R 131010Z NOV 08
FM AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 1223
INFO MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 
AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG 
AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 
AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG

UNCLAS YEKATERINBURG 000071 
 
 
MOSCOW FOR FCS 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/RUS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EINV ETRD PGOV RS SCUL
SUBJECT: SNOWY UFA WARMLY WELCOMES CONSULATE TRAVELERS 
 
Sensitive but Unclassified. Not for Internet. Not for 
Dissemination Outside of USG. 
 
¶1.      (SBU) Consul General and Public Affairs Officer traveled 
to Ufa November 6-8.  The delegation had official meetings with 
the president of the Bashkortostan Republic Murtaza Rakhimov, 
Bashkortostan Minister of Foreign Relations and Trade Boris 
Kolbin, Ufa mayor Pavel Kachkayev and Supreme Mufti Talgat 
Tadjuddin.  CG and PAO opened a photographic exhibit on the 
activities of the American Relief Administration (ARA) during 
the famine in Bashkortostan in the 1920's, met with U.S. program 
alumni and faculty at the Bashkortostan State Pedagogic 
University and visited Ufa's American Corner.  Our eight hour 
journey to Ufa by car took us across the Ural Mountains, which 
were picturesque under an early-winter mantle of white.  Our 
hosts joked that we had brought the first snow of the season to 
Ufa. 
 
¶2.      (SBU) President Rakhimov opened the meeting with 
approving remarks on the recently conducted U.S. presidential 
elections.  He proudly spoke of the stability of his 
multi-ethnic republic, noting that over 100 nationalities live 
together peacefully there.  Our party observed that rural 
villages appeared more prosperous in Bashkortostan than in other 
regions of the Urals, which the president attributed to the fact 
that agricultural reform in the republic had proceeded more 
slowly, and state and collective farm structures were preserved 
alongside private agriculture.  Approximately one third of 
Bashkortostan's population is rural, and the birth rate is 
rising in these areas. 
 
¶3.      (SBU) According to Rakhimov, the global economic 
crisis had not yet had a major impact on Bashkortostan, due to 
the relatively low levels of foreign investment and the 
relatively small number of international banking institutions 
operating there.  (Citibank was the only U.S. bank we observed 
to be present in Ufa.)  According to official data, the U.S. is 
the region's12th ranked foreign trade partner.  Rakhimov noted 
that trade turnover with the U.S. stood at about $220 million 
per year -- about 3.2 percent of the republic's total foreign 
trade.  The president noted an interest in importing agriculture 
machinery and reminisced about his trip to the U.S. 19 years ago 
to sign an agreement to purchase U.S.-made harvesters and 
combines.  He also noted the need for investors in the forestry 
and petrochemical sectors. 
 
¶4.      (SBU) Rakhimov received us warmly and chatted 
amiably throughout our 40-minute meeting, though the 74-year old 
leader appeared to tire towards the end.  He did not seem like a 
man worried about whether he would be reappointed by the Kremlin 
to the post he has occupied since 1993, despite media reports of 
scandal and corruption surrounding his son and other prominent 
members of his administration. 
 
¶5.      (SBU) CG and PAO met with Kolbin prior to meeting 
with Rakhimov to discuss general economic issues.  Kolbin stated 
that Bashkortostan would experience a growth rate of about 10 
per cent this year.  He pointed to agriculture as one of the 
republic's success stories, with its produce being delivered 
throughout the Urals.  Meanwhile, excess capacity in the 
petrochemical industry remains a legacy of the Soviet era. 
Kolbin stated that Bashkortostan refined about 50 million tons 
of oil per year during the Soviet period, but refines only about 
28 million tons today. 
 
¶6.      (SBU) Kolbin enumerated several foreign investments 
in Bashkortostan, including:  a Turkish glass bottle making 
factory; an Austrian ceramic tile factory; a French sheetrock 
manufacturing facility; a Siemens Corporation factory that 
manufactures transformers; a Czech cement factory and a Slovak 
facility that makes industrial packing materials.  Current U.S. 
joint ventures include a company that makes seismic gauges and 
an oil field service operator. 
 
