Natalya Zubarevich: "The Far East has accumulated colossal irritation"

“People (in Khabarovsk) left on moral grounds, because they were very much offended.

They made their choice and they were sent. And they liked this choice. This is the rarest case when a governor was able to establish normal communication with the population that elected him. Therefore, this is a moral story. Now about the economy.

If we talk about the fact that the Far East is somehow offended in a special way, or the money was not given, this is not the case.

If we take the Far East within the new borders - from Transbaikalia, then it accounts for 15-16% of all transfers to the subjects of the federation, with the population in shares, as you understand, much smaller, somewhere around 6-7 percent, like this.

So this region is very “money-volumed” for the federal budget, in terms of support.

Yes, neither the Khabarovsk nor the Primorsky Territories are the big beneficiaries of this case, their level of subsidies in different years is from 21 to 23%. In general, they live mainly on their own. Because in these subsidies there is not much money, which is called “for equalizing budgetary provision,” mainly subsidies for some kind of programs and subventions for federal powers. Do not spoil them.

They help Kamchatka much better - 60% of subsidies. In Yakutia, and that, somewhere around 37%, because the north and everything is wildly expensive.

In the Amur region, 48 - 50% in different years. Feel the difference. But the Amur Region does not go out into the street shouting that “they are not helping us”.

It's not a question of money. The question is different: when it seemed to people that the authorities were beginning to interact with them, they were given a brick in the head.

Please note: when the wrong one was smuggled in the Primorsky Territory, it was also not a question of finance.

Although there were interest groups, yes, we understand everything, and they also did their job, but the point is that you cannot only raise people to a mass protest by interest groups. You can not.

Something must resonate in their souls.

And here's the second story, why the Far East are more angry than the rest of the country.

To begin with, people there respect themselves more.

Far Easterners, Siberians, these are people whose ancestors once came there and they themselves are there, mostly on themselves and rely on.

The level of self-esteem there is significantly higher, as in any areas of migration inflow, with the possible exception of Yamal, where everyone works for Gazprom, and if you try to respect yourself, you will fly out of work right away.

Further. If we look at this territory, a tremendous irritation has accumulated there.

And it is connected with state PR.

Since 2014, or even earlier, we have all the songs about the “turn to the East”. Each Eastern Economic Forum boggles the imagination with stories about the concluded contracts - as they call it, but to be honest, these are agreements of intent, from which the gulkin's nose goes into real life.

But PR at the same time is inconceivable. And people are smart, they see how much ringing and how many real changes.

This is hugely annoying.

Therefore - all this together.

But to say that the Far East is offended by federal aid is impossible, it is not so.

It's another matter that the infrastructure is worse, more money is generally needed for development, this is a rather expensive territory, where, in the northern part, the natural climatic conditions are worse".

You can watch Natalia Zubarevich's video commentary in full here.