Russia splurges on APEC
Russian officials are making final preparations for the APEC summit, which they hope will help turn Vladivostok into a new Asian economic gateway. Indeed, hosting the summit appears to be much more about showcasing that city than negotiating any particular outcome. The Christian Science Monitor reports here on the mammoth effort to revitalize the eastern ...
Russian officials are making final preparations for the APEC summit, which they hope will help turn Vladivostok into a new Asian economic gateway. Indeed, hosting the summit appears to be much more about showcasing that city than negotiating any particular outcome. The Christian Science Monitor reports here on the mammoth effort to revitalize the eastern outpost:
Russian officials are making final preparations for the APEC summit, which they hope will help turn Vladivostok into a new Asian economic gateway. Indeed, hosting the summit appears to be much more about showcasing that city than negotiating any particular outcome. The Christian Science Monitor reports here on the mammoth effort to revitalize the eastern outpost:
The Kremlin has invested $21 billion in preparing for the week-long event, far more than most countries spend to hold the Olympic Games, mostly to reinforce sagging infrastructure in Vladivostok – a city of 600,000 seven timezones ahead of Moscow – and to turn the city’s once almost inaccessible Russky Island into a world class conference venue. Russian President Vladimir Putin will address the summit this weekend, and is expected to lay out ambitious Russian plans for pipelines, roads, and rail links through Russia that could soon directly link the booming economies of the far east with the markets of western Europe.
According to this Moscow Times account, the largesse has done little to win hearts and minds in the region:
But in Vladivostok, a city of 600,000 where the clocks run seven hours ahead of Moscow, the injection of capital has done little to lift the low regard in which many locals hold the leader who has dominated Russia since 2000.
Although the city — whose name translates as ‘Ruler of the East’ — has received a makeover, with a new airport, bridges and highway intersections, residents say inflated contracts were won by insiders and the money would have been better spent on social services and housing.
Leaders begin two days of meetings on September 8 and plan to focus on "trade and investment liberalization, regional economic integration, strengthening food security and establishing reliable supply chains, as well as cooperation to foster innovative growth." Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton will reportedly discuss Syria on the sidelines of the meeting.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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