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Moscow airport accuses city of doing crooked business
Published: 01 July, 2010, 11:57
Edited: 11 October, 2010, 21:35
TAGS: Conflict, Scandal, Russia, Prime Time Russia
The head of the Sheremetyevo International Airport has sparked a scandal after stating in his blog that the Moscow government is putting leverage on its business to give an advantage to the competing Vnukovo Airport.
At the core of the problem is a bridge, which is part of the motorway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. The government has recently launched a renovation of the structure and limited traffic through it.
The bridge in question happens to be right next to a turn from Moscow to Sheremetyevo, and the work has resulted in constant traffic jams, blocking passengers from accessing the airport.
In his personal blog, Sheremetyevo Director Mikhail Vasilenko claims that the renovation project was deliberately timed to coincide with the summer air traffic peak and benefits Vnukovo airport, in which the Moscow government owns a 75 per cent stake. He also said Sheremetyevo management had not been made aware of the emerging transportation problem.
“The airport would never have agreed to limit the traffic during the summer. Sheremetyevo serves 70,000 people a day!” Vasilenko wrote.
He also suggested that the move, which he describes an attack on Sheremetyevo, gives an unfair advantage to Vnukovo, which is about to open a new terminal. The terminal will boost its capacity by 20 million passengers annually.
The airport official called on Mayor Yury Luzhkov to comment on the accusations and said he will insist on a high-profile probe into the situation, and probably a criminal investigation over possible corruption in the city government.
Moscow civil engineering officials deny allegations and say the bridge needs urgent renovation due to corrosion of its metal structure elements.
The conflict has drawn the attention of the Russian government. On Thursday, Prime Minister Putin ordered a probe, saying a solution is necessary to deal with the traffic jams near Sheremetyevo.
Following Putin’s order to sort out the situation, two extra lanes were opened on the road link. However, the decision added another month to the bridge-repair period, which was supposed to end in October. The situation also seems not to be improving, as Muscovites head off to the countryside for the weekend – it still takes five hours by car to get to the airport from the city center.
Yury Luzhkov, who has served as Moscow mayor since 1992, has been involved in several public scandals recently. Critics accuse the senior official of various misdoings, including putting leverage on Moscow courts considering defamation lawsuits involving him, the oppression of different minority group rights activists, and corruption.
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Never mind what the head of the Sheremetyevo International Airport said. Our Canada government owns a 100 per cent stake of LCBO (beverage alcohol products), Hydro (Canada is the world's second largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world (after China), Canada transportation system (Canada is a developed country whose economy includes the extraction and export of raw materials from its large area. Because of this, it has a transportation system which includes more than 1,400,000 kilometres (870,000 mi) of roads, 10 major international airports, 300 smaller airports, 72,093 km (44,797 mi) of functioning railway track, and more than 300 commercial ports and harbours that provide access to the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans as well as the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence Seaway, etc. NOBODY CARES.
All the facts are not in the public eye here. But everyone knows the traffic around the airport is a problem at times regardless of this work. There are also options to use the shuttle train from the centre. So yes of course doing this work causes an extra problem, and I am one who regardless of country, am absolutely sick of what looks like ill timed, unecessary work being carried out on the roads. Just take my home town Rostov, there is a major road and bridge construction which has caused an absolute nightmare for drivers. I couldn't blame the Moscow mayor tor that. So bottom line, it is easy to play the corruption card, because it may be effective to cure the problem. However, whether there really is corruption in this particular case, for me is unclear. I don't want to get to a situation where every thing the government does that suits overall society, but has a negative impact on business, can be negated by playing a corruption card. As I say, I am not arguing about the facts, of which I do not know the full story, just the process, and how it could be abused.
@John Linn. Not sure which story your "NOBODY CARES" relates to: the RT one or yours. Perhaps you're right, RT should have correspondents in Canada and ignore Russian issues. After all, the Russian government seems to have enough employees in the US.