From left to right: Regional Development Minister Dmitry Kozak, Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeev and Vice Premier Sergei Naryshkin attend the sitting of Presidium of Council for National Projects Implementation.
Photo: ITAR-TASS
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Medvedev Not to Yield a Square Foot of Land
First time in capacity of presidential candidate, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev chaired the sitting of Presidium of Council for National Projects Implementation yesterday, December 25, 2007. In line with tradition, the land was the first issue that Medvedev had to sort out.
Usually the closed event with the protocol speech of Medvedev, the sitting of Presidium of Council for National Projects Implementation was open for reporters past Wednesday. Medvedev’s address could be summed up as the personal liberty philosophy.
“A free, educated and healthy person is the main thing that determines perspective for country’s development now,” Medvedev explained the very essence of national projects, reminding that the government had injected 400 million rubles in such person and promising to invest another 300 billion rubles to the effect in 2008.
The agricultural land has become a top issue of informal dispute in the government over the recent week. This land is claimed by two ministries, which tasks in the national projects are quite different. Indeed, the Regional Development Ministry and Agriculture Ministry are in clear contradiction when it comes to construction and agrarian projects. You may either build or cultivate in the land that appears in clear shortage in today’s Russia. So, the Regional Development Ministry predictably urges to use it for housing, while the Agriculture Ministry endeavors to retain its agricultural status.
Not all land has been covered by housing construction, Regional Development Minister Dmitry Kozak complained yesterday. “We should attract idle agricultural land and the land of Defense Ministry,” he said.
Medvedev was very diplomatic, preferring neutrality to making a definite choice. Economic Development and Trade Ministry will elaborate a bill on new regulations for re-profiling the agricultural land and the final decision is for the cabinet of Viktor Zubkov or, perhaps, even for the cabinet of Vladimir Putin.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 26, 2007
|
|
|
