Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, right, lashed out at Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, left, first time in public yesterday.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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A Billion En Route
Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov lashed out at Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin first time in public yesterday. During the government’s meeting, Zubkov alleged that the amount of roughly 1 billion rubles appropriated to revive Sakhalin after the earthquake was lost somewhere en route. Finance Ministry rebuffed by saying the money wasn’t lost but rather didn’t suffice for the reconstruction. Meanwhile, the prosecutors headed for Sakhalin in an attempt to find the rubles in question.
Yesterday, the government met the first time after four parties had nominated First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev their presidential candidate and Medvedev had urged Putin to become the PM after presidential elections. The current Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov was unusually polite when asking First Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to explain the destiny of 1 billion rubles that the federal budget had appropriated to rebuild Nevelsk-town of the Sakhalin Island after the August earthquake.
“I remember the figures by heart. There, Alexei Leonidovich, some 1 billion rubles got lost en route,” Zubkov challenged Kudrin in an even voice, never minding the official agenda of the meeting.
Accompanied by Deputy Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Zubkov visited Nevelsk December 11. It emerged yesterday that the prosecutors arrived in Sakhalin simultaneously with the PM and without notifying the government’s delegation. In the following ten days, the prosecutors will check the regional construction department, files of financial department, quality of constructed facilities and meet other tasks. Regardless, their top concern will be to trail 1 billion rubles allegedly “lost en route.”
Kudrin was silent during the yesterday’s meeting. It was Siluanov that stood for Finance Ministry by commenting on the situation in the evening. According to deputy finance minister, the budget appropriated 5.5 billion rubles to reconstruct Sakhalin. On September 10, Finance Ministry set to transferring 2 billion rubles of interest-free loan. Another 3.5 billion rubles will be provided in 2008; this amount won't be paid pack to the center.
Meanwhile, Siluanov went on, the amount requested by Sakhalin governor grew from 5.5 billion rubles to 6.5 billion rubles. So, “the lost billion” isn’t the money that had once existed and then disappeared without a trace, it is rather the amount, which sources of funding are yet to be discovered if Finance Ministry approves a new estimate, of course.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 14, 2007
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