Larisa Kaftan
Prime Minister's website begins operation
Vladimir Putin made his first visit to the official Prime Minister's website, www.premier.gov.ru, as KP reported on October 30.
A presidential website, www.kremlin.ru, was created during Mr Putin's presidential tenure, and then went over to Dmitry Medvedev. The Prime Minister has, until recently, shared his personal web-portal with the government's site, www.government.ru.
Now, he has a web resource of his own. After browsing it for a while, we came to several curious conclusions.
The Prime Minister's quotations, posted in the Point of View, column allow one to track the issues that seem to interest him most. For example, we found 51 statements on international cooperation - a whole collection of quotations, 13 on the budget, on support of Russian regions, and socially unprotected groups.
Speaking about the development of Russia's political system, the Prime Minister said that different political forces should be present in the country, including those whose beliefs are opposite of official policy. This statement is backed by a brief press review containing articles that unflattering to the government, some of them from opposition papers. One article is entitled, Will Putin leave his post in spring 2009? No comment.
The website offers a range of the Prime Minister's photos, not only official but also casual ones, under the rubrics Informal and Beyond Economic Issues. There are production photos from Sergei Mikhalkov's Burnt by the Sun-2 with Mr Putin, pictures of his meeting with writer Maurice Druon in Paris, and pictures from the Beijing Olympics.
There is an option to write a letter to the Prime Minister - not exceeding 5,000 characters (almost the size of a page in Komsomolskaya Pravda). Please indicate whether or not your letter requires a response when sending it to Putin. He will read all his mail, so feel free to write.