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.”
“Broad introduction of information technology will make interactions between the authorities and people simpler and more transparent and spare people the need to visit all kinds of offices. And, finally, I’d like to emphasise that this is a real and very effective anti-corruption measure.”
“A huge proportion of our cities are still in bad shape, with about 40% of our urban population living in cities with polluted air. <…> We must achieve a sound balance between the challenges of economic development and the requirements of environmental protection. The document we are going to discuss and adopt today is aimed at properly regulating this sphere, with due account of modern requirements.”
“The most important aspect for the government is establishing infrastructure for the stable and long-term development of sport. As I mentioned, a huge amount of work has been done recently to build modern training grounds of federal and regional status. Moreover, many facilities that were built before 2008 are being renovated and equipped.”
“In 2011, for the first time in the history of modern Russia, we provided financial assistance to particular organisations that are responsible for athletic reserves for national teams. <…> The budget expenses for the entire calendar of sport events have increased. In 2009, we allotted around two billion roubles for these purposes. In 2012, we will allocate 3.5 billion. There is a system for motivating athletes and coaches who have achieved significant results from the budgets of all levels, as well as extra-budgetary sources.”
“Let me stress that solving our demographic goals depends to a large extent on the activities of the regional governing teams, their commitment to creating improved conditions for people’s lives and for fulfilling their ambitions. Ultimately all economic achievements must have a tangible human dimension.”
“We must prioritise those regions where the experts record a negative demographic trend for several years in a row. <…> People of any ethnicity who live in the demographically stagnant areas and need support from the government will receive this help regardless of their ethnic origin.”
“What we need to do is not only to continue these programmes but expand them and put forward additional measures to boost the birth rate, which means supporting families with children as our top priority. Multi-child families should be the most valued, and families with two or three children the preferred social norm. We have to end the situation where the birth of a child causes a family financial difficulties or pushes it to the edge of poverty.”
“Without question, the positive trend in the birth rate is connected to the overall improvement of the situation in the country, the better quality of life for Russian families, and the wider planning horizon. Our support measures have also had an effect – in the form of federal subsidies for maternity capital, birth certificates, as well as the construction of regional perinatal centres and high-technology medical centres.”
“As you know, we have been introducing a system of grants for researchers and instructors. One such programme is called Megagrants, under which a grant of up to 150 million roubles is given to an individual researcher, as opposed to a university or a research institute. <…> So, the idea is to establish a similar grants programme for young instructors and researchers so that our young and talented specialists can work at universities across Russia.”
“We must reverse this situation in this decade. Each rouble spent on the social sphere must «produce justice». A just society and economy are the prerequisites of our sustainable development during these years.”
“Protecting health means preventing disease in the first place. A healthy lifestyle is a key aspect here. We will create conditions for free sports facilities that are close to home or work, and combat drug addiction, alcohol abuse and smoking.”
“The government will pay special attention to how museums, theatres, libraries and creative societies operate in small towns, where there is the greatest deficiency of cultural pastimes. The Ministry of Culture together with heads of regions should draft a government cultural development programme for small towns and put it up for broad discussion by the intellectual community.”
“Cultural practices should regain their key role as leisure organisations. We will promote a system of amateur creative activities starting from secondary school, where the position of children's creative work organiser should be introduced (in each particular case the position can be filled by a film director, a painter, a choreographer or a musician), and allocate other needed resources. The important thing is that children should become familiar with Russia's national culture while still in school.”
“We must ensure that each citizen enjoys broad and unrestricted access to national and global cultural values. The government will support the creation of public electronic libraries, as well as museum and theatre Internet resources; it will purchase the rights to the free distribution on the Internet of outstanding films and plays.”
“We have allocated additional federal funds, 120 billion rubles, to modernise education in 2011-2013. We have also agreed with the regional governments that they will provide co-financing for this project. Especially, rural schools will receive twice the financing, which will help rapidly develop a network of effective rural schools across Russia, provide rural residents with education services that meet modern standards.”
“We have significantly increased government spending on education and schools nationwide, and are changing the very principle of financing: funding follows the student now, which means that the government in fact places an order for educating each student. Schools enjoy greater independence but have a bigger responsibility.”
“The standards of educational culture and the integrity of the educational environment are key indicators of our societal priorities, and which determine our national identity and perspective. The preservation of the common educational space is a crucial condition for the preservation of Russia, a guarantee of civil, ethnic and inter-faith cooperation.”
