VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN

Point of View

3 april
2012
Russian Popular Front 22

“I am confident that the front can and must play a positive role in the development of our political system. It will exert its influence on the formation of parties and the election of governors in the regions. It will also play a role in changing the rules for the formation of the upper chamber of parliament.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting with Russian Popular Front Coordinating Council, April 3
3 april
2012
Russian Popular Front 22

“So I believe that the Russian Popular Front will hold on to its influence on the work of the parliament. It must influence it directly, by helping to prepare and draft decisions which will be sponsored by United Russia as well as other parliamentary parties. This is our first goal. Another area for cooperation between us involves the auditing of bills the State Duma is working on. <…> Finally, the third important area involves working with municipal governments.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting with Russian Popular Front Coordinating Council, April 3
3 april
2012
Russian Popular Front 22

“It is possible to give the front the status of a public organisation or movement because we have not registered it legally in any way. This is simply an association and a movement of like-minded individuals, but we can register it and its status would then be defined in charter documents.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting with Russian Popular Front Coordinating Council, April 3
3 april
2012
Russian Popular Front 22

“I assume that the Popular Front will not cease to exist after the election, but will continue working. Secondly, the main political force in parliament, the United Russia party, has fulfilled its promise to the Popular Front: it had promised to include at least 25% of the Popular Front representatives in its election ticket, but in fact it included even more”.

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting with Russian Popular Front Coordinating Council, April 3
21 september
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“Undoubtedly, the establishment of the Popular Front also helped reinvigorate the United Russia party. I hope very much that our colleagues in the party understand this and will promote this process, because, on the whole, this new organisation is becoming more viable. We have used the Popular Front venue to discuss a wide range of issues related to all areas of life in the country. In point of fact, we have created a network of direct ties between the authorities and civil society institutions. It was a very important period in our work, and we will definitely continue to promote these initiatives and mechanisms.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting of the Russian Popular Front Coordination Council, September 21
21 september
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“The idea of the Russian Popular Front is to give a fresh impetus to Russia’s political and economic life, to ensure that new ideas burgeon at the regional, municipal and federal level and unconventional solutions are found to problems facing cities, regions and Russia as a whole.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting of the Russian Popular Front Coordination Council, September 21
5 september
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“There is no doubt that the Popular Front’s objectives that I have just mentioned are not limited merely to elections and new power formation mechanisms. Perhaps the most important thing is the open discussion of the society and the country’s primary challenges. To implement our strategic goals and bring Russia to a higher level, we will need to take crucial decisions, thoroughly discuss important projects, and choose those priorities that merit special attention. Such decisions should be based on the support of the entire Russian people; they should not be taken solely by officials or experts. And these decisions should be competent and precise as well as comprehensible, in-demand and supported by society. They should meet the interests of the overwhelming majority of Russian citizens, which means that they must be fair.”

Vladimir Putin
At a United Russia party interregional conference, Strategy of Social and Economic Development for Russia’s Northwestern Regions to 2020. The Programme for 2011-2012, Cherepovets, September 5
23 august
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“It is very important not to lose people who hold a lot of promise and to use them during regional elections and in forming representative and executive bodies both at the regional and federal levels. We should create a talent pool and draw on it. Certainly, this is very important”.

Vladimir Putin
At the meeting of the National Popular Front’s Federal Coordination Council, August 23
23 august
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“I am pleased to note that the ideas underlying the establishment of the Popular Front are being implemented. We managed to create a situation where large numbers of public organisations who joined the Popular Front got a real opportunity to send their representatives to supreme governing bodies using channels offered by United Russia. The fact that hundreds of thousands of people participated in this work confirms it better than anything else”.

Vladimir Putin
At the meeting of the National Popular Front’s Federal Coordination Council, August 23
23 august
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“This year’s primaries demonstrated the effectiveness of the mechanisms of the Popular Front. But of course, our ambitions are not limited to elections. Our primary goal is to maintain open discussion and suggest solutions to some key problems related to the development of the nation. Using the platform of the Popular Front, we have already considered some defining issues, including healthcare and education reform, social policies, budget priorities, counter-extremism measures, and the strengthening of civil and inter-ethnic harmony. This work can and must be continued”.

