12.06.09

President Dmitry Medvedev "plans to carry out a set of measures this week" to preclude developments such as the recent events in Pikalyovo, Leningrad region, where wage delays and business suspension made several hundred people block a highway in protest on June 2, a Kremlin source said on Tuesday.

Huge traffic jams formed in both directions as hundreds of Pikalyovo residents blocked the federal highway between Novaya Ladoga and Vologda.

An overwhelming majority of the protesters worked for three enterprises located in the town, i.e. Basel Cement-Pikalyovo, Pikalyovsky Cement (both are affiliated with the EuroCement Group holding) and Metachem (affiliated with SevZapProm). The three enterprises had been designed to operate as an integrated technological complex.

Basel Cement suspended alumina production in February, and all the three enterprises started experiencing problems after that.

It was reported on June 3 that a group of State Duma deputies filed a bill on the nationalization of the three enterprises in Pikalyovo.

The situation was settled only after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Pikalyovo on June 4 and harshly criticized the owners of the three enterprises for neglecting the employees' interests. He demanded that the arrears on wages be settled by the end of the day.

Medvedev Pledges To Fire Governors Over Wages, Unemployment

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday he would fire governors who fail to handle the problems of wage arrears and unemployment, ITAR-TASS reported.

"Either they will handle these problems on their own or I'll have to decide to fire them, regardless of their merits," he said at a video conference with presidential envoys to federal districts.

Medvedev said he believed major increases in wage arrears were unacceptable.

Medvedev instructed the envoys to hold meetings with governors to address the issue.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Ustinov, the presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, said at the meeting he was unhappy with domestic companies winning few tenders for facilities being built in the city of Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. He said construction contracts were being awarded mostly to foreign companies.

Medvedev said there might be violations at these tenders and proposed that prosecutors, courts and antitrust authorities address the issue and "give everyone a thump on the head."

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Source: Interfax, Prime-Tass