Contrary to Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov's expectations, the Indonesian guard did not pass out at the sight of Russian President Vladimir Putin. They hadn't been in the sun long enough.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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The Indonesian President's Comin' to Town
Russian President Vladimir Putin returned from Jakarta yesterday and invited the Indonesian president to visit Russia after March 2008. Kommersant's special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov watch the course of events closely and understood how Putin would meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono then.
The Russian delegation was in no hurry to line up for the reception ceremony with the Indonesian president under the burning Indonesian sun. Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov stood in the shadows and talked about his impressions of the Indonesian capital. Jakarta is a city of contrasts.
“The skyscrapers are amazing, of course, but right beside them are hovels!” Luzhkov observed. “I think Jakarta will move toward better usage of its territory.”
That's hard to believe when you come to Jakarta. I saw the amazing skyscrapers too and looked for those hovels, looked as hard as I could, but didn't find them. I think the mayor of Jakarta would say the same thing about Moscow, and more rightly, about our Khrushchev-era apartment buildings. He would hold out his hand to Luzhkov and tell him how, in Jakarta, with its population of 12 million, there are three times more cars and motorcycles than people, they travel without traffic jams and seemingly without stoplights.
LUKOIL head Vagit Alekperov talked about how there are 150 million tons of fuel equivalent in Indonesia and, after he has personally verified that fact, if the figure is not reduced, LUKOIL will establish a joint venture here.
Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak talked about what good borrowers the Indonesians are and what high interest they pay on credits in the billions for Russian military hardware.
Rusal director for international and special projects Alexander Livshits talked about the memorandum on cooperation for the construction of a bauxite plant and alumina that Rusal will build with the Indonesian Aneka Tambang. The bauxite mine has a capacity of 3.6 million tons and soon, by 2011 already, alumina production will reach 1.2 million tons per year. Russia will provide about $1 billion for the construction and equipping of the plant (for which Rusal will receive 51 percent of the stock).
It was just too good for the high-placed Russian here at the Indonesian presidential palace this morning, and I found myself hoping for something to happen. The ceremonial guard was not going to pass out, and Putin had already made his statement to the press, straying from the written text only to add that he had reached an agreement with the Indonesian president that Russian tourists would be able to receive visas in the airport in Indonesia. So the Indonesian had the hope that their country would soon turn into Turkey. That's fine, they're getting what they wanted. President Yudhoyono mentioned that a Russian restaurant had opened in Bali with the obvious intention of enticing his audience. (After the bombs and tsunamis there, whom else would they build restaurants for?)
Yudhoyono also asked the Russian president for aid in training judoists and chess players. We can assume that Putin could handle the judo training himself, and he would undoubtedly be happy to send Garri Kasparov to Indonesia to teach the chess players.
When they started signing the joint documents, I gave up hope of anything happening that would go down in world history.
When it was all over, Putin repeated his invitation to Yudhoyono to visit Russia next year. That invitation was, as usual, accepted gratefully, and I started thinking about what capacity Putin would receive him in, if he invited him president-to-president. He should meet him president-to-president. It was clear that Yudhoyono expected the invitation to be good after March 2008, that is, after the Russian presidential elections. Kommersant has obtained information that the invitation was intended for after March.
It was all the more interesting because Putin had just been fishing 40 kilometers off Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka and, as he was eating fish soup with the fishermen, they told him, “Stay for a third term, you're tried and true.” And the president answered, “Thank you, I'll think about it.” Is he actually thinking about it?
Of course not. He said that to the fishermen to be polite. and he invited the Indonesian president to Moscow to meet the next Russian president. But it would be nice to be present at an event that changes world, nor at least Russian, history. But it didn't happen in Jakarta yesterday. Yudhoyono called Putin the “historical” Russian president. Boris Yeltsin was the first Russian president and Vladimir Putin will be the historical Russian president. And it is in that capacity that he will meet Yudhoyono in Moscow after March of next year.
Andrey Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 07, 2007
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