Putin decided to buy up the Caucasus. Dearly, not really

A statement made by the Russian media reads:

"Cardinal changes in the socioeconomic situation in the North Caucasus and increased competence in the government political structures are the two tasks the Prime minister Putin posed to the federal and local governments at the convention on the development of the new North Caucasus Federal District".

At the convention Putin stated an amazing thing: it turns out, I quote: "Russia has reinstated peace in the Caucasus, and now it must demonstrate that it will be able to overhaul the situation in the socioeconomic development of the region..."

This statement, obviously, will be another addition to the bottomless box of Putin's brutal aphorisms.

Russia has restored peace in the Caucasus! Certainly, it is farfetched. And the cost of this "peace" was negligible- some 300 thousand human lives, among who many were civilians, by the way. Still there are, just as there were 15 years ago, a few dozens of "militants", scurrying up in the mountains.

Last spring Kadyrov promised to oust these militants within a week or two, he seems to have forgotten his pledge. Now he does not reminisce about this promise, we will remind him of it though.

Going back to Putin's new-fangled projects it looks as if that 2012 comes ahead of time judging by how they began to dole out the elephants. And the elephants at the said convention were promised to be huge. Someone pointed it out to Putin (apparently, the newly appointed confidant, Khloponin) that in the Caucasus there are such appalling things as corruption, poverty, unemployment, and incompetence among government officials.

Who could imagine that...If it was not for our Prime minister we would have heard of such a dreadful fact. 

But today it is not enticing to reprimand Putin. He has come up with a brilliant operation, extensive and witty. He wants to buy up the Caucasus wholesale, with all its downsides.

A lot of money is involved: according to Putin, "the amount of federal transfers to the North Caucasus Federal District last year totaled 177 billion rubles". But this was last year. This time the plans will be far more substantial: "Minister of Regional Development of the Russian Federation, Basargin, proposed at the convention that extra 20 billion rubles to be allotted to the Investment Fund to finance projects in the North Caucasus".

For the first phase around 5 billion rubles will be needed. Basargin said that the provisional Investment Fund's commission is examining 18 projects worth 270 billion rubles in total, with 13 private investment rubles to one Russian budget ruble.

Simply put, it has been decided to shower the Caucasus with newly printed Russian rubles. The financial crisis is for ordinary people. For serious political operations there is no crisis, and there cannot be one. If it is necessary to buy up an insubmissive region- we will buy. We will print as many assignations as needed and will buy it.

And it does not matter that half of the pledged billions will be embezzled and the other half will fill the pockets of the helpers in various governmental agencies. What counts is that the allotted monies must be used up. It is like the Olympics which does not require victory, just participation.

Does Putin know that he will not be able to buy up the Caucasus? Some serious people from his circle have long said that he hopelessly lost touch with reality, and levitated into the firmament. It's been said he thinks himself great. His circle made him think so.

Is his circle aware that packing the money in bags is another dead in the water idea? Of course, cynics and beneficiaries have already calculated their percent and are pleased with the result. What will they tell the Russians tomorrow when it will become clear that no one planed to create any real jobs in the Caucasus, and no "improvement in the people's lives" was on the agenda, while the sent monies will have once again disappeared without a trace? They will not tell anything because tomorrow everybody will forget about the prepaid hoopla.

Tomorrow they will come up with a different story from a never-ending Russian movie "How to conquer the Caucasus".

Pavel Lyuzakov,