Vladimir Putin
At the meeting of the National Popular Front’s Federal Coordination Council, August 23
23 august
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“At one of our earlier meetings, we said that at least 150 unaffiliated candidates nominated by the Popular Front would be put on the United Russia ticket. In assessing this year’s primaries’ results, I wish we had set that upper limit even higher, because there proved to be so many truly interesting people among those independent and non-party candidates. Our election ticket will be finalised at a United Russia congress in late September, but we will be posting this list for public discussion one month in advance. It’s important that voters be in a position to make an informed decision when the election takes place in December”.

Vladimir Putin
At the meeting of the National Popular Front’s Federal Coordination Council, August 23
23 august
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“We have been able to open up new possibilities for Russian civil society to form a national agenda, and I consider this to be extremely important. <…> The number of candidates running in this year’s primaries is three times higher than in 2007. More than 60% of these candidates ran independently or as nominees of public organisations. Some 220,000 electors were present to assess them and their programmes. Half of the electors represent public organizations”.

Vladimir Putin
At the meeting of the National Popular Front’s Federal Coordination Council, August 23
19 july
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“The Popular Front, was established for the exact purpose of uniting people of different faiths and ethnicities so as to be able to identify the problems that are facing us and come up with the best ways to address them in an open and honest discussion. The name itself – the Russian Popular Front – emphasises the idea that every man or woman of any religious or ethnic background should realise that he or she is part of a single multi-ethnic Russian nation, is a citizen of Russia, and should be proud of it.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting with representatives of confessions and ethnic and public organizations, July 19
30 june
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“We are against people being dragooned into the Front and against working in accordance with bureaucratic, “command” rules, against artificial buildup of party ranks and so-called participation. It can merely discredit the idea. The people themselves must be willing and their will should be expressed at the meetings of work collectives and in residential communities.”

Vladimir Putin
At an interregional conference of United Russia, June 30, Yekaterinburg
16 june
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“Front must promote broader public support for decision-making at the federal, regional and municipal levels. The open discussion of major national and regional issues must become the norm for this national club, our front.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting of the Popular Front’s Coordinating Council, June 16
27 may
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“Almost 150 public organisations officially expressed their wish to take part in the Russian Popular Front. And I’m pleased by that because it means that it really is possible to achieve the goals that I set in making this proposal. Using the structure of United Russia, we would like to bring new people out of the woodwork who have fresh ideas that are relevant to today’s Russia and our near future.”

Vladimir Putin
From Q&A sessions with the media, May 27
23 may
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“It [the idea of establishing the Russian Popular Front] enables all people who are not burdened by ideological considerations and are not bound by any administrative, bureaucratic framework to implement at least part of their own goals and ideas. At any rate, this provides them with such an opportunity.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting with the local representatives of public organisations and local residents, Pskov, May 23
12 may
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“We are establishing the Russian Popular Front in order to draw together constructive ideas, so that civil society, including youth, women’s and veterans’ organisations, the business community, trade unions and associations, has an additional opportunity to become directly involved in charting highly important state decisions.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting with representatives of the Russian Popular Front, May 12
12 may
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“It is our opinion that it is essential to Russia’s development to preserve civil and inter-ethnic peace, accord, mutual respect and solidarity between representatives of various ethnic groups, religions, generations and representatives of various professional categories.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting with representatives of the Russian Popular Front, May 12
7 may
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“We need to rapidly develop and modernise production units, we need to switch over to an innovative economy and resolve social issues. <…> And, of course, the Russian Popular Front is open to all political forces that share such approaches.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting of the Russian Popular Front Coordination Council, May 7
7 may
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“The proposal deals with establishing a non-governmental association based on the organisations, political parties and citizens that share common values connected with love of the country, improvement of people’s standards of living, strengthening of Russia’s power, and the search for just solutions in the social sphere.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting of the Russian Popular Front Coordination Council, May 7
6 may
2011
Russian Popular Front 22

“That all political structures must be absolutely equal in this entity [Russian Popular Front]. United Russia, the trade unions and youth organisations must all carry equal weight. There should be no senior or junior partner, and everybody, and this is important, would have the opportunity and the right not only to articulate their ideas and suggestions for the best, most effective development areas for Russia, but would also be able to put forward their own candidates, which would remain independent, but which would win parliament seats on the United Russia party list and, once there, would work together.”

Vladimir Putin
At a United Russia’s interregional conference titled “Strategies for the Socio-Economic Development of Southern Russia up to 2020. The 2011-2012 Programme”, May 6, Volgograd