Maikop: rally against Russia's accession to WTO gathers more than 300 participants

Today, rally against Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), held in the capital of Adygea, gathered more than 300 participants. The protest action was organized by the Adyg Republic's Branch and the Maikop City Branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF). This was reported by the organizing committee of the protest action.

Let us remind you that the protest action took place in the central square of Maikop from 12:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. It was planned that the event will be attended by residents of all parts of the republic.

"The rally was attended by more than 300 leaders and representatives from all district branches of the CPRF, the organization 'Children of War', the Council of Maikop Workers, the regional branch of the Union of Communist Youth," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Elena Moskalenko, Secretary of Adyg Republic's Branch of the CPRF. She continued: "Participants of the meeting raised posters with the slogans reading: 'We are against WTO', 'WTO wins Russia loses', 'If we enter WTO, we will eat GMOs'."

Elena Moskalenko has added that, summarizing the results of the protest action, the protestors adopted the resolution, in which they addressed the Russian State Duma, the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the State Council-Khase Adygea, and other republic's authorities.

"Adygea is an agrarian republic. In the event if Russia enters the WTO, agricultural products, imported to us, will be cheaper, than products of local farmers. As a result, we will be non-competitive, and it is a huge loss for our republic. Agriculture will be in decline," Elena Moskalenko has emphasized.

The Secretary of the Adyg Republic's Branch of the CPRF recalled the statement of Anton Siluanov, Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation, that "in 2013, because of Russia's accession to the WTO, the Russian budget may face shortage of 310 billion roubles, and, till 2020, the accumulated losses will amount to not less than 26 trillion roubles."

Aslan Kityz, the participant of the rally, First Secretary of the Takhtamukai District Branch of the CPRF, believes that the consequences of Russia's accession to the WTO will be negative for Adygea.

According to him, instead of buying products overseas, the state should support domestic agriculture. "In Adygea, livestock farming is poorly developed. We eat meat, so to say, of unidentified origin. Many of our land plots are vacant, and they are not processed," Aslan Kityz has concluded.

In its study, the independent analytical centre "WTO-Inform" emphasizes that in general, the negative consequences for Adygea of accession to the WTO will be amounted to 28.9 percent of the turnover of 2020. This will cause reduction of 11,000-22,000 jobs. According to the study, the republic can definitely anticipate a decrease in production (by 10-15 percent) due to decrease in industrial production. According to the analytical centre, the cumulative negative effect can make 10.5-13 billion roubles.

Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" has reported that today, in Stavropol, within the All-Russia CPRF's campaign "World Trade Occupation", the Committee of the CPRF in the Stavropol Territory will held a sanctioned rally against Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization.