Sending major sums for development of the North Caucasus is justified, viewing them as subsidized is unjustified, Sergey Vereshagin, Deputy Minister for Regional Development, said in his article for the Kommersant paper.
There are common ideas that billions of should not be sent to the Caucasus but the region does not pay off. But the deputy minister has points justifying the financing. Firstly, socio-economic development of the North Caucasus improved in the last 1.5 years.
Secondly, statements calling the North Caucasus a subsidized region are a myth, none of its leaders is part of the top 10, Vereshagin continues.
Thirdly, the Caucasus was at war for years and needs to restore.
The official disagrees that financing regions drags economy. What would the government do with 70 out of 83 subsidized regions then, he asks. Maybe Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and a few oil-rich regions should be kept, while Eastern Siberia and the Far East sold, Vereshagin supposes.
The Caucasus has many problems, such as unemployment, lack of recreation. Young people should not be left idly and join the militants. Austria developed ski resorts and there were many outraged people too, the deputy minister reminds.
Development of tourism in the Alps was complicated but successful. The Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs will invest 10 billion rubles for construction of a ski resort in Chechnya, ordered by Chechen Leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
