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.”
"As for housing, we have decided to exclude some payments from the property contribution. People or families investing 2 million roubles in housing will not pay taxes for this sum, which should support the housing demand"
"Assistance to the economic sectors. We have not come up with anything unusual in this sphere; we are doing the same other countries are doing. To begin with, we are reducing the tax burden on the economy. We have cut the profit and small business tax and have taken several other measures. Company directors know that they imply an increase of bonuses depreciation, etc., to 30%. This keeps the money in the economy, allowing enterprises to survive and develop. We are cutting the customs port duties, which our partners have shown criticism towards. We are raising customs import duties on the goods that are also produced here to ensure their sale on the domestic market."
"We planned to index pensions on three occasions this year. Seeing that inflation could be higher than planned, we will index pensions four times. Towards the end of this year, by December 1, we must increase pensions by about 30% so that the social pension would be no lower than the pensioner's living standard. We will also continue our programme of support for accumulative part of pensions, and have the necessary funds budgeted for these purposes."
“It is important to help people pay off loans. All in all, 19,000 loans have been taken out in the region, including 4,500 in Novokuznetsk. Major companies have elaborated a whole package of measures to support employees who have taken loans and are losing part of their wages now. The people are being helped to repay them. We are working on this system at federal level. In fact, it has already started working through the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending (AHML). We will intensify our efforts in this area. A total of 10 billion roubles have been allocated to the agency for this purpose. If need be, we will give it more money by the middle of the year.”
“We have decided that the state will add one rouble to each rouble a person contributes to his accumulation portion. We think this will be an incentive for increasing the accumulation part. Here the main thing is to preserve available jobs and increase wages so that a person is able and wants to increase his contribution.”
“As far as investment is concerned, we should focus on building nearly complete projects and thereby prevent the all-out mothballing of unfinished construction projects.”
“We must prioritise wage payments to public sector workers, fulfil other social commitments stipulated by federal legislation, finance employment and business support programmes and must also continue to implement high-priority national projects, bearing in mind that they considerably facilitate domestic demand.”
“We must also prevent the budgetary system from becoming a source of non-payments in the economy, contrary to the way it had, unfortunately, happened in the past. Consequently, we must guarantee 100% payments for fuel and energy resources and municipal-utilities services for state and municipal agencies.”
“Since January, constituent entity budgets receive all gasoline excise tax and will receive an additional 0.5% of profit tax. In all, the regions will receive an extra 100 billion roubles in revenues.”
“Let me also inform you that financial assistance to regions will increase by another 300 billion roubles in line with federal budget changes. This implies 150 billion roubles' worth of subsidies for balancing regional budgets and additional budgetary loans for a period of up to three years. I would like to remind you that such resources were, until now, allocated for a period of 12 months, and that another 150 billion roubles' worth of additional resources will be set aside.”
“We stipulate more lenient terms as regards the level of co-financing expenses for receiving federal subsidies. Notably, 95% of regional employment facilitation programmes will be financed out of the federal budget, and the rest from constituent entities' own revenues.”
“We have added another 300 billion roubles to the new version of the federal budget: 150 billion will be spend on direct subsidies to the regions, and the other 150 billion will be issued as loans on favourable terms.”
“Due to the global financial and economic crisis, Russia's regions and municipalities will, unfortunately, receive much smaller revenues this year. As you know, there will also be substantial shortfalls in revenue at the federal level. First of all, we will receive smaller regional profit-tax proceeds. Other tax proceeds, including severance-tax proceeds, will also be reduced.”
“As for the prospects of bilateral cooperation [Russian and Hungarian], I would like to say that they are not limited to energy or trade and economic relations. It is important to enhance our scientific, cultural and educational ties, and we intend to highlight these fields.”
“Hungarian export to Russia has increased nine-fold-really!-within the six years of Mr Gyurcsany's premiership. Russia has become Hungary's second-largest trading and economic partner after Germany as the result of our latest efforts.”
“As for Russian relations with Hungary, they are not limited to hydrocarbons in the energy shpere. They also include nuclear energy. As you know, our Hungarian friends asked us some time ago to troubleshoot for a Hungarian nuclear plant and our experts fully cooperated. A contract has been made for nuclear fuel and materials through 2032 or 2035. These supplies are smooth. Now, if possible, our companies might take part in a tender to build new units. We are supplying power station coal to Europe, Hungary being no exception. We obviously depend on our consumers just as they depend on us. If we take each other's interests into due account, this interdependence becomes not only a stability factor but also one of the key parts and means of overcoming the present-day global economic crisis.”
“Either you have gas or you have none-and call it anyway you like. Russia has gas, and has enough of it to satisfy our own growing demands and that of our European consumers for a hundred years to come, or even longer. I say this with full confidence, relying on serious studies.”
“As for other routes, we have nothing against them. However, Project Nabucco, so frequently talked about now, does not cut the number of transit countries. True, it bypasses Ukraine, but it actually increases the number of transit countries - Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, and even more because the pipeline will not work at full capacity unless, for instance, Iran joins the project. We will be glad to see the project implemented someday. It will improve the balance of European energy supply.”
“We have also drafted a separate document on building a major underground gas storage facility in Hungary, with Hungarian company MOL acting as Gazprom's partner in the project.”