“Investment in education will be our key budget priority. Not only does education mean that we are training a workforce for the economy, it is also a crucial factor in the social development of society, one that shapes our values and unites us. In this sense, the role of education is inextricable with that of culture.”
“The demands on education keep growing. While modernising our schools and introducing new approaches and educational technologies, we must also preserve the advantages and undeniable achievements of the Russian system of education, including its fundamental nature.”
“We must establish basic order within the system of higher education. There is a large number of higher educational institutions on the market (including state-run universities) that are in direct violation of the human right to receive good-quality knowledge. Rosobrnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision of Education and Science) has been ineffective in this respect. I suggest that between 2012 and 2014 our leading universities, with the help of scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences and international experts, conduct an audit of all higher professional education curricula.”
“We will continue improving the Unified State Examination system. <…> This system should be revised both in terms of methodology and organisation. Independent public observers should monitor the process to avoid abuses and distortion of results, while at the same time preserving the system’s advantages and rational core. By this I mean an independent evaluation of the quality of children’s knowledge and the work of their teachers. But most importantly, this system will give students from rural areas and remote regions, as well as from families with varied income levels an opportunity to get into the best regional and federal universities.”
“The system of supplementary education should become the government’s responsibility as before – by that I mean the regional governments, although the federal government should also provide financial support. The salaries of teachers who work in this system should be gradually raised to the level of school teachers, as their professional qualifications as sports coaches and arts teachers are just as high. As a result of our policies, we expect to boost the proportion of students involved in extracurricular programmes to 70%-75% by 2018, with half of them receiving these services free of charge.”
“We must streamline the system of state benefits for university students. Those students who are in need of financial support and who would not be able to continue their education without it, should receive a monthly allowance for their living costs – that is, provided that they achieve good marks. This means an additional 5,000 roubles on top of what they currently get from the government.”
“We should draft a fundamentally new pension policy for the middle class so as to give people broader opportunities for making a responsible choice of scenarios for resolving their problems. Solutions to problems should not be found by the government alone but by people jointly with the government and with the assistance of the government.”
“It is absolutely unacceptable for the birth of a child to bring a family to the edge of poverty. A national goal for the next three or four years is to make this totally impossible. <…>I propose introducing special benefits for the birth of a third and subsequent children in the regions where the population continues to decline, in the amount of a child subsistence minimum payable until the child reaches three years of age. In practical terms, this would amount to about 7,000 roubles a month.”
“In the next few years, we must create a system to help every disabled person who is able and willing to learn and work find their educational and professional niche in life: from specialised educational programmes to jobs adapted to an individual's specific requirements.”
“The skilled jobs market is in need of serious change. We have to provide social mobility within workers' professions. Russia needs to reestablish its labour aristocracy. By 2020, this aristocracy should make up at least one third of skilled workers – about ten million people (25 million including their families).”
“In the final analysis, salaries should be paid not for belonging to a certain institution, but for making a real contribution to science, education, healthcare or culture, and for providing specific services to society. The heads of colleges, universities, medical and research establishments should be obliged to report their incomes on the same lines as those introduced earlier for state corporations.”
“Public sector pay should be linked to the specific conditions of regional jobs markets. <…>A mechanical rise in pay for one and all does not work. It is necessary to take more account of the qualifications and professional ratings of employees for their salaries. This means that basic pay should be combined with a more rapid increase in incentive bonuses and supplemental payments.”
“Despite all the difficulties facing our space industry, we managed to deploy an operational orbital group in late 2011, and the global navigation system became a reality. The system includes 24 space modules which secure 100% navigational coverage across the globe. <…> Obviously, there are things that need to be improved. In order to be able to keep up with the competition, we need to improve the reliability of these satellites and extend their lifespan.”
“To join the world’s top 20 countries in terms of investment climate, we must cut the number of permits from 51 to 7 and the period during which businesses receive such permits from 423 to at least 35. I suggest that we use the best global practices to accelerate the coordination of design documents and to radically simplify all of the coordination procedures and the issue of construction permits.”
“Entrepreneurial talent is Russia’s most important resource. We must pave the way for a new generation of business by creating an optimal investment climate in Russia and the best corporate and anti-monopoly laws and by removing barriers to access to the market for new companies.”
“An Internet democracy should be integrated into the broader development framework for a referendum democracy. It should be more widely used at the municipal and regional levels. Municipal legislatures and their heads should be directly elected; moreover, the work of other key officials should also be publicly evaluated.”
