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.”
“Preserving nature remains, of course, a top priority. We must complete the job of amending existing legislation with the environmental agencies. That goes without saying. At the same time, it is clear that we need these changes as much as we need additional funding. We are currently in the midst of a budget planning process. So let us adjust our plans with this in mind. <…>Let us make the first step: let us allocate the necessary funds for 2011 and complete the job of amending the law at the autumn meeting of parliament. Any commercial business in our nature reserves is forbidden, and only partly allowed in the national parks. As I understand it, we will not overhaul these rules.”
“We see the advancement of the fishing industry as one of our key priorities. Despite the federal budget limits, we've decided to maintain spending on the federal targeted programme in the industry at the original level (over 32 billion roubles) and to extend (the programme) for one more year, through 2014. As you know, we subsidize loans taken out by enterprises to build and upgrade vessels as well as to develop processing and storage infrastructure for the fishing industry. Funds are also being spent to set up special fish markets in Russian regions. By the way, it would be interesting to hear from you today about where the first such markets are going to appear. The industry's top management has its own plans for this.”
“We are finishing the highway from Chita to Khabarovsk. In fact, this is an historic event for Russia. Russia has never been entirely connected by road through its territories. Until recently - 100 years ago, or how many, up until 1903? - in order to travel from European Russia to the Far East, people either travelled on the winter road in winter or on ships across the Indian Ocean. A railway was built by 1904, and this was because of an impending war with Japan. In Soviet times, another branch of this railroad was built as a result of deteriorating relations with China. And there was no highway at all. And now we are completing 2,500 km between Chita and Khabarovsk. And for the first time in history, Russia will be connected by roads throughout its territory - you'll be able to drive from its westernmost to its easternmost point.”
“I have to mention another serious problem - bloated regional and municipal administrative staffs and the extravagant costs associated with maintaining them. A majority of last year's regional anti-crisis plans envisaged administrative optimisation. All told, the regional administrative staff has been reduced by 4% and municipal staff by 2.5%. It is the right thing to do, but it is proceeding at a snail's pace. It is worth noting that spending on staff increased by 6% though staff size decreased. Please take note of this. The reduction was 4% while costs rose by 6%, and inefficient spending on public management totalled 83 billion roubles. I think that the work to make the managerial staff smaller and more efficient, and to optimise its costs, should go on.”
“On the whole, an analysis of the situation in Russia's regions has shown once again that we have managed to maintain key positive trends in the country's development despite the difficulties caused by the crisis. Death rates are continuing to decline in the overwhelming majority of regions. There are more births, and life expectancy is growing. It has reached 69 years now. Many regions have succeeded in raising real wages, reducing poverty and curbing unemployment. The number of people working in small and medium-size businesses has for the first time exceeded 25% of the total economically active population. This is a very good sign, in my opinion.”
“Millions of people across Russia eagerly followed the World Cup, empathising with you and the teams. An estimated 6 million Russians play football, but the number of football fans is certainly much higher. That is why we decided to put our bid in to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. In addition, hosting such an important sports event would boost sports infrastructure and football infrastructure in any country, and maybe even more so for Russia. As I understand, this is certainly in line with FIFA's philosophy with regard to organising this kind of event.”
“We took up the formation of a national infrastructure of high-tech healthcare services for the first time in earnest as part of the Healthcare priority national project, and our principled position was to primarily build new clinical centres in the country's regions and thus bring modern high-quality medical care to the people who need it, so that they do not have to get on a train or a plane to receive treatment at Moscow hospitals, spend money on travel, accommodation and incur other expenses that are not directly related to healthcare, or be placed on a waiting list for months or even years to get the operation or tests they need.”
“Due to massive public support, we have managed to maintain the status quo. During 2009-2010, we invested very serious money - more than one trillion roubles - in housing programmes to support mortgages and the construction industry as a whole. As a result, we have not only made serious progress in sorting out people's housing problems, we have maintained the potential for reconstruction and the development of construction and related industries. Housing construction is up in 37 regions of the Russian Federation. From January to June 2010, 21.6 million square metres of housing was commissioned. This is almost the same as in the first, pre-crisis months of 2008, and about 60 million square metres of housing is expected to be built in 2010.”
“As our priority we have chosen economic modernisation and high technology. Now GLONASS is high technology in the direct and indirect sense of the word, a technology essential for the country's modernisation. We have already spent 60 billion roubles on this project. Its spending peak is past, because the basic satellite constellation is in place. Very soon, we will make it complete, total and global.”
