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.”
“Therefore, in line with the already determined strategy, we should continue to carry out structural reforms of the missile space industry and streamline its technological and experimental base. As a result, we should be able to greatly enhance its effectiveness and bring its management to a much higher level.”
“I'd like to emphasize that the adjusted version of the budget does not envisage any reduction in the allocations on the missile space industry. All in all, almost 82 billion roubles are earmarked for it under three federal programmes.”
“This year, up to 230 Mongolian students will study in Russian higher educational institutions. We have expanded the quota to this number. We will continue the practice of training specialists for the Mongolian Defence Ministry.”
"Our trade turnover has been growing over the past few years. The leaders of our cooperation, our joint companies, are working well. We have good, promising plans in different spheres, and our main objective now is to create the environment for their implementation. Another objective is to diversify our trade and economic relations."
“Incidentally, we have agreed to grant Mongolia a $300 million loan for agricultural development, which will be paid in tranches. As I said, Mongolia will spend it on agriculture, on this year's sowing season and livestock breeding. This is a tied loan so it will be spent on the purchase of Russian agricultural equipment and other Russian commodities.”
"379 billion roubles have been earmarked for transfers to the Pension Fund and other extrabudgetary funds. We also intend extra banking allocations and extra transfers of 150 billion roubles to the regions, plus loans worth the same amount. Russian Railways will receive 54.6 billion roubles. 35 billion roubles will go for war veterans' housing. 100 billion will go to the reserve. Other anti-crisis measures concern loan interest subsidies."
“What worries me very much about the age group you mentioned is drug addiction. For this region, the Kuzbass, this unfortunately is a very urgent issue. Drug addiction here, especially among young people, is higher than the average figure for the country, much higher. We must pool our efforts here: the law enforcement, administration, public organisations and health authorities must work out an effective plan of joint action.”
"The equipment in the Armed Forces is becoming more and more sophisticated, we need trained specialists, and you cannot become a specialist in two or three months. That is why a large part of the Armed Forces will be manned by contractors, and they want decent salaries and permanent housing. These are costly things and there are many problems there. So, in terms of personnel training for your sphere and training of the workforce for the country as a whole, it is an important problem."
“As regards personnel training, it is one of the key aspects of development in any branch of the economy. Unfortunately, the system of vocational schools set up in the Soviet Union has to some extent gone to seed over the past decades. Currently, attempts are being made to restore it, but this cannot be done without the participation of the industry.”
"We must develop our own agriculture. This is why we are now investing most money, even in these crisis conditions, in farming, of all sectors of the economy. To begin with, we subsidise up to 80% of the interest rate for farms to implement their investment plans, which are very large-scale. We now see large firms and big livestock breeding centres springing up. There is nothing in Europe to compare with them: they are larger, more modern, well-equipped and computerised throughout. And we seek to help the farms realise all these plans."
"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.”
“The feasibility study of the South Stream Hungarian stretch will be completed before the end of the year-possibly by September. The feasibility study of the entire South Stream system must be completed by June 2010, and the construction deadline is December 31, 2015. The system must start working that day.”
“We intend to pump 10 billion cubic metres of gas along the Hungarian stretch. The entire South Stream is designed for 31 billion, but it might be more. Construction is estimated at 10 billion euros now, but we might do with less as construction material prices are plummeting. There are no problems with financing, though energy prices are dropping and there are other economic problems-in particular, shrinking volumes. There are no problems, either-at least for the time being-with attracting money to this and similar projects.”
“To overcome the negative consequences of the global financial and economic crisis, we should take effective joint actions to rehabilitate the global financial and investment system. Likewise, we must maintain and, if possible, enhance the level of trade and economic relations and cooperation in other spheres of bilateral relations. To attain this objective, we should act with maximum trust based on a positive approach to the partners' interests. I am convinced that if we follow these guidelines, Russia and Hungary will make a befitting contribution to European economic stability.”
"The amendments proposed by the Ministry of Finance serve to regulate the use of the Reserve Fund to cover the budget deficit that we will have to face over the course of the next few years. We have made a calculated decision to use the available reserves on a large scale, despite a drop in budget revenues, so as to fully adhere to the Government's social commitments and to fund anti-crisis measures."
“As we have said on more than one occasion, we will not reduce the budget's expenses in 2009. On the contrary, they will be slightly increased even further, because we will have to spend money on anti-crisis measures. In addition, the draft grants broader rights to the regional authorities for supporting municipalities.”
