Putin's farmer - agriculture and business in Russia | DW Documentary

two events made Stefan do famous first President Putin personally awarded him Russian citizenship in 2014 second after Europe slapped sanctions on Russia because of its annexation of Crimea do personally advised Putin to impose counter sanctions that put farmer door at the heart of international politics caught between two worlds right now things are a bit difficult between Russia and Germany I feel like the child of divorced parents you love your mum and dad but they're arguing and you don't know why you just want them to get along because you love them both [Music] it's mid-february there's more snow than usual in the southwestern Russian town of Liske in the province of Voronezh it's minus 20 degrees district administrator victor shevtsov is visiting stefan door a german-born businessman who is one of Russia's biggest dairy farmers the view from the air shows how big the farm is this helicopter belongs to one of doiis friends a fellow businessman and a member of the Russian parliament [Music] everything you see here is ours we have 100,000 hectares in Liske including 45,000 on this side of the Don River all in one piece that's about 450 square kilometres forty-five thousand hectares worth of fields and buildings plenty of room for cultivating fodder breeding seeds and housing livestock the average German farmer has an average of just 60 hectares the German Farmers Federation sent me here as an intern I could have gone to Greenland or Tanzania but I wanted something different that was in 1989 when the Soviet Union still existed at the time Dule still thought that he would take over his parents farm in Germany but he was captivated by the opportunities offered by this vast country the farmers need space and there's much less of it in Germany than here in Russia when I arrived here I saw the opportunities and things got more and more exciting I met the right people and things took off from there if someone had told me at the start this would be a big business one day I wouldn't have believed to call it a big business is an understatement echo neva has more than 70 thousand cattle throughout Russia calves and heifers are kept outside they seem content despite the bitter cold district administrator Victor shevtsov was there in 2002 when duel was looking to take over a former state collective farm the Russians were skeptical at first and didn't want to make things too easy for him you asked us whether you could work in our district we gave him businesses that were on the brink of collapse the crises of the 1990s really hits our agricultural sector hard and he got the operations that were at the first public meeting in chuchi at the quiet done collective the first that Stefan was to take on he introduced himself to locals a German had once owned the collective and he did a decent job Hilda folks said that German ran things properly maybe this fellow will choose given a chance Prieto booed periodic though I type I do Stefan doers original goal was to increase seed production we also took on some of the cows we wanted to get rid of them but the district administrator said if you do that you're gone cows mean jobs and if you kill jobs you're finished I'm grateful constant videogame the cows plusses agricultural machinery business have become duas main source of income by European standards the growth of his company is almost impossible to imagine this is Verona charmaine location we have 100,000 hectares and 18,000 dairy cows we also have facilities in Kaluga in Novosibirsk cumin or invoke and cost turnover in 2015 was a hundred and forty five million euros the business employs almost 4,000 people and they keep hiring dairy farmers in the West are fighting for survival but Russia's demand for milk remains huge the state subsidizes dairy farmers and door and the others can hardly keep up with the demand is its tier this is the newest facility that's fully up and running it went into operation at the end of 2015 we took on another one On January 10th it's fully stocked with cows the place runs 24/7 including Christmas and New Year of the 2,800 cows is taken to the milking facility three times a day every cow provides about 30 litres of milk per day I was treating as well from day one people didn't resent me because I'm German that's important because this country has been through a lot German visitors are confronted everywhere by reminders of the war local residents refer to the fighting around the village of chooce where dual opened his first business as the Second Battle of Stalingrad it was part of the Great Patriotic War as the Russians call it the conflict has shaped Russia's perception of itself to this very day there's a monument in the forest near the solution II the SS shot twenty-four civilians there in front of their children really grisly I went there once with the village priest and an old woman who had seen the Germans execute her parents it sent a chill down my spine [Music] on May 9th the anniversary of the end of the war we were all amazed that Stephan der was there he laid wreaths and asked us to forgive his grandfather's generation and his nation it was very moving after that everyone accepted him [Music] door has helped to insulate and partly modernize the local school chuchi is now a model Russian village Dewar's company supplies the school and kindergarten with free food unemployment here is almost zero and more