¶7.       (SBU) Kolbin expressed a pressing need for modern 
agricultural machinery - tractors, combines and harvesters. 
Both Kolbin and Rakhimov expressed a preference for American 
equipment.  Kolbin also noted a need for assistance in 
developing modern packaging for Bashkortostan's food processing 
industry.  He said a delegation would be making a presentation 
to the American Chamber of Commerce in Moscow in December. 
Kolbin pointed to gains in the area of environmental protection 
and cleanup and expressed interest in the possibility of 
exchanges with American environmental experts. 
 
¶8.      (U) Ufa mayor Kachkayev spoke proudly of his city's 
development, and downtown storefronts displaying a variety of 
foreign products and a selection of upscale restaurants backed 
him up.  Nevertheless, Ufa suffers from an ongoing housing 
shortage.  Despite increasing levels of housing construction 
over the past two years, the city still ranks ahead of only 
Rostov-na-Donu in terms of per capita housing space in cities of 
over one million in population (excluding Moscow and St. 
Petersburg).  Ongoing municipal assistance projects include a 
15-million Euro water treatment project funded by the EBRD and a 
series of projects to develop health care, recreational 
facilities and a migration center in conjunction with the Swiss 
aid agency. 
 
¶9.      (SBU) The meeting with Talgat Tadjuddin, Supreme 
Mufti of Russia and Chairman of the Central Spiritual Board of 
Muslims in Russia, took place in his elaborately decorated 
office.  (Our female FSN notetakers were relegated to a side 
wall of the Mufti's office and seated on a divan covered with a 
quilt made of several stitched-together fox pelts.)  The Mufti 
was in a talkative mood and made frequent jokes, many of which 
could have been interpreted as being at our expense.  He 
welcomed the result of the U.S. presidential election. 
Emphasizing the president elect's middle name, the Mufti said 
that all Muslims would now respect the United States.  He tried 
to downplay his 2003 declaration of Jihad on the United States 
by saying his remarks had been misinterpreted. 
 
¶10.     (SBU) The Mufti said that Russia was still 
threatened by Wahabbism, especially from those who had studied 
abroad.  He dismissed Russian Muslim participants in U.S. 
exchange programs as Wahabbis and nominated himself as a 
potential exchange visitor.  He complained that all of the power 
in Russia was wielded by the president, prime minister and the 
Orthodox Church, effectively excluding Muslims.  He charged that 
Russia views Muslims as useful only when they are needed to 
serve at the front during times of war.  Nevertheless, he 
claimed to have good relations with President Medvedev and said 
he was at the Kremlin for the president's November 5 address. 
The Mufti's son Muhammad, who may be being groomed to succeed 
his father, was present at the meeting. 
 
¶11.     (U) The exhibit opening was held at the 
Bashkortostan National Museum.  The headquarters of the ARA were 
in Ufa, and several Americans worked there between 1922-24.  The 
exhibit was prepared by the Consulate General's Public Affairs 
section based on materials from Stanford's Hoover Institute and 
the Chelyabinsk regional historical museum.  Despite the 
sensitive nature of the subject matter, the history of which was 
suppressed during Soviet times, and graphic depictions of 
children suffering, the exhibit was well received.  The museum 
director privately remarked that his mother had told him of 
receiving food donated by Americans. 
 
¶12.     (U) CG and PAO learned of a range of contacts in a 
variety of fields between American academics and the Ufa State 
Pedagogic University, which supports a successful English 
language program.  The American-Bashkir Intercollege, an NGO 
which has operated since 1996, is one of the most successful 
programs of its kind.  Its English language summer camp for 
disadvantaged kids has served as a model for similar camps in 
Russia.  At the American Corner, CG and PAO spoke to an 
enthusiastic group of teachers and student alumni of U.S. 
exchange programs about the U.S. elections. 
 
 
SANDUSKY