Friday, May 20, 2011

Meeting with the Governor Nikolay Tsukanov.

My attitude towards Nikolay Nikolaevich Tsukanov were always positive, from the very beginning, when he supported our political campaign, on simplification of visa regime.
I usually do not visit the meetings with Russian officials. Not interesting to me, no desire to ask questions, because I know the answers. Or perhaps a mutual antipathy, as officials and politicians (to whom I myself barely include here) are different sides, and sometimes enemies. I did not want to go and at this meeting, but then changed my mind, because stated theme "The Future of the Region", was interesting for me.
For me was a great honour to meet and ask a few questions, the VIP. Nikolay Tsukanov is not just a VIP, from my regional views - the President.

The meeting was organized by blogger`s talkclub "AmberKant" and the head of that club Mr. Dmitry Nadrshin ( my friend). I see the fruits of democracy in Russia, VIP comes to the bloggers. The day before the meeting, I asked you, my worldwide readers of my blog, which questions would you like to ask the governor directly. It was very surprising for some of you, since many of you, had no answers from your governments. I get some questions from you, two of them I asked, the governor answered - fair enough. The first question about the monument to Alexander Marinesko in Kaliningrad ( Königsberg) and the controversy of the monument itself, because of the tragedy of "an attack of the century"( as Russians call it) in which was sunk the " Wilhelm Gustloff " (a question of Dr. Wolfgang Kelker from Frankfurt am Main) and the second question on issue of facilitation of visa regime for EU citizens, for Kaliningrad ( Königsberg) region ( a question of Florian, student from Germany).
The meeting was a good one, who wanted to ask sharp questions, did that. I want to wish a success to Nikolay, and especially in lobbying for the visa`s issue at the federal level. For his support of our initiatives on visa subject, I shook his hand.
My questions and the answers of Nikolay Tsukanov, in Russian - starting at 44.00 and finishing at 50.16. I will translate for you his answers on those two questions, but later.

After the meeting, I came to the Governor and asked him, about the possibility for him, to answer the questions from the worldwide audience. He was positive about it, so hopefully, later he will answer your questions. Anyway, your questions for him, you could start asking right now.