Medvedev furious after summit road collapses

MOSCOW - Agence France-Presse

‘There is no reason to handle things like this with kid gloves,’ says PM Medvedev. AP photo

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev yesterday angrily lashed out at the contractor responsible after heavy rains swept away a road being built for an upcoming Asian summit.

Such mishaps can justify “seeing a company that commits such violations go bankrupt,” Medvedev told a Cabinet meeting. “Let him pay with his ruble,” Medvedev said in televised remarks. “There is no reason to handle things like this with kid gloves.”

The disaster on the planned link between Vladivostok airport and Russky Island, where the Asia-Pacific Economic Community summit will be held in September, left officials red-faced as they seek to highlight progress in Russia’s underdeveloped Far East. Russia has allotted an astronomical $20 billion to construction and repairs in pursuit of its Soviet-era dream of turning the port region into a version of San Francisco to attract massive investment and rival China’s growing dominance. But preparations for the September event have been beset by problems and huge cost overruns. A bridge to the island, long derided as “the bridge to nowhere,” went up in flames in a spectacular nighttime fire last December just as it was about to be unveiled to the world.