This is the Sakhalin. That's how this huge diamond from the Gokhran collection was called this week. It'll soon occupy its place in the permanent collection of the Diamond Fund of the Moscow Kremlin. It weighs 76 karats. The area of Sakhalin Island is 76,000 square kilometers. Just three generations ago, it should have been a smaller diamond.
Sakhalin was then divided following the Russo-Japanese War. Russia only had its northern part. You can see it here. It's on top. And in its lower part, the Japanese immediately erased all of the historical Russian names. just like they did in the Kuril Islands prior to that. They harshly controlled all of the ocean straits from there. Fortunately, in the victorious 1945, Russia took back those lands. But it kindly preserved some of the Japanese names. For some reason, we still call the island, which Russians called "Figurny" in the 18th century, "Shikotan". And we call Tsitronny Island, "Iturup". It doesn't really matter. The main thing is that this is now Russian territory.
In Sakhalin, at the beginning of this week, there's a premiere of the diamond named after it. We can see in this footage how they unpack an exhibit of the National Treasures of Russia. Moscow – Sakhalin exhibition, which the Gokhran brought there with a jeweler’s diligence. The precious mini-copies of emperor's globus crucigers, and scepters, and the most valuable works of the firms of Fabergé, Morozov, and others also covered a long distance. For our friends from the Gokhran, this is the first such exhibition in decades outside of the capital. For us, this is cause to meet the person who personally convinced the Gokhran to go for such an experiment and see the treasure that Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands are.
This waterfalls, or the entire cascade of waterfalls and streams to be exact, is a treasure of Sakhalin Oblast, the South Kuril Islands, Iturup Island. This water breaks from the volcano, the underground lakes. Its main peculiarity is that in winter, it's seven degrees warmer than the water over there, in the ocean. To be exact, on this side of the island, it isn't the ocean but the Sea of Okhotsk. It now faces a global fate. So, they collect the water from the cascade on the mountain in a pipe, and it goes to the sea via a hidden plant. What plant? We'll sit down and sink our hands into this water.
- Did you catch it? What is this? Chum salmon.
The new acting governor of Sakhalin Oblast, Valery Limarenko, was lucky to catch a fry of a chum salmon right away. By the way, he's a big fan of fishing. Afterward, he brought us to a river.
- I'll catch with worms, you too?
Valery Limarenko, Acting Governor of Sakhalin Oblast: Yes.
- What will we catch?
- Masu salmon, it's masu salmon season right now.
- Masu salmon? Yes, masu salmon.
It's the unique species of salmon in the Russian Far East. And there are also unique short-tailed cats walking along the banks. This is Bobtail.
- Did you have to learn many words?
Valery Limarenko, Acting Governor of Sakhalin Oblast: Words? Not really. They speak the Russian language of Chekhov here.
Limarenko, born in European Russia, clearly fell in love with this Far Eastern area, which the president entrusted to him. Especially since the area has a heroic history. They remember 1945 especially well.
“The hour of just retribution has come. In the autumn of 1945, the heroic Soviet Army dealt a devastating blow to the Japanese occupying forces in the south of Sakhalin. The Soviet Army liberated the south of Sakhalin and drove the Japanese out of the Kuril Islands.”
This week, they celebrated the beginning of the construction of a new school in the Kuril village of Reidovo. This will be the first school on the island since the 1970s. Children and teachers distracted from their vacations.
“Dear friends, now, this is the solemn moment of giving the first brick, which will be kept in the museum of the new school in the village of Reidovo!”
What else can one still in the Kuril Islands? We look at what wasn't considered dilapidated housing not long ago. After the revision, which the new governor conducted, they revealed ten times more dilapidated housing than was stated.
- How come?
Valery Limarenko: This is the problem that... You know, they developed the territory, built temporary housing, I think it was temporary housing. They used wood, slag blocks, they did it, expecting that people would get gas, oil, coal, fish, and return to Krasnodarsky Krai or to somewhere in central Russia.
- And they settled here.
- You're absolutely right. And they live in that housing. And this isn't properly registered.
We entered and I called our cameraman Anton Kasimovich.
- Anton, come in here and look here. I feel uncomfortable.
- If it rains, and it rains heavily here, it leaks so much that we have to put buckets.
- How long have you been in line? Is there one?
- I'm a specialist. It happened when I came in 1987.
- Now it's 2019.
What should they start moving forward from? Let's visit the main island — Sakhalin. Sakhalin residents used to have a bitter joke. They asked why the Japanese built everything so poorly, as it worked for only 70 years. Take this railroad. You know, let's check. Russian gage is 60 inches wide. Here are 60 inches. Let's try this out. No, this is a narrow Japanese track. However, there's a bridge for the gauge that is in the rest of Russia nearby.
Valery Limarenko: We're finishing the work on the railroad.
- You're already finishing.
- Yes. We'll remake everything this year. By the way, we'll finish within literally one year. So, it'll be a construction forced march. We're remaking 520-560 miles of railroad. Can you imagine that?
During the flight from Sakhalin to Iturup, Limarenko, who got accustomed to lots of plans after the decades of his work in the nuclear industry, explained that now when he finally made the common track, they'll connect Sakhalin with mainland Russia and the neighboring Japanese Hokkaido with bridges and tunnels but not planes and ferries. And via the BAM and Trans-Siberian Railway, they plan to create a corridor through all of Eurasia from Tokyo to Lisboa. At the same time, they plan to transport cargo not only from Japan along this route but turn it, an exporting country, into the country, through which the transit from other Pacific Basin countries will go to Europe.
