Johnson's Russia List
#7305
28 August 2003
[log in to unmask]
A CDI Project
www.cdi.org

#14
Parlamentskaya Gazeta
No. 158
August 28, 2003
[translation from RIA Novosti for personal use only]
ST. PETERSBURG MAY BECOME THE COUNTRY'S MODEL CITY
By Viktor TERENTYEV

     At a round-table discussion in St. Petersburg, the Project
Committee, a public organisation set up by well-known
scientists of the city, submitted a project called "A Federal
Dimension - to St. Petersburg." When the project is made
public, it will be sent to the commission chaired by the
president's aide Igor Shuvalov.
This commission is in fact a new centre to work out a programme
of the country's strategic development, which was set up under
the president's administration recently. It is quite possible
that a nationwide campaign to resolve three main problems of
Russia, i.e., poverty, modernisation of the army and the GDP
growth, will be launched in St. Petersburg.
     According to Dmitry Cherneiko, coordinator of the project,
"the city will become a testing range for resolving nationwide
tasks. It has strength and possibilities for this. The main
thing here are people who understand this. Moreover,
negotiations with businessmen have shown that they are ready to
start the implementation of our project."
     The election programme of Valentina Matviyenko, candidate
for the post of St. Petersburg's governor, is based on the
Project Committee's proposals. There is also a draft plan of
work for the future St. Petersburg administration which deals
with all spheres of the city's life - from the municipal
economy to international relations.
     As regards concrete points of the draft plan, scientists
have gone here even further than the president's ambitious
plans.
They suggest that the GDP should be doubled within four years,
and not within 7-8 years.
     In Dmitry Cherneiko's words, "St. Petersburg has been like
a besieged fortress until recently. It has been trying to
demonstrate its individuality in every possible way, but
instead has been turning into an ordinary provincial town of
the Russian Federation. Today, in the light of recent political
events in this country, St. Petersburg, as an intellectual
capital, should become a generator of ideas. Meanwhile, Moscow,
as the administrative centre, may extend these ideas and
technologies to the rest of Russia."

********