(Note how Moscow TV reports on Amur as if it were in a foreign country.)
BBC Monitoring Russian TV profiles frontier town of casinos, poverty and illegal immigrants Source: Channel One TV, Moscow, in Russian 1700 gmt 16 Apr 05
[Presenter] Registration of candidates has begun in Blagoveshchensk for vacant seats in the city council. In elections two weeks ago, most voters chose "against all" so nearly half of the seats in the council went unoccupied. As a result, the Blagoveshchensk assembly cannot pass decisions because it does not have a quorum. And that is not the only problem today in Amur Region, as Igor Riskin reports.
[Correspondent] Every morning, Blagoveshchensk awakes to the roar of the hovercraft that ply between the banks of the still frozen river and cross the border within 30 seconds. On the other bank of the Amur is China. And in Blagoveshchensk a different way of life is visible to all, even to the naked eye. This distant Russian outpost has its own peculiar features, and problems. The problems are typical not only of Amur Region, but here for some reason they stand out more.
They say here, with a cynical laugh, that Blagoveshchensk has caught up with Moscow in at least one respect. This small town of 200,000 has dozens of casinos and one-armed bandit halls. They are frequented mostly by the Chinese, who are gamblers by nature and fed up of the gambling prohibitions in their own country. Blagoveshchensk could attain the glories of a Russian Las Vegas, but it is hampered by its general poverty, the casinos excepted.
In streets not far from the gambling centre of the town, there are dozens of tumbledown shacks. Lena was born a month ago. She has begun her life in illness and poverty, from which her mother cannot escape. She used to have work in her home village. But a couple of years ago the state farm collapsed and the village emptied.
[Lena's mother, unnamed] I went back there. My old home was open, the windows were smashed, most of what was inside had been stolen.
[Correspondent] The family and child aid centre currently has 6,000 families registered as permanently deprived, that is, they are unable to even feed themselves. Many left their villages in hope of a better life in Blagoveshchensk. Their hopes were in vain.
[Natalya Petrova, director of family and child aid centre] Compared to what we had when we started work, this is a very big increase. We opened in autumn 2000, and this is an increase on back then.
[Correspondent] Four years ago, Governor Leonid Korotkov and his team came to power with promises of reviving the agroindustrial sector. Amur Region once fed the entire Far East. In 2005 this is just a memory. Soon in this region nothing will be left even of the buildings of the former giant cattle and pig farms and vegetable greenhouses. They are now being pulled apart brick by brick.
Sergey, a former veterinary worker, is search for metal amid the ruins. He might find dealers who will sell it on to China. There is nothing left to do in the once well-to-do village of Novotroitskiy.
[Sergey] It's getting worse.
[Correspondent] Why's that?
[Sergey] Nobody needs them anymore.
[Correspondent] Meaning?
[Sergey] The villages.
[Correspondent] Only one thing remains - buying and selling. But here again, the Chinese rule the roost. They are tireless and industrious, although the Russian visas they have usually don't allow them to work. And sometimes they overstay their visas. The constant immigration raids are like a game of hide-and-seek. The losers face penalties from fines to deportation.
[Immigration officer in storeroom] Out you come mate! I can see you hiding in there!
[Correspondent] The officers themselves acknowledge that traders caught like this are just a drop in the ocean. Meanwhile, the local traders look on. Among them are numerous doctors, teachers, and engineers. Many market traders have higher education, which nobody wants either in the market or further afield.
Time was when people came here from all over Russia. It was a rich province, on the border, and with prospects. Now people are leaving. The population of Amur Region has shrunk by tens of thousands in just the past three years.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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