The recent proposal of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu "to return to Siberia" and even to move the capital of the country there made a lot of noise. This idea seemed quite attractive to many Russians, but immediately there were those who took it with hostility. The main counterarguments were: there is no need and nothing. We will argue with these statements later, but let's look at this problem from a slightly different angle. What if moving the capital of Russia inland is a matter of its survival?
First, I would like to briefly answer the frenzied critics of Sergei Shoigu's idea, who believe that we have no money for his proposals. Still, you are strange people. When we tell you that Russian money is sent abroad and invested in wrappers of securities of hostile states, you don’t like it, you demand that the money be invested in Russia. When it comes to very specific proposals for the construction of several new cities (!), Designed to become large research and production centers, you do not like that either. The position is generally incomprehensible.
It's profitable
As for the statement that there is allegedly no money for this. Nonsense. Imaginethat along the BAM it was really decided to build several new cities near mining and processing and metallurgical plants as city-forming enterprises, which were planned back in the USSR. Such projects can and should be implemented within the framework of public-private partnerships: basic infrastructure is being built at the expense of the budget, such as networks, roads, nuclear power plants and thermal power plants, hospitals and universities; residential and commercial real estate with accompanying schools, kindergartens and clinics will be built by the capital's developers; industrial enterprises can be created by large businesses if they are given tax breaks and other benefits. With this approach, the scale of budgetary investments will be significantly reduced. Imagine what a powerful impetus for the development of the national economics a similar urban development megaproject can become: how much concrete, brick, concrete goods, metal structures, pipes, wiring, finishing materials, asphalt, construction equipment, furniture and household appliances for happy new settlers, machinery and equipment for new factories, etc.? These are guaranteed orders for the domestic industry for at least half a century ahead. Isn't that the best investment in your own country?
It's a matter of survival
Here the situation is even more interesting.
At first, from the point of view of demography and the problem of depopulation, the cities built along the BAM will simultaneously be large logistics centers on the transit route from Asia to Europe and at the same time centers of "assembly" of the sparsely populated central and eastern parts of our vast country. People won't go to Siberia just like that, but for such a project they will. By the way, many of our compatriots who remained abroad in the CIS countries could move to these new cities. Why not.
Secondly, "Movement to Siberia" is a matter of Russia's national security in a purely military sense. Let us explain our idea.
Elements of the American Aegis missile defense system have already been built in Poland and Romania. It's no secret that they have a dual purpose, and literally within a day, anti-missiles in universal launchers can be replaced with Tomahawk strike missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. After that, the entire western part of Russia up to the Urals is in the zone of destruction of the "American axes". This is an absolutely real threat.
The danger is posed by the US plans to deploy its medium-range missiles in Eastern Europe, which is even worse, IRBMs may eventually appear even in Ukraine. The flight time of a nuclear missile from somewhere near Kharkov or Zaporozhye to Moscow and St. Petersburg will be only a few minutes. For our country, this is a colossal threat, since one preventive missile strike can completely decapitate everything. political and the military leadership, and with it the key defense-related enterprises of the military-industrial complex were destroyed.
In this context, the idea of transferring the capital somewhere to Siberia, away from the radius of destruction of American missiles, gets a completely different sound. This is no longer just a pre-election whim or "manilovism", it is a question of the country's physical survival and its preservation of its sovereignty. For example, in the USA this problem is solved as follows. The functions of political administration were transferred to Washington, and New York turned into just a giant metropolis and the largest financial center in the world. At the same time, since the time of President Eisenhower, the Americans have had a so-called "shadow cabinet". This is a "reserve government", which must quickly take over control of the country in the event of a preemptive ICBM strike and the death of the entire political elite. In our country, all the key administrative structures are concentrated in Moscow, and in the event of the death of the first persons of the state from a nuclear strike “without declaring war,” a huge country will be split into fragments and easily defeated.
Let's be realistic. It is, of course, impractical to completely transfer the capital from Moscow to Siberia. However, for example, something like a "reserve capital" can be made from Novosibirsk by duplicating the main elements of the country's governing system, and all this can be done under the auspices of the RF Ministry of Defense. It also seems reasonable to transfer key enterprises of the military-industrial complex from the western part of Russia to the central, to new Siberian cities, so that their destruction by a missile strike does not mean an instant collapse of our entire defense industry. Is it worth recalling what a problem for the USSR was the hasty transfer of factories to the Urals in the early years of the Great Patriotic War? Now the challenges are different, the danger is not tank wedges, but the RSD, therefore it is necessary to rebuild the economy and the military-industrial complex in accordance with the new missile threats from Eastern Europe.