Last week, during his press conference, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia expects a record harvest of grain by the end of the year. "Yesterday Tkachev said: 130.5 million [tons], probably will. Maybe there will be more. This is generally the largest harvest in history. In the RSFSR, in my opinion, there were approximately 127 [million tons] in 1978. That is, there has never been such a crop. " Putin specifically stressed that "there are no additions here".

The main creator of this miracle is the very "Tkachev" - the Minister of Agriculture of Russia Alexander Tkachev, who in August in an interview with RBC gave a conservative forecast of 120 million tons. The setting of new records - also blessed by the national leader - should, in theory, strengthen Tkachev's position, which is still remembered by his governor's career stage, scandal with the purchase of a helicopter and Kushchevka. However, already in his new position since 2015, the current Minister of Agriculture has done so much that even a record grain harvest is not a guarantee against dismissal next year.

Tkachev is the winner of the "Sanction"

The most significant act of Tkachev as minister, for which he will be remembered after years, is the proposal to wage a war of sanctions between Russia and Europe, not for life but for death. "Take prisoner tomatoes do not take!" - Tkachev decided, and suggested using the scheme: "If parmesan is not our - it is destroyed." "I would like to ask the government and you (Putin - Ed.) To do everything so that we can load lots of agricultural products that enter illegally across the border, destroy on the spot," the minister said at a government meeting on July 24, 2015. Prior to that, the goods that got to the border illegally had to be returned back, and this is "ineffective" - ​​including there is no didactic effect for Europeans.

Putin agreed to work out such an offer, and the flywheel of food repression earned in full force in two weeks (and the decree on permission to press products was signed five days after Tkachev's proposal - that's what "can press"). Only for August 6, 2015 - on the first day of the decree - according to official data, 320 tons of cheese, meat and fish were destroyed. In one year, the plan for destruction was crushed by tractors and burned in furnaces 7,5 thousand tons of "forbidden" products.

Did Tkachev think that it would be better to seize these products and distribute them to the underprivileged after testing? For certain it is not known, however it is known that the minister sincerely encouraged the partners in the Eurasian Union to take part in the border food craziness. Kazakhstan and Belarus were skeptical about this idea (to put it mildly, with skepticism (in two years Kazakhstan, however, will start to press Kyrgyz cheese, but this is another story). But Tkachev entered into a rage: in September 2015, he proposed to press products not only on the border, but throughout the country - all to fight against foreign falsification, in general.

Two facts speak eloquently about how effective this whole bacchanalia was. First, food sanctions have not been lifted so far, which means that not very much Europeans were afraid of the weavachi food repression. And secondly, the sanctions products so conveniently learned to carry through Belarus, that Tkachev on October 13, 2017 stated the need to toughen the measures against those who contribute to the traffic of "banned". "It is necessary to toughen the responsibility for the import and provide for the seizure not only of the products themselves, but also vehicles that transport it," Tkachev said. Machines, obviously, will also be burned - they explode and burn brightly.

Tkachev and the turn of the rivers

One of the most short-lived, but from this no less than global initiatives Tkachev refers to May 2016, when he already settled in order in a new position. During the visit to China, the Minister of Agriculture of Russia proposed to revive the idea of ​​reversing the rivers that seemed to have sunk into oblivion. Only now - in accordance with geopolitical interests. "We are ready to propose a project for the transfer of fresh water from the Altai Territory of Russia through the Republic of Kazakhstan to the arid Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China," Tkachev said at the time. Allegedly Russia has "surplus" water - remain from floods, and besides it is possible to develop jointly the engineering infrastructure of the Gilev reservoir of the Alei irrigation system and the Kulunda main canal, fed from the Ob reservoir: thus it is possible to increase the water supply to 1 billion cubic meters per year.

Tkachev was, of course, not the first to think of himself as the master of the elements. However, the transfer of water specifically to China as an idea from specialists caused a particularly strong rejection. "This is an absolutely ill-considered statement. I think that there is no one more who adheres to this point of view. Anyway, among those who understand anything at least in the water transfers, in water resources and in the costs of overcoming the watersheds, "Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Viktor Danilov-Danilyan told Rossiyskaya Gazeta and added that" there is nothing to project here. " In disbelief was the Ministry of Natural Resources, with which Tkachev did not dare to consult, although it is precisely that their diocese (moreover, Tkachev actually proposed to violate the law "On the protection of the environment").

Tkachev was also accused of the fact that he essentially wants to sell water to China, which is always interested in it (both for objective reasons and subjective expansionist ones) - although there is no surplus of water in Siberia: sometimes there is not enough . Faced with a flurry of criticism, the minister reasonably surrendered back the next day, although he left room for maneuver. "The project for supplying the drylands of the PRC with fresh water will not be implemented in the near future and is possible only if the interests of the Russian Federation are unconditionally respected, including from the point of view of the environment," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted.

Tkachev's relations with wine materials

If the Minister of Agriculture looks at products from abroad with great prejudice, in every apple seeing a foreign spy, then Tkachev treats foreign wine materials differently, depending on the circumstances.

At the end of July 2015 Tkachev said that the food embargo on wine from abroad would not spread. Interfax quoted the minister's statement that the embargo on wine and sweets "may be very badly reflected primarily on the balance of food in our country." And in general - "not yet time, we must analyze everything."

