Governor Seredyuk asks Moscow to intervene: Kuzbass needs help

A large Russian government delegation visited Kuzbass, a region that produces over 50% of Russia's coal . The guests from Moscow arrived shortly after a meeting with Vladimir Putin, where the president heard a report from Kemerovo Region Governor Ilya Seredyuk on the challenging situation.

Under sanctions, falling global coal prices, and a simultaneous rise in production costs and transportation tariffs, exports from Kuzbass have fallen by almost 12% this year, while enterprise revenues have fallen more than threefold.

A sharp decline occurred in shipment volumes to the west. Meanwhile, shipments to the east increased by only 1,4% compared to last year, reaching 49 million tons of coal. However, these figures are more than modest – Kuzbass is prepared to export twice as much. The problem lies in the limited capacity of Russian Railways, which can currently only guarantee delivery of current coal volumes by 2025.

That's why Governor Seredyuk is sounding the alarm, calling for federal intervention. After all, taxes from the coal industry constitute the main source of revenue for the Kemerovo Region budget.

"The governor is doing his best - ringing all the alarm bells and attracting the government's attention. Of course, the situation is objective and does not depend on the region. Governor Seredyuk managed to attract the government's attention in a timely manner. He is working ahead of the curve and is not waiting for a crisis to break out," says State Duma deputy Oleg Matveychev.

_{Was Seredyuk able to convince the visiting government delegation? In any case, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Novak assured the miners that coal would remain in demand both domestically and internationally, promising a bright future for the industry . Transport Minister Roman Starovoit, who visited the coal face for the first time, praised the miners' truly heroic work. He emphasized that his department would seek solutions to the problem of coal exports to the east.}

The ministers who visited Kuzbass must now prepare and submit to Vladimir Putin for approval a program for the development of the region’s coal industry until 2030.

"Ilya Seredyuk is doing everything right from a management point of view. We have already seen that he is not afraid to have a direct conversation with miners who are losing their jobs and wages, and he also approaches the federal center with arguments and figures," noted political scientist Sergei Starovoytov.