Top officials of the Russian Arctic: "Vorkuta is my home town. Life in the Arctic has tempered me"

1.    Tell us please about your experience, professional achievements as a manager of the territory in the AZRF. How long have you been working? What is inspiring you?

I’ve been working as the leader of the Vorkuta town administration since October 2012. But before that, I worked at the State Council of the Republic as a Vice speaker, at the Council of Federation as a senator, at the Regional government, where I have dealt with problems of the Vorkuta town and they’ve always been the priority for me. When I’d become a leader of the town, I knew that the situation is not easy in Vorkuta. And the same situation is in many northern towns. Vorkuta was built per 300 thousand inhabitants with adequate social infrastructure, roads, and thirteen residential micro--‐ districts — the same number as the operating coal mines. After the restructuring of the coal industry in the 1990s the majority of the mines were closed. But the entire infrastructure remained. And the burden on its content bears the municipality and the city budget. First of all, to develop in these circumstances, the municipal economy should be brought into line with today's realities, that is, to optimize the infrastructure. It is important to do so the city would remain comfortable for residents. Closing or reorganization of all social and cultural facilities — is not only stressful for its employees, but also for the residents of the area. This negative reaction must be avoided whenever possible. After all, north is a place of their residence and it has a serious impact on the human body and health.

It is important to note that reducing the long--‐term infrastructure projects, we create comfortable conditions in those areas of the city that are compactly populated and will develop. We open modern bank and postal offices, develop a telephone and internet networks. Large financial institutions, non--‐governmental health and insurance companies come to Vorkuta, not to mention the development of trade networks. All this forms a modern look of the Vorkuta town.

2.    Could you, please, say some words about achievements of the municipality you’re managing in 2014? What problems have you solved, how could you achieve positive results

Despite the fact that the budget for 2014 was less than the budget in 2012 for almost 1 billion rubles, we were able to do a lot. The work was done to improve and repair roads, social facilities, resettlement, hold high--‐level cultural and sports activities and we were able to prove that efficient and competent approach to the allocation and control of spending of budgetary funds opens up additional possibilities and reserves.

I am glad that during my leadership the town got no new problems, and we concentrate our efforts on solving the problems that have not been solved for decades.

From an interview, 31^st of October 2013 : “What is a real headache for you? — Utilities. The town itself and its structure were designed for two hundred thousand people. Now Vorkuta has about 100 thousand people, but actually only about 80 thousand people live there. And here is the usual five--‐ storey building in the village where three or four families live. And this house must be completely heated and it is costly. All lost income of the management companies is compensated by the local budget. We had an inventory of all housing, municipal property, the next step — dialog with the population” [1].

Life of the individuals in the Far North is not limited to manufacturing. Therefore, we are paying great attention to the preservation of tradition, including folk festivals, sports, national and indigenous holidays. Vorkuta is not by chance called “the capital of the world”; in this town nobody divides people by their ethnicity. Now, the events in the South--‐East Ukraine made us especially appreciate the good friendly relations and peaceful sky over the head, we have revived and held Ukrainian Folk Festival “Chervona Ruta”, that gathered dozens of creative teams from the cities and districts of the Komi republic and neighboring territories. The festival was expected to be a citywide but turned into inter--‐regional one and was held brilliantly. Everywhere during the festival it was possible to hear not only Ukrainian language but Russian as well, the words of encouragement and greetings in the languages of other peoples living together in our town.

We have revived two wonderful sports tournament “Cup of the Arctic” in the winter karting and “Arctic Cup” in karate among men, participated by 12 athletes from Russia, Kazakhstan and Germany. And, of course, “Polar Games” Urban Sports Festival first organized in 1999 by Igor Leonidovich Shpektor — ex--‐mayor of Vorkuta, the permanent President of the Arctic and Far North City Alliance, and now also a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. So, our annual wonderful holiday “Polar Games” is included in the calendar of major sporting events of the country and attractes up to two thousand guests from the cities, towns and districts of the North. For 17 years it has been remaining the mark of the Vorkuta town.

We were criticized for being too much in the Vorkuta holidays, and I think this is not a luxury but a vital necessity. Human life in the North is directly related to the extra load on the body, shortage of oxygen, sunlight, warmth and greenery. As a result, the person gets depression and stress. Therefore, a good mood of citizens is the most important thing.

