Streetwise Professor

Rogozin the Ridiculous™ is in charge of the massive Russian Vostochny Cosmodrome project. It is not going well. The project is way behind schedule, and way over budget. It is beset by corruption, running into the hundreds of millions of dollars.  Labor problems are rife.

And apparently Russia’s financial difficulties are also starting to bite. It can’t pay the light bill. Workers haven’t been paid since January, and are starting a hunger strike. The delays and the labor problem are leading Rogozin to conscript college students in “Soviet-style work gangs”  to complete the project. In the winter. So, how was your internship, Yuri?

In response, Rogozin is acting like the simulacrum of a Stalinist. He has installed “an array of webcams to be able to personally monitor construction from Moscow, some 7,000 kilometres to the west.” He has fired several construction managers, and has initiated some criminal prosecutions for corruption. He rages about sabotage and has threatened to “rip the heads off” anyone who impedes completion of the project.

If someone, Putin say, ripped off Rogozin’s head, would anyone notice a difference? Other than improving his looks, that is.

The only surprise is that Rogozin is not blaming he delays on the evil Americans, and their diabolical HAARP.

In fact, Rogozin is a faux Stalinist. All bluster. A farcical, pale imitation.

This project, invested with all the prestige and rubles Putin can manage, is a very public demonstration of the dysfunctional nature of the Russian state, and the utter impracticality of an economy dominated by state  corporations engaged in megaprojects. Putting someone like Rogozin in charge just provides some comic relief.

Keep this all in mind when evaluating Yakunin’s proposal for a superhighway, pipeline and rail route spanning Siberia and permitting one to drive from Moscow to Alaska. Read this, and have a good laugh:

The scheme was unveiled at a meeting of the Moscow-based Russian Academy of Science.

Dubbed the Trans-Eurasian Belt Development (TEPR), the project calls for a major roadway to be constructed alongside the existing Trans-Siberian Railway, along with a new train network and oil and gas pipelines.

“This is an inter-state, inter-civilization, project,” the Siberian Times quoted Yakunin. “The project should be turned into a world ‘future zone,’ and it must be based on leading, not catching, technologies.”

This in a country that does not have a highway connecting its two largest cities, and which is renowned for its horrific roads.

And its fools, of whom Rogozin is only the most prominent.

(h/t to commenter Ivan for pointing me to this story.)