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.”
“We will absolutely preserve free general education. This is one of the fundamental provisions of our Constitution and nobody is going to relinquish it. The state must and will pay in full for the entire educational process and the upkeep and development of schools, including repairs, the purchase of equipment, and the remuneration of teachers.”
“Its goal [Unified State Exam] is to provide a more accurate assessment of the quality of both curricula and teachers and, most importantly, to considerably broaden the opportunities for children from the countryside and remote parts of the country to continue their education in the best national centres.”
“We have carried out comprehensive programmes for modernising education in 31 regions. In the process, we have accumulated unique experience and streamlined the key mechanisms for developing the Russian school. Most importantly, we have attracted public attention and focused the efforts of the authorities at all levels on the problems of schools and education in general, which is very important as it is.”
“Now we must look ahead, relying on the foundation that has already been created and upgrade the general educational standards in the country. We must make quality, modern education accessible to all children regardless of their family's social status, their place of birth or residence. The government must ensure an equal start to all of its young citizens.”
“All children should study and grow up together regardless of their physical health. Communication with their peers will help them get on their feet; this should be the norm and we must start this work at school. <…> Our primary task is to mainstream them – enable them to study in common educational establishments and not to feel isolated from society beginning in their early years.”
“Russia has tremendous historical experience in preserving the ethnic and cultural identities of the peoples who inhabit its vast territory. Our longstanding experience of mutual cultural enrichment is no less important. We must preserve and consolidate these traditions and pass them from one generation to another. We must always remember that one of the biggest causes of inter-ethnic conflict lies in illiteracy, poor education, and the lack of knowledge about one’s culture and that of one’s neighbours.”
“We need a real and significant breakthrough here: not just big, one-off projects but steady development and drastic renewal across the country’s road networks – on federal, regional, rural, and city roads.”
“To be the true masters of our own Russian market, our factories should renew their product ranges, do more to modernise their production, and introduce high-tech solutions and standards. <…>We cannot allow foreign producers to dump on our market. Yes, fair competition is possible and, indeed, necessary, but dumping cannot be tolerated.”
“You know that we have completed the Chita-Khabarovsk highway. <…>For the first time in its history, Russia’s territory from the Far East to Kaliningrad is linked by a single road network. That provides a great impetus to the development of our Far Eastern and Siberian territories.”
“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.”
“As for the Right Cause, I think that any legal party – any legal political force – may and should compete with its political rivals. Can it compete with United Russia as an equal? No, it cannot, at least for now. But I don’t rule out that this may change, and if the Right Cause proves to its voters that it has adopted the right approach to national development, it will win increasing support.”
“I want to stress this again – the development of small and medium-sized businesses has an undeniably tremendous significance for the country. This means new jobs and improving the efficiency and sustainability of the national economy and, ultimately, the well-being of millions of people, to build a strong middle class.”
“We intend to draw up a ranking of the most attractive regions from an investment standpoint every year. The ranking will be based on the number of jobs created, the number of new enterprises started, the amount of investments brought in. These objective figures ought to become one of the key criteria for assessing governors' performance. And I believe that we need to introduce such assessment criteria at the municipal level as well.”
“It is crucial to break the vicious circle where, in place of some eliminated barriers, other ones arise. Therefore, the Ministry of Economic Development must examine all the drafted legislation to assess the regulatory impact in the area of state monitoring and establish mandatory requirements for products, safety of production processes and conformity assessments.”
“The procedures for starting businesses and implementing investment projects have been simplified; the number of different inspections has been reduced; unlimited licenses as well as modern security systems and quality control systems (for goods and services) have been implemented; technical regulations and standards have been updated. We are steadily removing various administrative barriers. And it’s important that bureaucracy creates no new barriers. <…> We need an administrative culture alongside technological culture, we need to develop it, but this requires time and constant attention to these issues.”
“I suppose that expanded vocational education, primarily secondary and primary education, is a priority task facing the state and the business community. We must see to it that this kind of education meets the demands of modern production. We must renew the technical base for training specialists. <…> All of us need to work to raise the prestige of industrial careers and to enhance the public significance of skilled labour.”
“We must give priority to the development of all non-oil and gas sectors. I’d like to emphasise that I’m referring to the modern industry capable of producing the competitive products required in Russia (and primarily in Russia) and the rest of the world. This economy must be based on such basic market notions as profitability, demand and return on investment. Therefore, business, and in fact only business, can become the driving force of this project. The government can only help it by creating the right conditions.”
“We are setting ourselves an ambitious goal – to make Russia one of the world’s top five economies in a decade and to increase the GDP per capita from a little over $19,000 today to $35,000 and a bit more. The living standards of our people, as well as the quality of education and healthcare must be comparable to those in the leading world economies.”
“We must pave the way for thousands of new business ideas, companies and production facilities, so that new enterprises and production platforms grow quickly inside all non-oil and gas sectors. Consequently, we must do our best in order to enable everyone to bring to life his or her business and production dream here in Russia, so that it is profitable and comfortable to channel labour, efforts and investment into the new industrialisation.”
