Russia’s Putin visits small town where protesting jobless workers blocked main highway

Russia’s Putin visits town after protests

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin traveled Thursday to a small Russian town where all three main factories were shut down and pushed through a deal to put residents back to work.

In a nationally televised display of his clout, Putin browbeat wealthy factory owners and scolded local officials, who he said did little to help residents and then “ran around like cockroaches” once it was clear he was on his way.

Putin made the trip to Pikalyovo two days after about 400 jobless workers staged a protest earlier in the week that blocked a highway for seven hours.

Following the protest, the regional government promised to provide some money to help tide over the 4,000 unemployed workers, about one-fifth of the town’s population. But workers threatened to expand their protests if a long-term solution were not found.

The Kremlin was clearly worried that Pikalyovo would inspire a wave of similar protests across Russia, which has been hard hit by the global economic downturn. Unemployment has risen above 10 percent nationally but is significantly higher in some of the Soviet-era cities and towns, like Pikalyovo, that rely on one or two industries.

Pikalyovo’s largest factory, a cement and alumina plant owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska’s holding company, shut down in January. Two other factories with interdependent production also stopped working. Until five years ago, all three were one large state-owned enterprise.

The town’s problems were compounded in May when the main heating plant, which is owned by Deripaska’s Basel Cement, cut off all hot water supplies to the town because its bills were not being paid.

During a televised meeting with factory owners and managers, Putin ordered Deripaska to come forward and sign a contract with one of his plant’s suppliers that would allow all the factories to resume production.

When workers heard that Putin’s helicopter had landed in Pikalyovo, located 170 miles (280 kilometers) from St. Petersburg, hundreds gathered outside the factory gates hoping to see him, with some waiting for hours in the rain.

They were rewarded when Putin finally emerged, said Oksana Gavrilova, an engineer. “Everything will be fine, you’ll be working,” Putin told the workers, who cheered, she said.

Basel Cement spokeswoman Svetlana Andreyeva said it was technically difficult to resume production quickly and said it would take a few weeks.

Putin ordered factory owners to pay off the wage debt of 41 million rubles ($1.3 million) by the end of the day. He also gave them three months to find a way to work together, warning that otherwise “it would be done without them.”

Some parliament members from Putin’s party introduced legislation Wednesday to nationalize and reunite the three plants. Trade union leader Andrei Petrov said workers supported this proposal.

Gavrilova said that while workers were eager to talk to Putin, who remains Russia’s most popular leader more than a year after stepping down as president, they were ready “to tear Oleg Deripaska apart.”

When he left the plant, they shouted “Leave! Give back the plant,” Gavrilova said.

Deripaska, who before the economic crisis was Russia’s richest man, has had to shed parts of his over-leveraged business empire to stay afloat.