Mikhail Delyagin: Cooperation with Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine is vital for Russia

Russia needs to develop integration with Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. This was stated by the head of Russian Institute of Globalization Problems Mikhail Delyagin in his speech at the Academy of Public Administration under the Aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus in Minsk.

Russia needs to develop integration with Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. This was stated by the head of Russian Institute of Globalization Problems Mikhail Delyagin in his speech at the Academy of Public Administration under the Aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus in Minsk.

“Economically speaking Russia cannot exist without the three countries – Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine. This is a reality,” stressed the expert, pointing in particular to technological relations among the countries and organization of traffic flows. He noted that without close cooperation with these countries Russia could maintain some stability, but it would not last long.

However, according to the expert, full-scale integration is feasible only after the recovery of Russia, which “may take place after a system crisis”. “Till then the clash of interests is inevitable,” he continued. Therefore, in M. Delyagin’s opinion, the key task at this stage is to retain such clash of interests “at the level of local conflicts, avoiding, as it happens in mass media, philosophical generalizations”.

“There are two concepts of efficiency. The first of them – accounting one – stands for enterprise efficiency: a company has spent, a company has earned. The second one denotes public efficiency when consequences of actions exert an impact on the society as a whole,” explained Mikhail Delyagin.

“The problem is that in Russia all activities are treated only with a view to accounting efficiency”. “In terms of public efficiency, from a strategic point of view, Russia and Belarus have no problems, but in terms of accounting efficiency, which currently dominates, every local problem is potentially insurmountable,” added the expert.