“Mr Medvedev chaired a meeting of the Anti-Corruption Council. A detailed analysis of draft legal norms, which would make it possible to identify at the early stages loopholes used by dishonest officials, is designed to become a major element of our fight against corruption. Our goal is to make sure that provisions of laws, delegated legislation and regulations should rule out any ambiguity or free interpretation, and should impose clear and transparent administrative procedures.”
"Today, I'll sign the Government decree on the transfer of 19 companies (from all basins - the Baltics, the Volga Region, the Far East, and the North) to the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC). I'm hoping that its establishment will be completed by April 1, as we planned."
“We are also planning to launch a new federal targeted programme. I'd like to remind you once again that we have preserved almost all high-tech programmes despite the streamlining of our budget. Moreover, we have left their funding virtually unchanged. The budget provides 136.4 billion roubles for a federal targeted programme to develop civilian shipbuilding, including 4.2 billion roubles for this year. This sum will not be reduced. All in all, 17 million roubles will be allocated for civilian shipbuilding and will be used in full.”
“So, what will we spend on the high tech spheres of the economy? There are about 300 billion roubles left. If we add Vnesheconombank's credit portfolio, and its 300 billion roubles are federal money, we'll have almost 600 billion. Banks receiving federal support will give us roughly 200 billion roubles. All in all, we'll have 800 billion roubles for high-tech spheres.”
“About 110 billion roubles will be spent on shipbuilding this year. It goes without saying that this spending must be effective. Shipbuilding should constitute restructuring in this context.”
“One final point. In 2009, we are launching a new, 8-year federal targeted programme called "The Development of Civilian Marine Technology". We often say that by the time it emerges from the current difficult economic and financial situation, our economy should be more modern and competitive. Some might ask, how can this be achieved? Well, programmes such as this are part of the answer.”
“We have many shipbuilding facilities, but unfortunately, they can hardly be called modern or efficient. They are in need of sweeping modernisation and wherever practicable, they should be converted to serve other needs. At the same time, practice shows that the most effective projects are "green field projects". In the shipbuilding industry, a breakthrough investment project of this sort that would raise the industry to a qualitatively new technological level must be the creation of new shipyards geared toward meeting civilian needs.”
"At present, the USC has a blueprint of the programme of civilian shipbuilding. The main targets are as follows: building fishing vessels, about 265 units; development of the Russian transport system under that programme, 791 vessels; planned commissions by Gazprom and Rosneft, 307 vessels before 2030."
“All organisational measures to reform the shipbuilding industry must be completed by April 1 of this year, and by that time we should complete the formation of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC). Secondly, the production programme of the United Shipbuilding Corporation should be developed and approved by that time, too. The main emphasis should be on producing a range of competitive civilian ships that will be in demand in the market. We should realistically assess our potential and occupy the niches where we can offer competitive and even exclusive goods.”
"The United Russia party maintains permanent contacts with trade unions, business communities and public organisations. Regional public reception offices are working actively. This is a very serious feedback channel allowing us to expose and analyse emerging problems and to prepare our own proposals on additional anti-crisis measures. Naturally, all of them must be duly coordinated with experts and specialised departments. I know that you have prepared the relevant proposals."
"I want to once again stress that the party's prestige depends on effective law-making activities and its ability to explain the essence of specific decisions and the motives of such decisions in every particular situation to every person. We must also be convinced that we have chosen the right road and are implementing the right measures."
"I want to note that the United Russia parliamentary party has railroaded high priority anti-crisis legislation through the State Duma. Moreover, the Duma United Russia deputies have submitted many of these bills at the Government's request."
"Our political forces-I mean legal forces-have been extremely responsible up to this point, and I expect them to continue thus in the future. We cannot, must not, and will not limit legal protest - that is, in the forms stipulated by the law of the Russian Federation."
"The state cannot afford to keep the entire economy afloat out of its own purse. This is especially true of the export-oriented economy, whose partners are cutting imports. Such support would be a big blunder because we would not be able to cope with our social pledges, about which another colleague has asked, where both pensions and wages are concerned. The money would be squandered to no effect."
"We have not given up earlier announced construction programmes. Work on the Housing Programme is underway. Relevant allocations amounted to 75 billion rouble, if I am not mistaken. We have cut it by 15 billion but are adding another 40 billion out of the Housing and Public Utilities Fund, which we earlier intended to use up in 2010-2011. It's forty billion, just think! We are also working to extend government contracts with the Defence Ministry and for population groups whose accommodation is the duty of the state. We will do it all. As for extra measures, they demand further study."
