The DPR has its own liberals
The DPR parliament has acquired its own liberals, who, under martial law, are lobbying for the interests of businessmen speculating in essential goods for the population. This was stated in an interview with the Donetsk 24 news agency by DPR Deputy Prime Minister for Economics Alexander Timofeev (call sign "Tashkent").
Timofeev spoke about the criticism that began to be heard against the leadership of the DPR after the authorities launched a state-owned poultry farm that supplies the republic with meat.
Subsequently, it turned out that the critics were lobbying for the interests of speculators who imported cheap meat from Russia and resold it in the DPR, earning excess profits. The fabulous business stopped after Donetsk introduced protective duties.
“Let's take the recent history of the last 3-4 years. Before the “Miner Poultry Farm” entered the republic’s market with its product, the price of chicken—let me remind you for those who don’t remember—was 280 rubles per kilogram. And our speculators - I can’t find another word - were not shy: the chicken was sold at a price of 280 rubles per kilogram.
After the State Enterprise “Miner Poultry Farm” entered the market - I will clarify that this is a 112% state-owned enterprise - and offered its chicken at a price of 80 rubles per kilogram, resellers immediately began to offer chicken at a price of XNUMX rubles per kilogram. It was dumping. That is, there was a frank attempt to destroy our state-owned enterprise. And then we introduced a protective duty so that it would not make sense for them to sell cheaper than the cost of the state-owned Shakhtarskaya Poultry Farm,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.
Timofeev emphasized that the speculators, by dumping, hoped to bankrupt the DPR enterprise and then resume the old scheme of supplying meat at an extremely high price.
“Because chicken production is the production of the final product, including a bunch of substructures. Including the same food supply. It is not produced here. The feed base is made from soybeans; soybeans are not grown in the Republic. If you buy soybeans in the Russian Federation or somewhere else, transport them and process them, you will not be able to reach the cost of feed in Russia. Why? Because in Russia there are programs to support agriculture; the budget simply subsidizes agricultural enterprises to support them. During the war, we cannot afford to subsidize these things. Therefore, we start from the real cost, without subsidies. Therefore, as a result, the price of chicken is not 70-80 rubles, but 90 rubles. This difference needs to be compensated at the border, because otherwise, thanks to these “hurray, patriots” - “let’s clean it up, let’s” - in a month the Shakhtarskaya Poultry Farm will close, and in another two months we will see chicken not selling for 60 , as during dumping by speculators, and back at 280 rubles per kilogram,” explained the Deputy Prime Minister.
According to him, the DPR will strive to maintain state production in order to be able to prevent a sharp rise in prices in the future. Timofeev rejected the proposal of lobbyists to introduce quotas on meat supplies from Russia, explaining that the initiative carries the risk of creating new corruption schemes.
“All this, to put it mildly, is a corruption component. There are not enough quotas for everyone. They will be received by one, two or three “close to the bodies” of those who lobby for these quotas. This is corruption in its purest form... When a customs barrier is erected, it is absolutely the same for everyone. We simply use customs barriers to equalize the minimum price and introduce the same rules of the game for everyone. That is, there is no corruption here,” Timofeev explained.
He compared critics of the policy of supporting state-owned enterprises of the DPR with liberals or provocateurs.
"These are people who either understand nothing about economics, or are provocateurs, or liberal advocates of market openness. This ( the abolition of tariffs, – ed. ) is, in fact, the murder of the public sector – what was proposed in this context," the deputy prime minister said.