“We must create a political system under which we will be able to and are obliged to tell people the truth. People who propose solutions and programmes must be responsible for their implementation. Those who elect decision makers must understand who and what they are voting for. This will ensure trust, constructive dialogue and mutual respect between society and the government.”
“I believe that democracy includes both the fundamental right of the people to choose a government and also the possibility to continuously influence it and its process of decision-making. Hence, democracy needs mechanisms of regular and direct action and efficient channels for dialogue, public control, communication and feedback.”
“We have to adjust the mechanisms of the political system so that they capture and reflect the interests of large social groups and ensure public coordination of these interests. The system should not only ensure the legitimacy of power, but also ensure that people have confidence that they have a fair government, including in those cases when they are in a minority.”
“Real democracy cannot be created overnight and cannot be a carbon copy of some external example. Society must be completely ready for using democratic mechanisms. The majority of people must see themselves as citizens of their country, ready to devote their attention, time and efforts on a regular basis to taking part in the process of governance. In other words, democracy is effective only when people are ready to invest something in it.”
“A large package of proposals on the development of our political and party system has been submitted to the State Duma today. The idea is to simplify the registration of parties, to cancel the required collection of signatures for participating in the elections to the State Duma and regional legislatures, and to reduce the number of signatures required for registering as a presidential candidate.”
“A great deal will depend on how our agencies, their chief executives and other top and middle-level managers carry out our instructions.<…> In this regard I would like to say that we also intend to introduce special mechanisms for evaluating the work of government institutions.”
“Most importantly, in addition to the current balanced economy and solid macroeconomic indicators, Russia also enjoys basic, long-term and powerful advantages. Our core resource consists of a talented, creative, well trained and educated people. This is an enormous treasure and a good starting point from which to launch modern manufacturing processes.”
“Russia is the world’s sixth largest economy and has all it takes to become a top five economy. I’m confident that this will happen. We ended last year with good results if you look at the aggregate economic outcome. Without exaggeration, this is one of the world’s best results. Economic growth over 4% is one of the best rates among G8 members. No, not just one of the best, it actually is the best result among other large European economies.”
“WTO membership creates better conditions for attracting investment to this industry; this is an obvious fact. We will be able to attract investment primarily to processing, to the food industry, to gain a foothold for our products at foreign markets, to protect domestic producers from unfair competition inside Russia as well as abroad. It is clear that after the accession to the WTO, we should not relax; we should understand and consider the many subtleties of WTO membership.”
“Russia must play a bigger part in the international division of labour, not only as a supplier of commodities and energy, but as an owner of regularly upgraded cutting-edge technology in at least some sectors.”
“We must alter our state, as well as our executive and judicial branches. We must do away with the accusatory bias of law enforcement, investigative, prosecutorial and judicial agencies. We must eliminate all vestiges and leftovers of Soviet-era law enforcement concepts and all legal snags that make it possible to open up a criminal case against any party involved in a commercial dispute. All economic cases must be tried by commercial courts, rather than by general jurisdiction courts.”
“Last year the government approved the strategy for Russia’s innovation-based development until 2020. <…>We will need to both carry out modernisation and create new industries. Retrofitting should become a widespread practice and an effective development model. In addition, Russia will need to significantly expand its presence on global high-tech markets.”
“Russia’s new economy will be a diversified economy where many competitive sectors will be developed alongside a modern fuel and energy industry. <…> Our new economy will be an efficient economy, with high labour productivity and low energy consumption. <…> The new economy will provide highly productive and high paying jobs. <…> It will be an economy of continuously upgraded technology. <…>It will be an economy in which small businesses will provide at least half of the jobs in the economy.”
“Restoring the innovative nature of the economy should begin with universities – which should be seen as both centers for fundamental science and resources for innovative people. We need to pursue a national objective that results in globally competitive Russian universities. By 2020, we should have several world-class universities that span the entire spectrum of modern material and social technologies.”
“Russia can do more than simply buy innovation – we can also generate it. Our place in the future depends on how well we will use our potential. The high levels of education among our people, our impressive legacy of fundamental science, our engineering schools, and the infrastructure for pilot-scale production which is preserved in many industries, are all factors that we have a duty to use.”
“Having an economy that cannot guarantee us stability, sovereignty and prosperity is unacceptable for Russia. We need a new economy with a competitive industry and infrastructure, a developed services sector and effective agriculture: an economy based on modern technology. We must develop an effective mechanism for modernising our economy and attract the huge material and personnel resources needed to achieve this goal.”
