainly to the execution of the State Defence Procurement.
To start with, he noted that the results were pleasant, this time, the Russian Military and Industrial Complex managed to reach a 97% execution (in 2013 the result was 93%, in 2014 – 96% respectively), that is to say, the plan was not executed again, but the curve is slowly going up. Putin warned that by 2020 – i.e. in 4 years – the modern component of the Russian Defence Industry was to reach 70%. He admitted that at present, the Military and Industrial Complex of Russia has many problems. Not speaking about sanctions directly, which forcefully turned off western suppliers of some Russian enterprises, Putin sadly admitted:
'Indubitably, budgetary conditions of the development of the country and conditions of the development of the Military and Industrial Complex might change. Some enterprises faced a break of international links of cooperation for the last two years. As we have seen today in KAMAZ – and it is no wonder what the colleagues have demonstrated today – these difficulties are temporary and can be overcome.'
Putin: 'The volume of the accounts receivable exceeded all sound parameters'
Despite the exterior force majeure, Putin supposes that targets are to be achieved though by means of optimization of internal procedures and strengthening the budgetary discipline: he warned the enterprises of the Military and Industrial Complex that transparent system of the Defence Procurement execution in separate accounts will allow to follow it. The main news was that the head of the Russian Federation mentioned the financial problem of the Defence Industry – accounts receivable – 'exceeded all sound parameters'. The volume of the unutilized funds of the enterprises of the Complex – rests on the accounts of the defence companies – made 850bn rubles in 2015.
'These problems are to be solved! Once we granted loans to defence enterprises and took into account certain difficulties. But the volume of accounts receivable exceeded all sound parameters,' Putin said indignantly. 'I'm always reported on that! The situation is to be changed.'
After 9 p.m., Putin launched a chemical giant of Tatarstan Ammonia and noted that 'such enterprises on conversion of natural gas in a complete cycle have not been implemented since 1991'.