“We know that grain prices are up both in Russia and the rest of the world. We see that the market is on pins and needles. Whoever is waiting for December 21 or 31 is wrong because whether we lift the export ban depends solely on this year's harvest. The problem is compounded by the fact that Russia's leading farming regions cannot sow winter cereal crops because of the weather, so a major part of the country will begin the new year without winter crops. So it appears that the export ban will not be lifted soon, even though it is, of course, a temporary measure. We are in an emergency and it is our duty to think, first of all, about our own citizens, including farmers.”
“The question of making changes to the pension system for leading experts was also raised. And this, in turn, affects another problem, that of recruiting new staff. So if the leading scientists could increase the retirement replacement ratio, then those people could be safely transferred to a different status, they would not be lost to science, and full-time jobs would be freed for young professionals. Incidentally, I promised that we would create an additional four full-time positions in the appropriate institute of the Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Archaeology, so that they can hire new young professionals.”
“Today we will also consider a number of issues that bear directly on the improvement of the business climate and on the rational integration of our country into the international economic community. I am referring here to the modernisation of the Russian customs system. It must be admitted, as all of us know very well, that foreign economic players, especially those working in high-tech industries, are seriously dissatisfied with the quality of our customs system. The Foreign Ministry and the Federal Customs Service have drafted proposals on Russia's ratification of the International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonisation of Customs Procedures. I hope this will allow us to more rapidly introduce modern customs standards on the Russian border, which will be convenient both for people and businesses.”
“We find it unreasonable to increase taxes, taking into account that pensions and other social contributions will rise in 2011. However, we find it possible to increase the financial burden on those economic sectors which have enjoyed low tax rates for a long time and which enjoy high global prices. The revision of tax rates will be connected with the growth of budget spending in the priority areas that have already been mentioned.”
“In terms of budget spending priorities, they will remain unaltered. We will ensure that the social obligations of the government are fulfilled and pay particular attention to the programmes connected with modernizing the economy and developing high technologies. On this subject I can say that in 2011 pensions will grow by 9% compared to the basic one of 2010. The old-age retirement pension will increase to 8,780 roubles, while the social pension will rise to 5,050 roubles. And the major increase is set to take place on February 1 of next year.”
“We have developed a sufficiently effective mechanism for interacting with the party as a whole, with the party's leadership. Now, as you know, we hold a party conference practically every quarter and will do this in all federal districts. These are like mini party congresses. My current status in relation to the United Russia party in no way limits my opportunities to influence what the party does and in no way limits the party's influence on the government's decision-making, because we have developed very close ties, particularly on preparing the next three-year budget, for 2011 and the following two years, 2012-2013. This is very professional, very tough and very nerve-wracking work on distributing resources across various sectors. And, of course, we cannot do this in isolation from the deputies of the leading party, the leading faction in the State Duma, United Russia.”
“But 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.”
“It's easy to understand the desire of local governments to set the land taxes as high as possible, because the proceeds go to the municipal budget. However, this all too often increases the tax burden on businesses and hampers long-term investment projects. Thus, local governments gain a rouble today to lose dozens or perhaps even hundreds of thousand roubles tomorrow as they rob themselves of potential tax revenues. So I call on our colleagues to be more flexible about land taxation, lower rates to support social projects, small and medium-size business initiatives and innovative industries.”
“Despite a decline in 2009, trade between our two countries has returned to pre-crisis levels. There has been progress in many sectors, particularly in high-tech industries such as aircraft manufacturing and space. We have seen good results in the An-70 aircraft project, which we also discussed in detail with Ukraine's previous government and president. But now we hope to start up joint work on the An-148 aircraft project, as well as on projects to build engines for other airplanes and helicopters. A large percentage of the Russian helicopter fleet is powered by Ukrainian-made engines. Our work together in space holds also great promise.”
"I am convinced that the Russian steel industry has everything it needs to become one of the world leaders in effective production and management, energy efficiency and environmental friendliness quite soon… Much remains to be done. You know it better than anyone else, because your production facility still lags behind its competitors in labour efficiency and consumes 15% to 20% more electricity. All this, of course, is a legacy of the past, a legacy that is difficult to get rid of. You can't undo everything in one fell swoop, but we are moving in the right direction. We need to start manufacturing the products where we still rely on imports."