people are moving to the area door donates about six hundred thousand euros every year to charitable causes his business built the kindergarten the local residents say door is a hero this is our wall newspaper called where home begins everyone adults and children too should be told about the people who always help us and support us no matter how unusual our requests might seem Stefan dual rules his Russian Empire from here he makes executive decisions and directs his staff in fluent Russian I didn't study Russian for my just sat around with other interns sometimes we had a bottle of vodka it clears your head that's how I learned the language but it was a very rural and informal dialect when I go to Moscow and talk to people if they be really confused but over time I've learned proper Russian after Hume Gong's for Dora spends a lot of time on the road it takes at least two hours to drive from chooce to the regional capital varnish the road winds past fields and sheds this is a kanaeva country Dewar's company is by far the largest milk producer in the region the city of Voronezh has a population of 1 million and is the industrial economic and cultural center of Southwest Russia [Music] door has an appointment with the deputy governor victor logging off to discuss the subsidies for 2017 the two men know and trust each other how much money can do or expect this year this is almost like a state visit before the sanctions a lot of people asked why Russia should subsidize agriculture we could import Dutch cheese and Canadian wheat and sell them our petroleum but those people have stopped complaining it's clear that Russia needs to be self-sufficient when it comes to food production means subsidies that's good uh sure invests about 400 million euros in the milk production industry every year in 2016 Stefan door received subsidies worth fifteen million euros Russia's tense relationship with Germany and the rest of Europe does not affect relations between door and logvinovo senior basta fuyi average people like Stefan and I and many others have good normal relationships of course the sanctions are good for us they've helped us to strengthen our agricultural sector I told some European representatives that I'd like to keep the sanctions for another 10 years we're grateful for them because they're good for agriculture we will continue to strengthen and develop domestic food production Kotori vegan a customer and we are glad Stefan is a part of that she warned us with you I saw a business Stefan dude also sells agricultural machinery there was a huge demand for it when he first arrived in Russia in the early years he sold East German equipment then American machines the business did quite well for many years and then the problems started as was Rob monstrosity couplet iDEN on and there were three really difficult periods the worst was in 2009 we had ordered a large number of agricultural machines Russian banks and funders and then the financial crisis struck the funding dried up Western banks couldn't help we were paying interest rates of 30% nobody was buying out the bank already owned our house and my wife and I had to move in with her parents it was a three-room do what is glad that he didn't get rid of those cows they now provide 65% of his turnover as heaping for as he I am actually glad that we went through all that until then everything had gone well the sky was the limit but when you hit bottom it gives you a new perspective and you take that with you when you start new projects we're doing fine again but I'm sure that we'll see tough times again I was keep CL movida really tight [Music] that night dude wraps up his business in borinage and drives off [Music] he decides to stop at one of his dairy farms it's located along the way [Music] there are lots of statistics here on milk production door runs an orderly business after all he's German he wants to know when production will increase soon an employee says this facility alone is home to 2,800 dairy cows dude owns a total of more than 27,000 they produce 700 tons of milk per day by comparison the average German dairy farm has 56 cows a mere fraction of Duras herd now d'Or is headed for Moscow and the annual Agra farm trade fair the Russian capital is only 600 kilometres away a short hop compared to a trip to one of his facilities in Novosibirsk 3600 kilometers from here door is always on the go he also commutes between Russia and Germany where his company headquarters are located he doesn't have much of a private life and he doesn't want to talk about it [Music] all right I like working to my car I can make phone calls because there's a good signal almost everybody I could be on the road for five hours but it goes by like it was nothing he arrives in Moscow at 2:00 in the morning Moscoe one of the world's largest cities it has a metro population of 17 million a statue of Lenin still towers over the trade fair site a rare reminder of the Soviet era a grove farm is the most important even of its kind in Russia it's both a trade fair and a political platform a Deputy Prime Minister is here the dairy farmers want to know what's going to happen to their subsidies and they're concerned about the tense relations between Russia and Europe the people here know and trust Stefan door he's one of the most powerful people in the Russian dairy industry and a Putin supporter Russia can certainly use the milk his company produces and the ties he has to the West Mears