"Time" came in a month. August 23, 2015 on air of the TV channel "Russia 24" Tkachev said that the Ministry of Agriculture is considering the introduction of a ban on the importation of foreign wine. He also added that the fault of Russian brands is spilled foreign drinks. "Spill the wine into bottles already here in Russia, but someone else's wine ... Well, what kind of competition. Of course, the economy will be better for someone who has used other wine materials, spills and sells it under the Russian brand, "the minister said.

On the same day, the Union of Russian Wine-Growers unequivocally made it clear that the minister was mistaken: pouring foreign wine into bottles in Russia and calling it "Russian wine" is normal, and if this practice is banned - the amount of wine alcohol in the country will immediately drop by one third . It is necessary to wait five years - during this time the domestic grapes grow, - then it will be possible to think about something similar.

The idea seemed to be buried, but this year it was remembered again - in the faction "Fair Russia". Distracted from desman, to ban foreign wine and in general all foreign alcohol to import was proposed by Sergei Mironov. The idea seems to have also been rejected, however, by coincidence, in "Fair Russia" is an old friend and business partner of Alexander Tkachev, Alexander - Remezkov. And the minister's wife owns huge vineyards in the Krasnodar Territory, the former estate of Tkachev. In the same place, by coincidence, there are vineyards, mentioned in a bow with the name of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev: information about them is published in the cult film "He is not yours, Dimon" (just in case, pah on its authors).

In general, Tkachev is treated with great respect for wine as such. In September this year, in an interview with RBC, the minister said that he was drinking only Russian wines and that "he himself from the Kuban should note that the Kuban wines have proved themselves very well over the last five years". And shortly before that - in the July NTV interview - Tkachev said that the Russians' use of wine, rather than strong drinks, will positively influence the demographic situation in the country. Apparently, this will happen even faster if the Russians drink at the same time good domestic wines of the company, which, by coincidence, belongs to the minister's wife.

Tkachev and colleagues

It should be noted that Alexander Tkachev is not in the most comfortable position among all ministers of Medvedev's cabinet (not like Ulyukayev, of course, but still). On it constantly break away its more important by the status or recognizability of the colleague - although Tkachev, for the sake of justice, himself constantly gives reasons.

In mid-December last year at Tkachev during the government hour, all the dogs were let down by the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky. "You cut pigs all over the country from private farms, and all large farms, where millions of heads, you are all worth it (the speech about the outbreak of African swine fever in Russia and how the Ministry of Agriculture reacts to it." - Ed. ). This is wrecking! What your ministry does is harm. You list the problems, but do not say why. Nothing good was said about the achievements of agriculture. And the Communists all praise, they have a good Stalin, and Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Yeltsin, and now a good minister. What is good, when all the poisoned products are on the market, all in nitrates! "Zhirinovsky exclaimed.

Before the minister could say anything, Zhirinovsky appended it to the fact that "your ministry is feeding badly our citizens." "In prisons and the army in general, every nasty feed, waste. Therefore, there is nothing to praise! Ruined agriculture, you can not raise 100 years, "said the head of the LDPR. And finally he said that if Minister Tkachev will continue to offer to advertise wine on Russian television, even after 22.00 (and Tkachev offers it), the LDPR will "expel such a minister".

In the middle of March this year Tkachev got from the Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin. "You, of course, in the first place, maybe hotly, maybe emotionally, try to convey [the existing problems] to the authorities, to state structures," Tkachev said at the enlarged meeting of United Russia. In response, Volodin said that the deputies "are power." Tkachev tried to get better and say what the Russian government meant, but Volodin clarified once again. "The source of power is the people, and the deputies are representatives. You are not at a village gathering, "the chairman of the State Duma besieged the minister with applause.

At the end of March (in general, Tkachev turned out to be a difficult month), Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev publicly "hit" the minister. The head of the Cabinet was bewildered by Tkachev's being late for the meeting, and he gave birth to another meme, advising his subordinate "to set the alarm clock in different places."

It even went so far that Tkachev dared to criticize even State Duma deputy from the Kaliningrad region Alexander Pyatikop. All in the same March he criticized Minister Tkachev and his department for the fact that pumping stations because of underfunding did not pump the water off the fields completely - and now there are big problems with the future harvest. In September, the tone of Pyatikop, however, changed. "The Government Hour ended with the" Government Hour "with the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Alexander Nikolayevich Tkachev, - wrote Pyatikop on his facebook. - ... In the recreation I thanked Alexander Nikolayevich for the fact that the situation in the Kaliningrad region to prevent the flooding of polderlands is really improving ... He was offended at first, but after the support of the whole faction he took emergency measures - the commission of the melioration department was sent to the Kaliningrad region ... Now half the pumping stations have been restored ... By the way program, we expect further assistance from the state next year. "

However, it seems that all these attacks on Tkachev do not yet cause him much damage. The main thing is that the best of all his colleagues treat him well, he praises him for the crops and just chuckles at the reservations about the supply of pork to Muslim Indonesia, and not to South Korea. "What's the difference? They will eat, "Tkachev said at the time.