Moreover, this year we have allocated additional funds to ensure that in the winter, during the polar night, when the sun does not rise above Vorkuta, further decorate with garlands and colored lanterns, not only in the town's main streets and squares, but the main roads and bridges.

I believe it was the correct decision to resettle people and disconnec utilities at 42 apartment buildings and 25 entrances to the ICM and to remove 20 abandoned houses. Let me remind you once populous town, today has changed dramatically. The population of Vorkuta decreased. And today, in some town areas only 5--‐20% of houses are inhabited. It is not difficult to understand that the town has to pay a lot to keep the empty houses and to compensate the resource supplying and service companies for lost income. It is not even tens and hundreds million of rubles, which could be spend more effectively and for the benefit of citizents So, my first initiative was the holding of total housing inventory. And the next step was to work on the resettlement from houses and sparsely populated neighborhoods in the areas of the town expected to develop rapidly. This will eventually allow us to get away from such a phenomenon as “unpromising” villages or territories. Further work is made on the resettlement of sparsely populated apartment blocks, followed by disconnecting them from the utilities and it has brought a significant reduction in the load on the town's budget. Another achievement is the reducing the queues for citizents who want to improve their housing conditions. And this is reality despite the number of empty apartments, which we have found At the end of 2013 669 families were in need of better housing, now there are only 149. And we are continuing to work. We are carrying out the resettlement of sparsely populated houses, repair of vacant apartments and provide housing for people who are ready to stay.

The achievements can we call a large--‐scale work aimed to repair the road network of the town. We performed an unprecedented amount of repairs and made road markings, installed road signs, traffic lights, replaced equipment, road crossings and installed railing. This work led to a decrease in the level of accidents and injuries on the roads of the town. We were able to renovate sports facilities, cultural monuments and urban areas.

Vorkuta is now officially recognized as a part of the AZRF and this I would call the major achievement of the year 2014 as well as the work we’ve done together with the Head of the Komi Republic and its Government.

3.    What could not you complete and why?

The plans were ambitious, including capital repair and modernization of coal--‐fired boilers, replacement of worn--‐out pipes, but as always insufficient funds of the local budget due to a significant decrease in tax revenues to the town’s budget play its role. The main failure of the year, I think, was unability to complete the resettlement of the district Sovietsky. It was necessary to use 58 million and we would be able to save 64 million next year. We are trying to do the best we can and to fulfill the interests and wishes of citizens in the selection of the new place of residence. Also we could not to update the snowplows.

Another area of work that has not yet been completed with the expected results — the transportation of baggage and personal belongings in small and medium--‐tonnage containers for northerners going outside the North. Rassian Railways are now working only with 20--‐ton containers. So it creates considerable inconvenience and a high cost of transportation.

4.    What are your plans for 2015? What should be done first?

In 2014, we worked out a strategy of socio--‐economic development of Vorkuta until 2020. According to it the town is expected to grow during this period. This document defines the mission of Vorkuta as a strategic outpost of the Arctic exploration in the European North of Russia. The strategy aims to promote the development in such important fields as industry, small and medium business, tourism, social facilities, engineering, infrastructure, housing and etc.

It is necessary to create favorable conditions for investors and industrial development. Vorkuta --‐ is not only coal, it is gold, manganese, barite, and a number of other resources need to be developed. The company “Shell” is occupied with oil and gas exploration here. Another thing is that there is a problem with the staff and we’ve made a very correct and timely decision to establish a branch of Ukhta State Technical University here, which will prepare not only the miners, but also oil and gas industry workers, builders and geologists.

The year 2015 will not be easy, but if we can consistently implement the tasks that we have set ourselves, we’ll avoid any serious neganive changes. We have plans to continue the work that we have been successfully conducting the optimization of urban infrastructure. We’ll try to make more efforts to resolve the problems we were not able to cope with. It would be very timely to continue building modern houses and apartments which our citizents certainly deserve. By now we’ve began the work in remote villages Yelets and Sivomasskinskoe where new houses were built in Vorkuta in 1996.