tonight the world is becoming increasingly global so is our economy we're growing more interdependent that's why it's important for us to have people like Stefan de Caro sure he's great for Russia and for our economy and he's also a sort of diplomatic II he can break down political barriers politically what we're here President Putin personally awarded Dewar Russian citizenship in 2014 perhaps out of gratitude when I heard about the citizenship decree I broke down and cried like a child before life here was like living with a woman you're not married to everything's fine you're generally accepted but you're still a foreigner and people are aware but this is a new commission of it and talk under market normal after the EU imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 Dore advised Putin to react with counter sanctions but door says he has not switched sides if PYT unconvinced that my proposal was correct i don't like this i foreign i mentality and silly sanctions have no place in the 21st century they don't work they might against a small country than he the whole world joins indeed his keep flaking but it's ridiculous to impose sanctions on a huge country like Russia given the recent views lon particularly since only half the world's countries are taking part Russian farmers and food producers benefit from the fact that their country no longer imports western food products Stefan door is one of the winners the milk market is booming and turnover is increasing in late 2016 doors started processing his own milk he's exhibiting his new dairy products for the first time in Moscow yogurts cream curds and whole milk under the brand name Academy of Dairy Sciences the products are said to be high-quality and pure not watered down with palm oil like other brands doors milk containers feature a picture of a happy cow the German equivalent of Russia's agro farm is the GRU navaja or green week a huge international agricultural trade fair that's held every year in Berlin companies and individuals set up booths many offer food samples Russia is not officially represented here this year but Stefan door is here as a private citizen Russia has not taken part in the last two g'loona vaca fairs because of the tense political climate I thought why yharnam Russia used to have a big exhibition here featuring the country's different regions it was one of the most popular exhibitions a lot of our visitors now say they really miss it I do too it's dairy farmers day at the Gruner vaca perhaps they resent Stephan Doris support for president Putin's counter sanctions these cost German dairy farmers an estimated two billion euros a year in lost turnover at a time when they are fighting for economic survival but there's no sign of animosity towards Stephan door after all he's involved in the German Russian agro political dialogue on behalf of the German Agriculture Ministry he's seen as someone who can open doors to the Russian market there's fish dish it's very important to keep talking it's better to talk than to do something reckless Stephan doer has always done a good job for us we need contacts with Russia I hope that he can continue his work in that area we're back in Russia this is the village of boo Shaka near Kaluga Stefan door is opening another dairy facility here his twelfth he's also going to lay the cornerstone for his 13th both businesses will have room for 2,800 cows these two new facilities will make it even more difficult for German dairy farmers to export milk to Russia but the local residents are happy to see a new business everyone seems to be here it seems like old times children have arrived from the local school and even the company's milk mascot has turned up political leaders from Kaluga and the surrounding area are here to to cheer Stefan door and his Russian milk Empire milk is a hot commodity right now I used to complain about bad prices but not anymore just click on blades she watches accomplished a moose in soccer move or carry them stephane door is truly in his element but he'd be even happier if the political situation would return to normal one of his prized possessions is this hockey stick ice hockey may be Russia's most popular sport and door has learned to play it fairly well [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] he and his company team often take on the town officials from whiskey it's a bit of Russian style fun and camaraderie but door says hockey can also provide insight into Russian business methods in Germany business is like football but in Russia it's like hockey it's fast and it's rough but it follows the rules exactly unlike football there's no point in taking a dive in hockey the best players power their way to the goal quickly and they don't make a lot of mistakes done we lost 6-1 but we have a lot of fun it's a great game we don't take it very seriously we agreed ahead of time that we weren't going to play too hard because we all have to go to work tomorrow [Music] [Applause] you you

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 649,647

Rating: 4.7564144 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, Stefan Dürr, Putin, Russia, politics, business, agriculture, farming, milk industry, dairy farming, vegetable farming, grain, animal farming, meat farming, farmer, wealth, power, DW, Deutsche Welle, russia documentary, DW documentary

Id: hee-CPpZhwc

Length: 26min 20sec (1580 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 21 2017