Russian Communist leader takes government policy apart

(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 20, 2013) Russia’s Communist Party sees the government’s performance for the past year as “purely negative,” one of the party leaders said.

“It’s not just that we in principle have different views on what social and economic course to take. On top of that, they haven’t even addressed what they themselves declared to be priority tasks,” Ivan Melnikov, first deputy leader of the party and first deputy chairman of the State Duma, told Interfax.

“A stably stagnant situation has taken shape over the past year. The Russian government is wasting extremely valuable time and is bringing forward times when we won’t be able to form a sufficient budget with commodity revenues,” he said.

“Modernization has never become more than a word,” Melnikov said. “If there have been any financial allocations for development, there has been no visible change. Some of the allocations are insufficient, others get misused, still others just flow past their destination.”

Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization is the cause of further chagrin for the party. “The government dragged Russia into the WTO, praising the advantages of that organization. As a result, a number of industries have collapsed in the country,” he said.

“Nor have we seen any ability to make forecasts,” Melnikov said.

The government “has carried through a whole series of forums where foreigners were told how good it is to invest in the Russian economy,” he said. However, “there has been an increase in the outflow of capital.”

Melnikov blew up the government’s social policy as well. “Some of the ministries have lost touch with the professional communities whose problems they have the responsibility of dealing with,” he said. “The Ministry of Education and Science is a sufficient example – it has set itself against both the employees of the system and the students.”

“The performance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the changes in the Ministry of Defense can more or less be the only source of satisfaction,” Melnikov said.