Vestnik Kavkaza
Due to the unfavorable economic situation, risks for Russian Railways have significantly increased. Among them, the head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin noted the decline in traffic and as a consequence a reduction of the revenue base of Russian Railways; forced curtailment of the investment program; significant redistribution of cargo flows; slowdown in international cooperation; increased price pressure on suppliers; operating costs of the company as a result of rising of prices for consumed resources. "All this has unpleasant consequences, as well as in the social sphere," Yakunin writes in his blog.
At the end of the Gaidar Forum in Moscow, Yakunin expressed the opinion that modernization of railway transport should be a priority for the country, despite the economic difficulties, since the creation of improved railway infrastructure can be used as a means to confront the crisis effectively and stimulate the economy in difficult times.
According to him, in 2008 Russian Railways created a special office of crisis management, and, since 2008, we're constantly in a state of crisis management. We first announced that, if international efforts were not going to be taken in the international arena, the crisis of 2008 could develop to a second phase. And the fact that today Dmitry Anatolyevich said that not we, but the global economy is in crisis, in fact means only one thing: that there was a second wave of the crisis, which was generated by the year 2008."
Yakunin thinks that the government has made the right choice and decided to continue funding the project of building a high-speed railway system, which is not cheap.
"Japan, which suffered a fall in GDP of 1.5% in 2013, made the fateful decision to set the construction period of high speed railroad for 3-5 years. The same thing happens in the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain and Norway. So, while we succeed (and we are grateful for this to the government) in proving the need to maintain high-speed projects, the projects of modernization of eastern landfill."
However, Yakunin criticized Finance Minister Anton Siluanov: "The Minister of Finance says that there is only one tool to cut spending. He does not say what costs should be reduced. But just by reducing the salaries of public sector employees or administrative unit costs you will not find a lot of money. Therefore, if again there is the idea of reducing development, modernization and innovation, I think that we will see further worsening of the economic and political situation in the country."
