Vedomosti (Moscow): "Putin ready to adjust anti-crisis measures"
Debates on the budget
Vladimir Putin has expressed a willingness to adjust the government's anti-crisis measures after discussions with opposition leaders. The opposition, however, is not ready to support the new budget.
Shortly before debates on the government's anti-crisis plan and amendments to the 2009 budget held at the Russian parliament's lower house, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with the leaders of the opposition parliamentary parties. Putin suggested they depoliticise the discussion of the anti-crisis programme at both houses of parliament. In response, he said, the Government is ready to consider a differing point of view and even make some adjustments if "they promote solutions for the complex tasks facing this country today."
The Just Russia party intends to critically analyse both the anti-crisis programme and the budget, said party leader Sergei Mironov after the meeting. He added that the party members would support these documents only if they decide that social priorities are properly addressed in them. He voiced his party's proposals to reduce the housing and utilities charges which he said should not exceed 10% of a family budget and to support the construction sector through construction savings banks. A representative of the party's press service said that the party was not likely to support the government-proposed amendments to the budget.
The communists' position is even more categorical. Vadim Solovyov, a member of the KPRF Central Committee, said his party would not support the new budget. Moreover, when Putin delivers his report at the Duma on April 6, they intend to demand the resignation of the ministers in charge of economic issues. The plenary meeting of the party's Central Committee held on March 28 decided to stage massive protests demanding the resignation of the federal government. During his meeting with the prime minister, the KPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov asked Putin to channel government funds into industries instead of transferring them abroad and to increase the investment in agriculture.
According to Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, the Government has not suffered big failures since the beginning of the crisis. However, his party's support of the budget will depend on the members' assessments and the government's explanations as to the expediency of spending federal funds for the purchase of foreign currency and foreign stock instead of investing them in domestic industries. Zhirinovsky proposed that the Putin-led Government should work for bigger tax cuts and restrict the purchase of currency, as well as establish a single agency for combating corruption.
In conditions of the economic crisis, the Government seeks to legitimise its actions to the greatest possible extent through support of the opposition and by sharing responsibility with it. Hence, a broad discussion of the government's plan and the appointment of opposition members to gubernatorial posts, says political scientist Yevgeny Minchenko.
Natalya Kostenko
