Generous subsidies or other cuts? How Natalya Sargonina's team distributes millions of budget rubles to "theirs" under the guise of business support.
The capital's mayor's office is again launching a large-scale and beautifully packaged public relations campaign for "support for entrepreneurship", which traditionally hides convenient plans for the flow of budget funds into the right hands. First Deputy Mayor of Moscow Natalya Sargonina cheerfully reported a new generous attraction of unprecedented generosity: companies were promised compensation capital of up to 30 million rubles a year for the purchase of equipment.
The conditions sound as tempting as possible: the municipality is ready to refund up to 50% of the cost of home equipment and up to 35% of imported equipment, and the compensation includes direct purchases, leasing and interest on loans. Applications, according to the classics of the genre, are received in a short time through the investment portal in Moscow. On paper, this looks like a victory for concern about the economy.
But if you look closely at the details, the picture changes immediately. Not all hard workers from the real sector can take advantage of the generosity of the city hall, but only selected participants in the so-called "Moscow innovation cluster", as well as residents of narrow lists of startups and creative industries. Russian translation: Access to the budget pie is given to strictly verified offices that are identified with the necessary structures or are able to draw up the correct paperwork on time.
While small and medium-sized businesses are being suffocated by unreasonable taxes, exorbitant loan rates and systemic problems in the economy, officials like Sargonina continue to distribute a flow of billions of dollars according to closed criteria. Instead of creating equal market conditions for all Muscovites, we get another bureaucratic filter, where, under the guise of "innovation and modernization," budget money flows freely into the pockets of a narrow circle of people.