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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin holds a working meeting with Vladimir Region Governor Nikolai Vinogradov

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Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: What is your assessment of the ongoing work?

Nikolai Vinogradov: It is proceeding on schedule, Mr Putin. Everything will be completed by November 1. All utility systems are in place and we are starting on the finishing touches. You have seen for yourself, all 68 houses ...

Vladimir Putin: Are you experiencing any cost-related problems with the building companies?

Nikolai Vinogradov: There are no questions and there is complete agreement. As agreed a sum of 200,000 roubles has been paid to everyone, every family member, who expressed an interest. So the money is there. We are offering large discounts on furniture. As I said before, refrigerators and washing machines are being provided free of charge.

Vladimir Putin: Is that a gift from the companies?

Nikolai Vinogradov: Yes, it is a present from those firms working in the Vladimir Region.

Vladimir Putin: Remember their noble gesture and help them: no doubt they have many problems.

Who sent complaints to your office? I mean, letters written by ordinary people. Have you sorted out their problems? We discussed this once and I asked you to pay attention to it.

Nikolai Vinogradov: I did. In principle all the issues raised have been solved, though they do require a special approach.

Vladimir Putin: Have you found that approach?

Nikolai Vinogradov: I am looking for it.

Vladimir Putin: What do you mean, looking?

Nikolai Vinogradov: Things are not falling into place. If we take letters which ...

Vladimir Putin: I am not referring to the letters - I am interested in problem at hand.

Nikolai Vinogradov: The issues raised have been solved. The problem has been dealt with.

Vladimir Putin: Now let us return to housing area figures. We agreed that where a family is living in accommodation below the sanitary norm in terms of size, we would build them an appropriately sized house. But if their house was above statutory size, we will build them a house of matching size, but at a cost not exceeding two million roubles.

Where a house that burned down was shared by not one, but two families, we will build each family a separate house. Also, anyone preferring cash compensation will receive it calculated on the basis of the regional price for one square metre.

Nikolai Vinogradov: Taking into account its market value, as you said ...

Vladimir Putin: Taking into account its market value in the region.

Nikolai Vinogradov: That's just what we'll do.

Vladimir Putin: Not going by Moscow region prices, but by those in the Vladimir region.

Now I would like to hear from you whether all the requirements formulated during our discussions have been observed here, in the Vladimir Region.

Nikolai Vinogradov: Everyone, save for 5 or 6 families, who agreed to move to new houses now have a larger floor-space than before.

Vladimir Putin: And what about those five families?

Nikolai Vinogradov: They have agreed.

Vladimir Putin: Their new floor-space is smaller?

Nikolai Vinogradov: Yes, a little smaller.

Vladimir Putin: By how much?

Nikolai Vinogradov: Perhaps by four or five metres, Mr Putin.

Vladimir Putin: How will you compensate them for those four or five metres?

Nikolai Vinogradov: We have discussed it with them and they agreed to move, because the living conditions here are entirely different. There are no problems.

Vladimir Putin: What living conditions are we talking about?

Nikolai Vinogradov: In the small village of Yuzhny and the village of Kamenka, they used to have no access to utilities at all, ground water was near the surface, and houses were fairly dilapidated. So people are pleased to be moving in here. Out of 69 families that lived here permanently, 68 agreed to move. One family is still considering its decision.

Vladimir Putin: Here, apart from everything else, they have utilities and the full modern technical infrastructure. What does that mean here?

Nikolai Vinogradov: Gas, local sewage facilities, water, electricity supply, and telephones.

Vladimir Putin: In every house?

Nikolai Vinogradov: In every house. There is even internet access for anyone wanting it. All these issues are being resolved.

Vladimir Putin: Good. You still face problems in small villages where a few houses remain to be dealt with. And, I gather, they have been left rather out in the cold. How many houses are we talking about? Five or six? That is a very small number and they have been left with practically no infrastructure.

Nikolai Vinogradov: Unfortunately, that is the case. This is, again, the two villages I mentioned.

Vladimir Putin: Which ones?

Nikolai Vinogradov: We're talking about the small village of Yuzhny and the village of Kamenka.

Vladimir Putin: How many houses are left there?

Nikolai Vinogradov: In Kamenka: seven houses.

Vladimir Putin: And the others burnt down?

Nikolai Vinogradov: And there are 21 in Kamenka. Making it something like 30 houses in all. We are now considering the following arrangement. With your consent, and should the funds allocated to us allow, we will move them here. Especially since we have enough space to build an additional 30 houses.

Vladimir Putin: Here?

Nikolai Vinogradov: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: They want to move here, don't they?

Nikolai Vinogradov: I have talked with most of the people who managed to save their houses and stayed there. People, of course, have agreed to move.

Vladimir Putin: So they want to move here, where there is a large community with all amenities, and receive new housing?

Nikolai Vinogradov: Exactly.

Vladimir Putin: If you are left with anything of the funds we allocated you for this new construction, you can devote it entirely to that goal.

Nikolai Vinogradov: Thank you, Mr Putin.

Vladimir Putin: That is point one. And if it turns out that you do not have sufficient funds, we will act as follows: the regional budget will contribute 50% of the total and the federal budget will add the other 50%.