From the interview, 31^st of October, 2013 : “When it comes to the future of Vorkuta, today it is not only a dream, but also economically viable prospects for the further development of the town. And they support the idea that we will build new coal enterprises, develop gas, oil and other industries. So talking about Vorkuta as a future working village is just another attempt to play on the psyche of the population. Vorkuta has been a town and will be a town” [1].

5.    What future do you see for Russian Arctic til the year 2020? What shoud be changed and what is going to stay without any changes?

According to preliminary geological research data the Arctic contains of about 30% — undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas reserves, 20% — gas condensate and 13% — oil. According to the International Energy Agency, the demand for natural gas in the next decade will grow. In China, the annual demand will grow by 7%, in India — by 4.7% and overall in the world market — by 1.8%. The Arctic as an area with enormous mineral reserves and a strategic transport route — the Northern Sea Route, which is so attractive for many countries, including non--‐Arctic ones.

The geopolitical situation shows that it seems to be impossible to remain in the same positions or to return to the recent past. One must make an effort to overcome the consequences of the “crisis of the 1990s”. The future of the Arctic is defined in the Development Strategy of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation and the national security for the period up to 2020.

Vorkuta region has reserves of natural resources and it is a reliable logistics base in the Arctic with significant infrastructure, human resources and the potential to achieve the strategic goals and basic tasks of the Russian state policy in the Arctic. It is necessary not only to extract minerals from the depths of the Vorkuta region, but also process them for the benefits of the territory and its future development.

On a behalf of the Vorkuta citizents I would like to express my sincere gratitude to

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and the Head of the Komi republic Vyacheslav Mikhailovich

Gaiser for persistence and convincing position, which ultimately allowed Vorkuta to become officially recognized as a part of the land territory of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The corresponding decree was signed by Vladimir Putin on the 2nd of May 2014. This gave Vorkuta hope for the future as long as the town was seen as a huge transport hub, one of the start points for the development of the Arctic, its exploration industry.

New Arctic status of Varkuta means its further development, creation of new industries and new jobs, development of small and medium--‐sized businesses, growth in wages and, consequently, additional revenues to the town budget and possiblities to attract highly qualified professionals. We expect the increase in the quality of housing, social and communal services.

Now we are also working on the development of transport accessibility.

Today there is a project of construction of the railway to Ust--‐Kara that will provide an access to the Northern Sea Route and the road to Vorkuta, which is economically important in the current monopoly of the DRD LTD. This road will help to attract investors to our town. This year we begin the construction of the strategically important objects for the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Also we are continuing with the development of the

Pechora coal basin, including coal deep processing (coal chemistry).

6.    What should be done for modernization of management at the federal level?

We consider it necessary to provide the Arctic towns with the tax exemptions for the period of modernization of social sphere, housing and communal services, road management, and snowplows.

In addition, we consider it appropriate to conduct an audit of the state program “Socio--‐ economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation for the period till 2020” and determine the amount and sources of funding. It is nessecary to move towards the project management, creat a portfolio of the Arctic projects, work on selection of projects, investment and their implementation in the short term perspective.

7.    What kind of impact will the economic crises have on the social and economic development of the AZRF in 2015--‐2016?

It is difficult to say for sure what impact the crisis will have. Different factors affect the development of the Russian economy and regions. The crisis has both negative and optimistic scenarios. However, it is now clear: it is not that bad as it seems at first glance. The crisis is a challenge for us and for the Russian economy as well. It is time to review capabilities and the efficiency of the resource use, available capacities and reserves. Now we are experiencing the extablishement of a coherent state policy in the Arctic zone. It is understood that the development of the northern territories is an important task aimed at ensuring the development and security of the Russian Federation, which can not be done on a rotational basis. And we have a hope for the revival of the social infrastructure, the creation of an effective system of motivation, better quality of life, including education, health, culture and sports. The Arctic is now becoming a long--‐term strategic national project.

8.    Should we extract and procced the hydrocarbon resources on the Arctci continental shelf, in the sea and not on the land?

