Yesterday at 19:49
The construction of high-speed highways, preferential mortgages and allegedly record investments — all this was promised to the Far East by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, at the Eastern Economic Forum. The Russian dictator said that the region is a strategic priority for the Kremlin for the entire 21st century, FREEDOM reports.
The Far East is a large territory with many natural resources and almost complete absence of residential gasification. Last fall, the Far East was gasified by only 24%. With the average rate in Russia at 72%. Therefore, economists call Putin’s grandiose plans populism and fakes.
“Not only that, it is necessary to spend huge resources in order to lay the logistics there, to transport the same energy carriers. It’s also the distance that adds to the cost of physically getting it there. Or do you want to completely move the capital there to the Far East? Well, that’s how Russia will remain then, Putin’s Russia, relatively speaking. That’s why it’s complete stupidity,” said the head of the expert-analytical council of the Ukrainian Analytical Center, Borys Kushniruk.
Such plans of Moscow are a direct consequence of Western sanctions. Now the only available market for Russia is Asia. But there is no free space for Russian goods, and there is no infrastructure comparable to the European one. In addition, doing business with the Kremlin carries high reputational costs and threatens to worsen relations with the West. Therefore, the eastern neighbors are not eager to do business with Russia. This can be seen from the guests of the forum — among the top representatives, only the vice president of Laos, the vice prime minister of China, and not a single state leader. Although the previous year there were heads of Armenia and Mongolia.
According to experts, the words about the development of the region may also be aimed at appeasing North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who arrived in Vladivostok to meet with Putin. However, this does not make them more realistic
“I think that North Korea will conquer Mars sooner than Russia under Putin will do anything necessary from the Far East. The Far East long ago became the birthplace of local criminal groups. A long time ago, the Chinese managed and will continue to manage there. Therefore, the fact that Putin is crawling in front of the North Korean ruler in this way proves only one thing – the days of the Russian regime are numbered, that the humiliation is deepening, and the main source of this humiliation and destruction is Putin himself,” said Yaroslav Romanchuk, chief economist of the Office of Simple Solutions and Results.
The Kremlin wants to get North Korea to hand over weapons. In August, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu went to Pyongyang for this purpose. The negotiations between the dictators in Vladivostok are also aimed specifically at Moscow receiving weapons and ammunition. According to the sources of the Financial Times, Pyongyang can offer Moscow ammunition, rocket launchers and short-range ballistic missiles. In return, Russia can offer North Korea grain, oil, military technology and money in foreign currency. The US has already announced the consequences for countries in the event of such an agreement.
“I will remind both countries that any arms transfer from North Korea to Russia would be a violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions. And we have, of course, aggressively applied our sanctions against entities that fund Russian military actions, and we will continue to enforce those sanctions and will not hesitate to impose new sanctions if necessary,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
These are the second such talks between Putin and Kim. The last time the dictators met was in 2019, and that too in Vladivostok. The head of the DPRK reached the place of negotiations on an armored train. It is noteworthy that Kim Jong Un did not participate in the Eastern Economic Forum.