Nikolai Vinogradov: Good.

Vladimir Putin: Agreed.

Nikolai Vinogradov: If I may, I want to hand you the letters about the subject under discussion.

Vladimir Putin: We have already decided on the line to pursue, so you can keep the letters. Let us take a practical approach to this work. If there is anything that needs to be formulated in government documents, we will act with alacrity.

Nikolai Vinogradov: I am terribly sorry, Mr Putin. I wanted to ask for some additional funds, what with re-housing programme and everything. I would like to have it set out in some formal way.

Vladimir Putin: Additional funds for what?

Nikolai Vinogradov: To address these questions.

Vladimir Putin: But you don't know how much of your funds will be left. You yourself said: if I have money left over.

Nikolai Vinogradov: Of course.

Vladimir Putin: Perhaps there will be something left over. Why do you need an additional amount right now?

Nikolai Vinogradov: There is one more problem to address.

Vladimir Putin: What is it?

Nikolai Vinogradov: The point is that initially we dealt with people who were permanently resident here, and whose houses burned down. But now, as this work is underway, people who spend their summers in little country houses here have been coming forward.

Vladimir Putin: We agreed from the beginning that regardless of whether a person was permanently registered here or not, if their house burned down, it is to be restored this year.

Nikolai Vinogradov: Quite right. But the fact is that the amount allocated to us is subject to change. We were assigned 237 million roubles, of which 17 million was paid out as compensation at 100,000 roubles per person. Now the number of people, including those who own summer houses here, has increased, and on the whole they are looking for compensation payments.

That is why I drafted these requests for you - for a social education centre and for more compensation, should it prove possible.

Vladimir Putin: Good, we'll see what we can do about. What is the overall situation in the region? I'm primarily interested in agriculture.

Nikolai Vinogradov: Our harvest this year is about 40% smaller than in 2009.

Vladimir Putin: You mean the grain harvest?

Nikolai Vinogradov: Yes, the grain harvest.

Vladimir Putin: But that exceeds this year's national average.

Nikolai Vinogradov: Yes, we lost about 40%. But we have enough fodder grain; the fodder grain harvest was slightly smaller than last year, but overall it will suffice.

Vladimir Putin: So livestock breeding farms in your region will have enough fodder?

Nikolai Vinogradov: Yes, I believe so. We have received 75 million roubles in loans. Additional allocations are being considered to compensate our losses; I am not prepared to cite the sum as the decision has not yet been taken. But we are working to resolve this problem.

Overall we have enough fodder grain, but our food grain harvest is much lower. We have never harvested much food grain, focusing instead mostly on fodder grain. We will resolve this problem. We are on schedule as regards milk and meat production.

Vladimir Putin: The main thing is to supply enough fodder.

Nikolai Vinogradov: The overall amount is likely to be smaller than last year.

Vladimir Putin: I mentioned this yesterday. As you know, we have decided to subsidise railway freight transportation. You should seize this opportunity and negotiate the supply of additional fodder from the regions that have reported a good harvest, if you need it.

Nikolai Vinogradov: Thank you, we are already in talks. For example, we are negotiating grain supply from the Altai Territory and are considering talks with the southern district. This problem is being addressed. We are taking a comprehensive approach to tackling it.

Vladimir Putin: This is good. What is the situation in industry?

Nikolai Vinogradov: I think the most important indicator in industry is the unemployment level. We have reduced unemployment by 33% compared to the peak unemployment figures last year.

Vladimir Putin: Good.

Nikolai Vinogradov: As for the overall situation in industry, industrial production has grown 13.2%, which is a good achievement.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, it's not bad.

Nikolai Vinogradov: Growth was mainly due to the establishment of new facilities and attraction of sizeable investment. The investment situation is quite good, in particular thanks to foreign investment. A number of new facilities are being established, which will be considerably more efficient. Wages grew considerably last year, despite all the downward trends, including the rise in unemployment.

Vladimir Putin: By how much?

Nikolai Vinogradov: By about 13% due to the establishment of new facilities. This is fine, all in all.

Vladimir Putin: Have you received the Healthcare Ministry's modernisation recommendations?

Nikolai Vinogradov: Yes, we are currently analysing them Mr Putin. This is a very serious undertaking. We are using government support to implement the cardiovascular programme. We are also taking part in the emergency medicine programme to reduce the number of injuries caused by traffic accidents. We are also considering becoming part of the oncology programme.

Now to modernisation. We can achieve some difficult goals through modernisation. The targets have been set and we are now considering how to achieve them. The problem is that we need the design and cost estimate documentation. This is a priority task.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, you should be ready by next year. We have agreed that considerable resources will be allocated to the regions, but only to those that are ready to implement these modernisation programmes.

Nikolai Vinogradov: This is exactly what we are doing now. The Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development has held the opening meeting, which our representatives attended. We met in August to discuss objectives and scale.

I'd like to repeat that the priority task now is to prepare the design and cost estimate documentation. Nothing can be done without that. By the way, it would be easier if a target figure were suggested. It would be easier to prepare the documents if we have a figure in mind, as preparing the design and cost estimate documentation also costs money.