Vladimir Putin intends to forge ahead with the national projects
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of the presidium of the council on the implementation of national projects and demographic policy yesterday. It was clear from his speech that the national projects, which have been mentioned less frequently recently due to the crisis (compared with the run-up to the presidential election 1-1.5 years ago) were still on the agenda in spite of the budget deficit. In fact, he indicated that the national projects would develop even faster during the crisis. Public health, in particular, will improve.
Vladimir Putin began by casually announcing that "correction of the federal budget has been completed", and one need hardly mention in what direction the "correction" has been made.
"In connection with this, I would like to stress that priority funding of the national projects will be ensured, as we have agreed earlier," the Prime Minister said, adding that the "local authorities" designing regional and municipal budgets should act similarly.
The financing of the national projects thought up by Vladimir Putin and supervised by Dmitry Medvedev before he became President should continue because "they have proved to be necessary and economically and socially viable".
"It would be a mistake to let what we have done go to waste," Mr Putin said. "In 2008, 260,000 more children were born than three years earlier, the highest indicator since 1992. Having said that, it owes much to the overall improvement of the economic situation in the country."
Now, encouraging young people to adopt a healthy way of life is becoming a priority, in Mr Putin's opinion. First, sports facilities must be accessible to all children and teenagers, regardless of their parents' incomes.
"We sometimes criticize the Soviet times, but in the Soviet times almost every child from any family could play sports. I played sports for free all my life," the Prime Minister shared with those present. "Yes, the equipment was Soviet-made, primitive - but it was available."
"The second task is to solve at long last the problem of quality school meals, which Minister of Education Andrei Fursenko has been struggling to solve since the times when there were no national projects."
The third task Mr Putin set yesterday was to "take tough measures" to secure compliance with the law that bans smoking and drinking in public places.
"Let's face it, these bans are not followed strictly and in some places are ignored. This is no way to get results," Mr Putin said, admonishing his audience. "It is not acceptable to profit at the expense of our children's health".
It seems that, at least sometimes, non-freedom is better than freedom.
Alexander Latyshev
