“This is my personal opinion, this is not my official position, because it has not yet been agreed upon in the government.
Firstly, I believe that we do not need 85 regions.
I don’t want to deal with the Jewish Autonomous Region - I don’t want to do it in terms of labor costs, ”Khusnullina quoted TASS as saying.
He expressed the opinion that the Jewish Autonomous Region "needs to be connected either with the Khabarovsk Territory, or with some other".
“Or Kurgan.
Why should the Kurgan people live worse than the Tyumen people, but they live 190 km from each other?
Some have oil revenues, others do not, ”said the Deputy Prime Minister.
He said that he believes that "it is necessary to enlarge the regions."
Also, in his opinion, "we must go to the agglomeration."
“The points of growth are agglomerations, removing administrative divisions from them.
Why can't we create an agglomeration today?
Administrative division is getting in the way, ”Khusnullin added.
According to RIA Novosti, a representative of the Deputy Prime Minister explained that Khusnullin only voiced the options for the development of cities.
The deputy prime minister's representative added that "the issue of uniting the regions at the government's platform is not being worked out."