It sounds fantastic. After all, in aviation, they managed to fulfill the idea, which also seemed unreal, in one year. They opened three new routes around the region and three outside of the region from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
Valery Limarenko: “They fly to Blagoveshchensk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.”
After doing it in the region, Limarenko talks to Moscow in a different manner.
Valery Limarenko: We're very sorry that Aeroflot left. And Rossiya now does its best to compensate.
- Rossiya Airlines?
- Yes. Rossiya Airlines is doing their best to compensate for their withdrawal. Nevertheless, this problem remains. And we're now solving it. It's very important for us that people are able to fly on a vacation. Now, in June, all of the tickets are sold out. And people are trying to fly from other cities, such as Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Novosibirsk. This is unfair and wrong. This isn't a commercial issue. This is the issue of the integrity of Russia.
But what about the backwater area of that Iturup? Where should we look for a source of inspiration? The peoples of Siberia and the Russian Far East have a legend. They say that the earth rests on the back of a huge salmon. And all of Russia rests on the back of the Kuril Chain.
We pay a visit to local fishermen in the village of Kitovy. They're going fishing.
Valery Limarenko: When are you putting out? May God be with you.
Here, Limarenko asked to teach him to handle sailor's knots.
- This is the most popular.
- Are you tying or untying it?
- We've tied it.
- And what knot do you have to untie first of all?
Valery Limarenko: The same. But it's tightened.
- And what about the acting governor?
- We need to recruit a team that likes to work and likes people.
In Sakhalin Oblast, which the president entrusted to him, Limarenko first established contact with those who already proved that breakthrough is possible.
After a roofed plant, we went to open ponds. In the water, which is a bit warmer than in the sea, fries grow faster than in nature. And when via the artificial river, they're released to the World Ocean, they already have genetic memory, which makes them return here after they grow up to be caught up. In this respect, Kuril residents are one step ahead of the Japanese.
Alexander Verkhovsky, Gidrostroy CEO: ЭThe Japanese now get 50 tons of return for one million fries. And we get 100-400 tons of return for one million fries.Э
But what about ordinary citizens of the Kuril Islands?
- What's your name?
- Lyubov Andreevna.
- Lyubov Andreevna. My mother's name is Lyuba, too.
On that day, the daughter of this woman, whom we've already met, had to sign an important paper approved by the new governor.
Valery Limarenko: “You undertake to leave this apartment, and I undertake to give you a new apartment in exchange for this apartment.
Vadim Rokotov, head of the Kuril Urban Okrug: "This is a good deal. The state will give you a new apartment for free in exchange for this dilapidated housing that you left. And we'll tear it down".
Valery Limarenko: "In this program for six years, we set a task that we'll have to replace all of the housing registered until January 1st, 2017 in six years. We'll do it in two years. We'll evict people, and they'll get new housing. And we want to solve the problem completely by 2024".
- That's it. Now you have no way out. You signed it in the presence of the governor.
Vadim Rokotov: Yes, you have no way out. We'll keep our word. Now, we're obliged.
At the same time, there's money in Sakhalin Oblast. It exports $13 billion worth of oil, gas, and coal. In the region's capital, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, one could see that such budgets exist. Just look at this advanced rehabilitation center. But they not only got new equipment last year.
- It must be expensive, Valery Igorevich.
Valery Limarenko: It isn't more expensive than money.
And without big money, the know-how by Rosatom to train personnel came here from Korea. Here, they create new jobs by training those Orthodox volunteers who are ready to become hospital nurses. This week, they got the relevant diplomas.
But to create projects, which will provide remote areas of the region, such as Kurilsky Okrug, with money, is also an important task. Since they began to build new houses, they also need to build roads there.
Vadim Rokotov: “This road goes to land plots for private housing projects.”
But as we've already mentioned, this isn't only about money. It's possible to find new ways in what seemed a bureaucratic dead end not long ago.
- Aren't we violating anything?
Valery Limarenko: No, we aren't violating anything.
- Don't one has to buy some license?
- No, now we can catch salmon without any licenses in certain areas.
- You and I or every resident of Sakhalin can do it?
- Every resident of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands can do it. Traditions are the most important thing. People want to fish because the ability to fish is a sign of freedom.
- Wait, I didn't understand. Is it instruction by the federal ministry of agriculture or you decided it here on your own?
- The federal ministry did it. But we turned to it and initiated this project.
- You built nuclear plants and have visited half of the world. You traveled from Vietnam and Turkey to Finland…
- Yes, I've visited a lot of countries.
- Then, you found yourself in Sakhalin. Nevertheless, what made you immediately fall in love with this region but surprised you, even if it hurts someone?
- You know, it's surprising but the road from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to the capital of gas Okha, this is a local road. It means that it isn't a federal road.
- Why?
- The thing is that there are rules that a federal road should go from one region to another region. And this is an island region, the only one in Russia. That's why we don't have a chance to have a federal road. In this situation, I turned to the Ministry of Transport. They'll insert the wording "except Sakhalin Oblast" into the law.
- After all, it was just fishing. Let me tell you again that it's masu salmon.
Vesti on Saturday from Sakhalin Oblast.
