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Five Primorye coal mines will shut down as part of the local government’s massive attempt to restructure the krai energy complex, a federal official announced Feb 13.

Deputy Minister of Fuel and Engery Alexander Yevtushenko promised during a krai visit that the 2,500 miners who lose their jobs will be relocated elsewhere. The mines will close by January 1999.

Yevtushenko’s visit is part of a krai campaign to pressure the federal government for millions of rubles in subsidies it owes regional energy suppliers. The krai also wants to streamline the bloated coal industry and begin using other energy sources.

Yevtushenko visited the krai only days after krai and city officials traveled to Moscow to enlist the help of federal officials to convince Vladivostok Mayor Victor Cherepkov to pay up energy debts owed to local energy supplier Dalenergo.

That meeting coincided with a demonstration by striking miners at the mayor’s office. Workers said they were nearly at breaking point.

“Four months without pay has brought us to the edge of survival,” the miners said in a pamphlet released at the demonstration. “The responsibility for this lies first of all with Mayor Cherepkov.”

But Cherepkov insist his problems are just like everyone else’s: If the federal government would pay its debts to the krai and the krai would pay its subsidies to Vladivostok, energy workers would be paid.

According to Vice Gov. Vladimir Rud, however, the federal government is unlikely to pay up soon, because it is also short of cash.

Recognizing that it cannot survive on its present inefficient system, the krai has begun to reform the coal industry. This includes closing mines, updating equipment, improving productivity and buying in cheaper coal from outside the krai.

Many leaders would also like to break the choke-hold coal has on the state. Krai Duma Chairman Sergei Dudnik said the krai has already begun searching for funding to build a power plant in southern Primorye that runs on other fossil fuels.

Cherepkov, meanwhile, said he plans a complete makeover of the city’s energy system. The city’s main power plant would convert from coal to oil, and the entire system would revert to the city’s control.

“Vladivostok’s Fuel and Energy complex is like a paralyzed man,” Cherepkov said recently. “The man has one wooden leg and a plastic arm, but most importantly, his head doesn’t work.”

Meanwhile, Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko has also been appealing to Moscow for cash.

On Feb. 16, he flew to the capital for meetings with the federal Duma, as well as the minister of heat and energy. He was seeking more money.