Nikolai Kharitonov, head of the Duma agrarian faction, was one of the agriculture sector lobbyists who specially met with acting President Vladimir Putin to push the establishment of Rosselkhozbank – a new state-owned bank to credit the agricultural

Nikolai Kharitonov, head of the Duma agrarian faction, was one of the agriculture sector lobbyists who specially met with acting President Vladimir Putin to push the establishment of Rosselkhozbank – a new state-owned bank to credit the agricultural sector. In Krasnodar, at the Russian agricultural convention, Kharitonov spoke with Vera Kuznetsova for The Russia Journal.

RJ: Do you really think the country needs another state-owned bank?

NK: We've seen that over these reform years, not all the budget money transferred through commercial banks makes its way to the people who need it in the countryside. That's why we agrarians are categorically against having money for the agricultural sector go through commercial banks. In December, I met with Vladimir Putin to discuss setting up a state-owned agricultural bank. The bank would have charter capital of 375 million rubles. Later, once ARCO [Agency for Restructuring Credit Organizations] restructures SBS-Agro and sorts out its debts, 51 percent of that bank's shares would be sold to the government.

But what worries me is that if we take our time about setting up Rosselkhozbank, then the countryside will still be getting budget money through commercial banks for another six to eight months. This means only more problems for the countryside.

RJ: But why not use Sberbank? It is a state-owned bank, after all.

NK: That's true, but Sberbank doesn't have the broad branch network that Agroprombank and SBS-Agro had. Once everything has been through the arbitration courts, it could be possible to take some of these branches and hand them over to Rosselkhozbank.

RJ: Putin hasn't ruled out holding a referendum on private ownership of land. What do you think of this idea?

NK: I think he's being hasty with this proposal. At meetings with deputies from both the old and new Dumas, Putin proposed that the government take 75 percent of the legislative initiative and the Duma 25 percent. I don't think the old Duma used up all the possibilities concerning the land code. And if there is to be a referendum, then it should be held only among people who actually live and work on the land. That includes village doctors, teachers and policemen. Any village council has lists of all these people. I think there should be separate codes for urban land and rural land and that it is not land that should be traded, but what is produced on it.

RJ: Why not first get an answer on the basic principles through a referendum and then think about the details concerning urban and rural land?

NK: We would vote on a code for urban land tomorrow if necessary. Even a liberal like [Yabloko leader Grigory] Yavlinsky agrees there should be separate laws for urban and rural land. In regions that have already begun their own land reform, we see that there's demand for land on which to build gas stations, casinos and shops but no real demand for agricultural land. Some buy up parcels of agricultural land for a few bottles of vodka. The people who actually work on this land – they have no money and no possibility of buying the land.