Becoming a Russian Oligarch After Rebirth
Chapter 852 - 827 Agreed

Chapter 852: Chapter 827 Agreed

"Then how should the remaining two hundred billion rubles be allocated? Does Chairman Mikhail have any good suggestions?"

Kuderin tentatively asked.

The expenditure budget for the year 2004 was originally set at two and a half trillion, but now Wang Ye suggested raising it to an even three trillion.

That amounts to an extra five hundred billion rubles.

Moreover, Wang Ye also provided a suggestion: allocate three hundred billion—half to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and half to the Safety Bureau, reasoning that the security situation is severe.

Kuderin could not object to this point; he was well aware that the additional five hundred billion rubles would definitely not be easy to claim, probably having been discussed already between Chairman Mikhail and some departments, intending to increase their budgets.

However, it wouldn’t be appropriate to adjust the already drafted budget plans of government departments because, with whatever department’s budget you reduce, a series of problems would arise!

After all, this expenditure budget was not written arbitrarily; it is the result of thorough consideration.

The best method would be to add an extra sum of money so that everyone would be pleased!

Wang Ye, smiling, shook his head and said, "Plan for the remaining two hundred billion rubles as you see fit, but I suggest focusing on higher education. Life isn’t easy for university teachers. That’s where talents are cultivated; if even the teachers can’t teach in peace, or retain outstanding students, the future of our country is in jeopardy."

On this point, Wang Ye indeed felt deeply.

Having come here to study abroad, he had also met quite a few university teachers.

Even Angelina used to be a preparatory class teacher at Friendship University, so he understood the income of teachers as well.

In Moscow, the monthly salaries of university teachers ranged from three to eight hundred US dollars, averaging out to about five hundred US dollars.

It might sound decent, especially since that was around the year 2000.

But the problem is that Moscow is an international metropolis with a very high cost of living!

Thus, the salaries of university teachers were simply not enough.

Keep in mind that a regular student studying abroad from China, with just a year or two of studying Russian and working as a part-time translator in the big market, could earn at least five hundred US dollars a month, and even one to two thousand at most.

By comparison, university teachers’ salaries were indeed too low!

With such low salaries, teachers would be worried about daily life all the time; how could they focus on teaching well?

Correspondingly, the quality of education would decline, and university students would be more inclined to study abroad in developed countries in Europe and America. And if the country couldn’t retain elite talents, it would be difficult for the science and technology industry to develop...

This would create a vicious cycle that, in the long run, poses a great harm to the country.

Therefore, Wang Ye specifically instructed that funds should be directed toward higher education, to allocate more to universities!

Kuderin nodded repeatedly, indicating that he had taken note and would discuss with his colleagues back at the office how to allocate this remaining sum of money.

......

As for the young Vice Speaker Mikhail, although it was the first direct encounter between the two, Kuderin already had a deep impression of why he had risen so quickly since entering politics!

He was truly adept in strategic maneuvering and adept at networking!

Clearly, Mikhail had his own ideas about next year’s finance expenditure budget.

The Safety Bureau and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, through some connection, managed to get through to Mikhail and wanted an increase in budget.

Someone else might have called Kuderin over to negotiate decreasing other departments’ budgets in order to increase the budget of the Safety Bureau and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

But this would create two problems: one is that Kuderin would not easily agree, and the second is which department budgets to cut is also a major issue!

After all, the finance expenditure budget is not something that can be determined by one or two people. The report Kuderin brought over had already been discussed countless times by the government!

It was a product of endless discussions, compromises, and exchanges of interests...

If the Duma could just modify it with a single statement, it would be too flippant.

Obviously, Mikhail was aware of this, so he found another route and didn’t touch any department’s cake, directly adding a large amount to the budget!

Moreover, in the extra budget he provided, he only "took" a portion and deliberately left a large chunk of the cake to the government departments to allocate directly!

That’s just too...

All Kuderin could say was that he was very touched!

There was still one issue though, and that was where the extra five hundred billion in expenditure budget would come from?

Would it really have to be borrowed, which might cause disagreement at the Duma Congress?

After all, Mikhail was only the Third Faction Party Leader, just the Vice Speaker of Duma, and could not dominate the Duma by himself!

Therefore, Kuderin tactfully posed this question.

If this issue couldn’t be resolved, then all the things the two discussed would be meaningless!

......

Wang Ye smiled slightly, not at all flustered.

If he dared to increase the budget by five hundred billion rubles in one go, then of course he had confidence.

"As for this issue, we can first analyze just who or which departments can decide if this expenditure budget can pass.

First, there are your government departments.

An increase of five hundred billion in the budget—you wouldn’t oppose that, would you?"

Kuderin immediately nodded and said, "Of course, we would not oppose that!"

It was a joke—the prospect of an additional budget was equivalent to handing them a large sum of money to "spend"; of course they wouldn’t oppose it.