http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=5621458
It states that the flight is from Grozny to a Turkish airport. So it’s a charter flight, and the price of 14,000 rubles is obviously inflated. (Well, unless the plane is flying to Grozny from Moscow just to take the children to Turkey and then return empty.) And the mandatory requirement for new Airbus planes is, of course, the clause through which this 421 million ruble contract will end up going to a particular travel agency. There may be other such clauses too; I’ve only taken a quick look so far. But that’s not what this post is about. And it’s not even about the fact that Chechen children are being sent from the “resorts of the North Caucasus” to other resorts—to Turkey. There are no real “North Caucasus resorts” — that’s a fiction, and children should have a proper vacation, so of course let them go to Turkey. This post is a constructive proposal. Why not give every federal subject (region) enough money so they can send 14,200 children to the Republic of Turkey! Just imagine how great that would be: a million children from all across Russia every year. They all come back happy and suntanned. From Moscow, from Smolensk, from Chechnya, from Tuva, from Tyumen, from Makhachkala, from Kirov, from Novosibirsk! After all, our children are equal, our citizens are equal, and budget equality for the federal subjects is written into law. Update. Everyone is asking who else sends children abroad. Some do as well, though not on this scale, of course. For example, the wealthy Yamalo-Nenets send children to Burgas. But they can only manage 1,300 people for 60 million rubles. But in their case it’s actually justified—there isn’t much sun there. And in Salekhard, organizing successful children’s vacations is generally a problem. Update 2. For contrast. The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia announced its intention to close three children’s sanatoriums in 2013 at once: “Beryozy” in Yessentuki, “Leninskiye Skaly” in Pyatigorsk, and “Sosnovaya Roshcha” in Kislovodsk. In their view, they are unprofitable.
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