VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
“Support from Russian citizens has always helped us, and I’m confident that the government’s future line-up will rely on the people. We must never forget about the needs of ordinary people. We must always remember how government-level decisions influence the lives of all ordinary Russian citizens.”
“You know that a state of emergency has been declared in many Russian regions. But we will overcome; we will allocate requisite resources to agriculture, as I have said. They will include direct subsidies, grants, government guarantees, loan subsidies, and grain sales, primarily fodder grain, to livestock-breeding farms from the grain reserve, and we will also subsidise the loans our farms will take out to finance such purchases. In all, there is a large package of support measures. We only need regional leaders and farm directors to act quickly and energetically to submit expert substantiation for the size of such support.”
“Russia is a very wealthy country, and that our greatest wealth lies in our cultural diversity, as I said at the beginning. And so it is very important that we understand your work, that we begin to understand the problems and trials of our ancestors, what our country went through as it took shape... the difficulties they encountered and how they overcame them. This allows us to say with confidence that we will overcome the problems we face today. And if we achieve success, it won't go to our heads or prevent our further progress. Everybody knows this, but I'll say it anyway: we can only be sure that we are building the right future if we know the past.”
“We should take the legitimate interests of our partners into account. I think we do. We reached agreement with our colleagues, including colleagues from Belarus, and signed a contract in 2007. And we are not asking for anything on top of that, beyond what the contract stipulates. The only thing we ask for is to observe the agreements we signed. Nothing else. Now when they tell us: allow us to pay less this year and double the amount the next, we agree. The next year they tell us: no, let is leave things as they were the year before last. Even in this case we try to reach a sort of consensus, to agree on some details, to ease the transition to market terms. And it seems to me the polemics, however sharp, between Belarusian and Russian energy experts has finally led to agreement.”
“A state of emergency has been declared in many Russian regions. But we will overcome; we will allocate requisite resources to agriculture, as I have said. They will include direct subsidies, grants, government guarantees, loan subsidies, and grain sales, primarily fodder grain, to livestock-breeding farms from the grain reserve, and we will also subsidise the loans our farms will take out to finance such purchases. In all, there is a large package of support measures. We only need regional leaders and farm directors to act quickly and energetically to submit expert substantiation for the size of such support.”
“Currently, many regions formally meet existing deadlines, but in reality they also repeatedly return the documents to businessmen, requesting additional certificates and permits, which takes applicants extra time and money. Moreover, each additional document resets the clock on the deadline. Now developers will be able to have their documents fully processed, with all necessary additions and revisions, within 60 day. Officials who fail to meet the deadlines and make applicants return again and again will be disciplined and may even face disqualification.”
“There were many good and efficient elements of our previous education system. However, we need to proceed from the fact that Russia is an open country, for our specialists as well, who may be in demand in foreign labour markets. This means that our diplomas should be adapted to the international standard, including the European, American and many others. To achieve this, we should be part of the unified European system of education. That is largely why we have joined the Bologna Process to integrate our education system into that of Europe. At the same time you are right that we mustn't lose what has always been our competitive edge. First of all, it is in fundamental sciences and all related areas, including specialist training.”
“Affect many aspects of young people's lives. Here's an example: recently we have been talking a lot about demographic problems. I'm sure you've heard all this before and know it very well. And how to resolve demographic problems? By supporting women and young families who want to have a first or a second child. Everything that has been done through these programmes is in fact youth policy. This includes the maternity capital, the various allowances. Or, as another example, take the Housing Programme: the part of this programme that affects young people is the subsidies for mortgages. This too, in fact, is designed to help young people. And so, the absence of an overall programme does not mean that we are doing nothing. We are actually doing quite a bit.”
“I hope that our Olympic athletes won't let us down, and we'll get some really good results. But sport is sport. These are open completions, and as you know anything can happen in sport: tragic defeats and glorious triumphs. In any case, we must do our best to create the best conditions for training, and then we can expect good results and victories.”
“Official unemployment has dropped by a million in the past year. That is a very good pace for cutting unemployment. The economy is also recovering at a fairly rapid pace, which is the most important factor for the labour market to rebound. But there is another side to this problem. We should not replicate the inefficient jobs and industries of yesterday; we need to build a modern labour market to create new, high-tech and high-paid jobs. We will move in this direction.”