The increasing demand for hydrocarbons and the depletion of fields and deposits make us search for the new resources available for extraction. Significant reserves are found in the Arctic territories, including the shelf. Arctic continental shelf is the last major oil and gas deposit, which could eventually become a major source of energy on the planet. To strengthen the competitive positions of Russia in the global market we need to continue the exploration of hydrocarbons, because even a temporary suspension of work due to the decline in oil prices could slow down the advancement of Russia in t e Arctic.

9.    What kind of future do you see for the development of transportation along the Northern Sea Route?

The Northern Sea Route is one of the cheapest ways of transportation. According to experts, the Northern Sea Route is able to reduce the time for transportation of goods from 7 to 22 days. Therefore, there is no doubt that the importance of this transport route will grow. According to the President of Russia, there is a need to fastern the construction of ice--‐class vessels, new nuclear and diesel--‐powered icebreakers, to prepare a modern navigation infrastructure, renew the communication facilities, and to create everything one may need in case of emergency along the way.

The Strategy for the Development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation and the national security for the period up to 2020 envisages the development of a common Arctic transport system of the Russian Federation as a national marine highway for all year--‐round operation, including the Northern Sea Route and the related river and rail communications, as well as the airports and airlines networks.

Some measures aimed to develop the transport accessibility are included in the regional program “Socio--‐economic development of the Arctic zone of the Komi Republic for the period till 2020”. Some projects are implemented under the personal control of the Head of the Komi Republic Vyacheslav Gaiser. One of such projects is the construction of inter--‐regional railway “Belkomur”, which will connect Ural with the Arctic. Implementation of this project ensures the development of a unified transport system of the Russian Arctic, improves the quality of infrastructure, diversifies the main supply routes to the world markets and helps to achieve a growth in freight traffic along the Northern Sea Route.

Construction of the railway “Vorkuta — Ust--‐Kara” will contribute to the development of coal deposits discovered north of Vorkuta. These deposits can be by the mined pit method and there will the railway line to the coast of the Kara Sea available.

Today, one of the main problems is the lack of development of the Arctic highway linking Vorkuta with other regions of Russia. That fact slows down the economic and social development of the Vorkuta area.

10.    Tell us something about yourself, something that you’re considering important. How did you come to the Arctic, how do you evaluate your life in the North?

Vorkuta is my homeland. I was born in 1966 in a miner's family. My father came from the north of Bryansk, mother — from Kuban. Like most of my peers I grew up in barracks. Still remember, feel the warmth and think I had a happy childhood. The feeling of happiness was stronger due to the fact that the town was being built at that time. Living conditions were quite severe, but everyone worked, lived and had a happy family. Otherwise it was impossible to build this town. I remember sparkling eyes of my parents: they were young; they were building our beautiful town and felt their involvement in its fate; so, they were happy I think that now, after Vorkuta is recognized as a part of the Arctic zone, we will begin a new stage of development and a happy gleam will be seen in the eyes of its citizents, those who work in the town and those who will build tomorrow's Vorkuta.

Once again, Vorkuta is my birthplace. And for me it is the best place on Earth. The place where wonderful, openminded and good people live.

From the interview, 31^st of October 2013 : “The fact that Vorkuta is my home town and the home to my close people is just an additional responsibility and a moral burden. In this case, there is no margin for error, but it is impossible to do something with no errors. We have to think carefully about every move and have not to make any mistake. It is much easier, perhaps, to start carrier on unfamiliar territory. And generally speaking, the work is quite complicated and you need to search for new approaches and solutions for local urban problems. Road could be crossed only by walking "[1].

I am sure that Vorkuta is a town of strong and very friendly people — others are simply not able to survive here. 13 years of work underground caused a feeling of comradeship in me; the work for the Independent Trade Union of Miners taught me firmness in defending the interests of ordinary miners. I am proud that I’ve took part in solving one of the most acute problems of Vorkuta — relocation of the families of dead miners outside of the Far North, to the places with better climate comditions. It was possible to help those families due to the personal involvement of President Vladimir Putin. I’ve participated in the solving of this problem from the beginning and until the departure of the last family to a new place of residence.

Life in the Arctic has tempered me. The people, I was lucky enough to work with at the mine and in the trade union, were my teachers at different stages of life and directly influenced the formation of my character and personal qualities. I am eternally grateful to them and endlessly devoted to my beloved town.