#13
BBC Monitoring
Russia closes its northernmost industrial centre to
foreigners
Source: Russia TV, Moscow, in Russian 1100 gmt 24 Nov 01
[Presenter] Norilsk, which is beyond the polar circle, is being closed again. The official reason is a difficult industrial situation and overpopulation. Frosts of minus 50 degrees Celsius, the polar night and toxic discharges from the mining metallurgical combine have not put off even residents of southern republics. Every month hundreds of people come to earn money in Norilsk. It is still believed that one can earn good money there but from tomorrow it will be difficult to check this, at least for foreigners. Now one needs a visa and a personal invitation to go beyond the polar circle. Aleksey Ponomarev reports from the world's northernmost city.
[Correspondent] The airport is 50 km from Norilsk. There is an agitated crowd outside the police department here: passengers are studying the new rules for visiting the city. Without a visa and an invitation from an employer or a relative, foreigners will not be allowed entry.
This man is a Ukrainian citizen. He has been working in Norilsk for several years now. Today he returned from holidays. Have you got a Russian visa?
[Unidentified man] No, I haven't.
[Correspondent] Do you have an invitation from your employer?
[Man] Yes, I had an invitation in 1996. I have been here since 1996.
[Correspondent] Policemen who over the past 10 years have got out of the habit of dividing passengers into Russians and foreigners are learning anew. They are checking lists, registration and the database.
[Viktor Sushchenko, head of public order police, Taymyr interior department] If it is established that the person arrived not on a business trip or for some good reason, he will simply be given a talk and asked to leave our city.
[Correspondent] The authorities explain their decision to limit entry into the city exclusively by a difficult industrial situation. Norilsk, the northernmost city in Russia, was built as an isolated industrial centre for the development of enormous non-ferrous and precious metal deposits: nickel, platinum and copper.
[Oleg Budargin, head of Norilsk administration] Every person here should justify his or her presence in some way: be either a future or present worker at the combine or be a worker who has done their bit and just continues living here.
[Correspondent] The city is already overcrowded. With a population of 270,000, about 80,000 work at the Norilsk Nickel combine, while the rest live on state subsidies. At the same time, about 35,000 foreigners permanently live in the city. Many of them - above all, citizens of Asian and Caucasus republics - officially do not work anywhere.
The Norilsk clothes market - every other trader here is a citizen of a former Soviet republic. And the visas and invitations of many of them have become out of date a long time ago. Many hope to receive Russian citizenship but since they haven't got it their stay in Norilsk is illegal.
[Yusif Tagiyev, an Azerbaijani citizen] No organ looks into it. If you are a citizen of Azerbaijan, that it, you can't stay. And all of us want to become Russian citizens. We live in Russia and accept Russian laws.
[Correspondent] The regulated entry into Norilsk comes into force on 25 November. However, according to the city administration, the new rules for visiting Norilsk will take about four months to be fully introduced and only after that foreign citizens will be allowed entry into the city only if they have a Russian visa or an invitation from an employer or a relative.
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