Page 11 - RusRPTJul20

The accident occurred at an electric power station on the outskirts of the city of Norilsk on May 29 and sent 20,000 tons of oil (about 150,000 barrels) into water systems leading to the Kara Sea. The cause has yet to be determined, and many have speculated melting permafrost could have damaged the fuel reservoir. Rescue services deployed barriers to seal off Lake Pyasino, the country’s 16th largest lake, but they failed to stop large amounts of diesel. The clean-up will take at least a decade, according to estimates (Rus) by the Environment Ministry. But the impact will be felt even longer as elements of the toxic fuel will remain, continuing to poison the water and the land.
Experts believe this was the largest accident in the history of the Russian Arctic, and Greenpeace compared it to the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster that dumped about 41,000 tons into the sea off the Alaskan coast. Russian ecology watchdog Rosprirodnadzor said the environmental damage would be over $1bn.
President Vladimir Putin held a video call June 3 to discuss the disaster. He announced a formal state of emergency and scolded the local governor and managers from the electric company that runs the power station — his traditional tough-guy act. The electric company is a subsidiary of mining giant Norilsk Nickel owned by Russia’s richest man, Vladimir Potanin.
The catastrophe is unlikely to result in serious problems for Potanin. He is the most experienced and politically astute of Russia’s billionaires, and has excellent relations with the government. The words ‘Norilsk Nickel’ were not even said during Putin’s Wednesday video call, and Potanin didn’t say anything publicly about the accident until Friday during another of Putin’s video calls (Rus). Putin was polite with Potanin, saying only that prevention would have cost the company less than the clean-up.
Events in Norilsk are a warning of the dangers facing the pristine Arctic environment of northern Russia. As the country ramps up oil and gas extraction and melting permafrost poses a bigger and bigger threat to infrastructure, similar disasters are all but inevitable.
2.5 ​ ​National recovery plans will cost 10% of GDP
The new National Plan for Economic Recovery (NPER) consists of 9 sections and 500 concrete programs, all of, which should be implemented between July 2020 and December 2021​.
The total cost of NPER is estimated at RUB5tn; together with already announced support measures by the federal government this will boost federal aid to RUB7.2 trillion, or 7% of GDP. The Finance Ministry estimates that an additional RUB3tn or 3% of GDP would come through easing of fiscal policy on federal and regional levels; thus, it puts the gross volume of state aid to the economy at c10% of GDP. There will be 3 stages in Plan implementation: adaptation, recovery and active growth.
Social Policy, Support to SME and Most-Hit Sectors:​ The government’s prime goal for social policy is to stabilize income trends, increase employment and liberalize / deregulate labor relations. As small businesses are among the hardest-hit by the crisis, a special section of the NPER specifically targets SMEs through offers of tax relief, grants and subsidies, as well as easing of regulatory and control procedures. Also, NPER contains a number of specific measures of support to sectors of the economy that were most-hit by the crisis: i.e., airlines, tourist industry and hospitality services.
Investment, Digital Economy and Import Substitution:​ These parts of NPER largely repeat the goals already set in the respective national projects. The government wants to boost economic growth through following its
11​ RUSSIA Country Report​ July 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com