Activists are collecting signatures in the Cheknhov square in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Photo courtesy of Ksenia Semenova. Some rights reserved.This article originally appeared in Russian on MediaZona.
The Russian government’s draft federal budget for 2018 came as an unpleasant surprise for Sakhalin oblast, Russia’s only island region. Officials have proposed redistributing half of the Sakhalin-2 oil-and-gas project’s contributions from the regional budget to the federal one. Local authorities see this as nothing short of catastrophic and complain that they were never notified of Moscow’s plans. In response, activists have been collecting thousands of signatures and are organising a rally to protest the proposal.
“Since 2015, the government’s economic policy (and budget policy as an integral component thereof) has been geared towards negotiating the consequences of the largest external shock of the past half-century.” These are the opening words of the explanatory note to Russia’s draft federal budget for 2018 and the 2019-2020 planning period. The word “stability” appears four times in the introduction, but in fact it is this document that has served to destabilise the situation in Sakhalin Oblast — and to do it sharply.
