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.”
"Several years ago the share of companies with government stakes where we did not have a controlling stake was as high as 77%. Now it is 39%, and, as decided, we are gradually shedding excessive assets that are not needed for performing public functions."
"Irrespective of anything we should do, our utmost aim must be to maintain people's living standards."
"The number one task today is to maintain the work collectives and, where possible, occupy people by retraining with a view to upgrading the technological level of their enterprise. All my meetings with people who have a responsible attitude to their work have demonstrated to me that they are aware of this. Everyone should be encouraged to behave in a socially responsible manner."
“The whole point of our measures to support the labour market, including the allocation of 43.7 billion roubles, is to support specific enterprises that are taking measures to preserve jobs or retrain their workforce for the future. Number one. Number two is the most important thing. Irrespective of anything we should do, our utmost aim must be to maintain people's living standards. We must work together to find the instruments and methods of solving that difficult task in the current conditions.”
“[Trade unions] should immediately respond to any violations of labour legislation, such as failure to honour commitments to employees during lay-offs, deliberate delays in the payment of salaries, leave allowances and other benefits. Regrettably, off-the-books salaries have again become reality. Off-the-books wages not only rob the budget. I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that they violate labour and future pension rights of employees. They don't always pay attention to details, and are happy to receive off-the-books wages, which are even a bit bigger. Usually, nobody thinks of the future, and that is wrong. I think that trade unions should prompt people on such issues.”
“I'd like to add that on a par with increasing unemployment benefit to 4,900 roubles, we have changed the order of declaring people unemployed. Now those who have quit their jobs of their own free will are also entitled to unemployment benefits. This new provision should also strengthen legal guarantees of citizens.”
"To help people who have lost or are about to lose their jobs, we are launching regional employment programmes that are funded by the federal budget by 95%. We believe that regional and local municipal budgets should also contribute to this effort. However, realising that the incomes of the regions will also decline, we have decided to finance these undertakings almost fully. A total of 43.7 billion roubles have been allocated from the federal budget for this purpose."
“We are planning to create about a million temporary jobs. Over 220,000 people will be able to retrain or get help in opening their own businesses.”
“People in different places, including some employment centres, have made it obvious to me that it is not enough to give money to open a business. Companies that lay off employers should help them set up small businesses near big organisations, or municipal authorities should meet them halfway and timely lease space to them, help them connect to utilities, and so on and so forth. We will talk about this, too.”
“The planned programme for the development of the pension system is our absolute priority. We must start implementing it in 2010, although we are already taking the required measures to create the conditions for its full-scale implementation.”
“As you know, starting on March 1, the basic part of a retirement pension has been increased by 8.7%, as we have promised. It will be adjusted once again before the end of this year and will grow by another 31.4% starting on December 1. I have already signed the Government's Resolution on increasing the insurance part of the pension by 17.5% starting on April 1 of this year. In August, it will grow by another 7.5%. Consequently, as we have planned, by the end of the year the average social pension will not be below the subsistence level.“
“The new version of the budget includes appropriations required for the implementation of these commitments. We won't save money on these items. On the contrary, we will increase budget subsidies to the Pension Fund by another substantial sum of 374 billion roubles.”
“I'd like to remind you that last September the Government determined the directions of the pension system's development, and compiled a list of major measures that are designed to guarantee its stability and effectiveness. These include a switch from the unified social tax to insurance contributions, revision of the pension rights of citizens who received them before 1991, and formation of a system of additional support for low-income pensioners, especially those who live in Siberia and the Russian Far East, where the subsistence level is below the average. Put together, these measures should gradually bring our pension system into line with international standards.”
"At the same time, I'd like investors to understand that neither crisis phenomena nor red tape should cause delays in starting the construction of facilities. Mr Kozak has received instructions on this matter."
"I hope that Sochi residents will not allow anyone to use the Olympic project for one's own ambitions, which have nothing in common with their interests. I believe that the leaders of the territory and the city's acting mayor should pay serious attention to this."
“I think the document we are referring to is unprofessional and insufficiently thought out, to put it mildly, because one cannot be serious in discussing such matters without the principal supplier's participation. The document also says that the volume of pumped gas should be the main incentive for lucrative investments. This is natural, since transit fees are a means of paying back the loan, but has anyone asked our opinion as to whether we can cope with such volumes of gas in the future, or whether we will do so?”
"What matters most, I stress, is that there is no way to arrange an increase of Russian gas exports without Russian participation. I hope this message is heard. We are willing to work constructively with all our partners the way we have repeatedly declared, and on the basis of principles that we have formulated and have been proceeding from in our work."
“We have made considerable loans to our other CIS partners. An application has been made to discuss the prospects with Ukraine, and we have posed the question to our European partners. As I have said, they replied that they had no spare money for Ukraine just now. However, we are continuing a dialogue with our Ukrainian and European partners, and we will discuss the issue later on.”
“The European Commission is paying ever greater attention to energy transport-in particular, natural gas piping via Ukraine. That is good, as is the attempt to put the gas transport operator under the control of international legal norms and regulations. I think we should, and can, support it.”
