Lebed Pushes for Siberian Regions to Merge

The ongoing battle between the autonomous Taimyr district and the Krasnoyarsk region to which it nominally belongs has flared up again, with regional leaders issuing proposals and counterproposals on how to define relations -- and split tax rubles -- between the two territories.

Krasnoyarsk Governor Alexander Lebed on Thursday proposed clarifying the Siberian region's relations with its semi-independent autonomous districts of Taimyr and Evenkia by merging the three into a single region.

Analysts said Lebed's move was part of an unrealistic eleventh-hour attempt to save his political reputation as his region sinks deeper into economic difficulties.

The outspoken governor also wants to placate the Kremlin, which is pressuring both sides to come to an agreement.

At the heart of the matter lies the flow of tax money from metals giant Norilsk Nickel, the region's cash cow. The company is based in the city of Norilsk -- an industrial enclave carved out of Taimyr by Stalin and subordinated to Krasnoyarsk -- but registered in Dudinka, the capital of Taimyr. Last year, the company made up around 68 percent of Krasnoyarsk's budget and more than half of Taimyr's.

The city of Norilsk, with a population of 300,000, currently pays taxes directly to Krasnoyarsk, whose residents number some 2.5 million. Taimyr has a population of 44,000.

"The status of Taimyr isn't the real issue," Yury Korgunyuk of the Indem think tank said. "It's really about Norilsk. Removing the borders [between Krasnoyarsk and Taimyr] would solve the problem for Krasnoyarsk by assuring it the greater part of the money flow."

Lebed's initiative followed a call Wednesday by Taimyr Governor Alexander Khloponin, Norilsk Nickel's former general director, to set up new mechanisms to regulate relations between the three territories.

Khloponin has said he would agree to consider plans for unification only if Norilsk is resubordinated to Taimyr.

Both initiatives came shortly after a visit earlier in March by President Vladimir Putin, who increased pressure on both sides to end their standoff.

Lebed's proposal, which he presented to his region's parliament Thursday, was to immediately form a new, unified region and address budget relations later.

In a rare show of agreement with the governor, the deputies approved the proposal "in the interests of fulfilling the Russian president's directive to strengthen state authority in the regions," Interfax reported.

Khloponin criticized Lebed's "one-sided" proposals and called for a referendum in each region. The governor of Evenkia also condemned Lebed's proposal, calling it political grandstanding and backing Khloponin's call for mutual agreement and referendums, Gazeta.ru reported.

The three governors will likely meet for talks in Krasnoyarsk on Thursday.

Leonid Smirnyagin, an expert with the Moscow Carnegie Center, said that under the Constitution, changes to the regions' borders would require all the sides to agree, and that a resolution anytime soon was highly unlikely.

The friction among the regions has been exacerbated by a recent decline in metals prices, which substantially reduced Norilsk Nickel's revenue and, consequently, tax payments. The drop deepened a fiscal impasse in Krasnoyarsk, already hurt by a new federal Tax Code that has redistributed taxes and public spending to the regions' disadvantage.

Lebed spokesman Gennady Klimik said the issue of relations between Krasnoyarsk and its autonomous districts was not connected to interbudgetary wrangling.

"It's a much bigger question that's not tied to this year's budget," he said in a telephone interview. "The state gave the attributes of state autonomy [to Taimyr] too quickly, and it's not economically feasible to fully support the administration required to run it," Klimik added.

But Khloponin on Wednesday said special attention needed to be drawn specifically to interbudgetary relations and joint economic programs.

Lebed said the idea for unification came from the Kremlin. In statements reported Thursday by Ekho Moskvy radio, Lebed said Putin had ordered him and Khloponin on March 22 to draw up a draft agreement by the end of April.

Analysts dismissed such claims.

Indem's Korgunyuk said it was highly unlikely the Kremlin would have begun tackling the ethnic region problem in Krasnoyarsk. "It would start with a less volatile region, such as Perm," he said.

Smirnyagin agreed, saying Putin has not imposed his own solution in Krasnoyarsk because of a dim understanding of regional affairs mixed with caution. "He's very careful and would rather do nothing than make a mistake," Smirnyagin said.

Meanwhile, Korgunyuk said, Lebed most likely does not believe himself that anything will come of his bid to gobble up Taimyr and Evenkia. "He's clutching at straws, trying to stay on the political scene," he said.