A review of Vladimir Putin's phone-in programmes from 2001 to the present time.
Vladimir Putin yesterday held his eighth phone-in programme since 2001. The last two programmes changed the name from Direct Video Link to Conversation with Vladimir Putin Continued. What one often hears during these video links are personal requests or minor complaints. Thus, during the first phone-in with the President in late December 2001 a woman from Kazachiye-Malevanny hamlet asked Putin to order gas supply pipeline to be built to her village. Within half an hour a Gazprom memorandum landed on Putin's desk which promised that gas would be brought to the hamlet in January 2002. Something similar happened in 2005, putting in jeopardy the position of the head of the Stavropol Territory, Alexander Chernogorov. A woman in the village of Degtyarevsky, Lyudmila Karachentseva, complained that her village had no running water. The President replied that he would not reappoint the governor until the pipeline was built. Thereafter the regional budget urgently disbursed 70 million roubles, and construction of the pipeline began within two weeks, as the governor personally reported to the head of state while the federal channels showed pictures of water pouring out of the tap and the happy face of Lyudmila Karachentseva.
During the 2006 phone-in another governor had a narrow escape. When an ethnic conflict flared up in the town of Kondopoga in Karelia the authorities failed to react properly. Putin said he was sorry that he could not get through to the governor, who was on leave, and promised to have a serious talk with him. Sergey Katanandov promptly cut short his holiday and came back, not so much to solve the problems as to answer Putin's remark during an audience with him to the effect that "this was the first time in my practice that I could not reach the head of a region." Putin is particularly impressive playing the role of a kind magician to children. During last year's phone-in a girl from Buryatiya called Putin: "Uncle Volodya, it will soon be the New Year. We live on grandma's pension. I would like to ask you for a dress, like Cinderella's," she said. Putin invited her to a Christmas party and promised to deliver the gifts. Earlier, in 2002, after a call from a little girl from Birobidzhan, he ordered a local governor to deliver a Christmas tree to the girl. The Christmas tree was delivered by helicopter to the city's main square the following day.
However, not all such stories have a happy end. In spite of the President's promise to look into the matter, the question of cut fares for village schoolchildren, which disappeared as a result of the "cash for benefits" campaign, elicited from the authorities nothing more than a letter informing the petitioners that their petition had been forwarded to the regional administration "for the purpose of taking measures and reporting the results to you."
Last year the keynote of Putin's conversation with the Russian people was different, and no gifts were presented to the audience. On the one hand he was acting in the capacity of Prime Minister and the leader of United Russia (the citizens who wanted to talk with Putin had to report to the public reception offices of the United Russia party chairman). In addition, Putin had to answer for the problems caused by the crisis which broke out last year. As Prime Minister, he could no longer threaten to sack governors and had to sort out the problems of his callers in a live broadcast, often arguing and persuading people. For example, after the Prime Minister promised that unemployment would not be large-scale, a woman called him and said that her factory was laying off 1500 workers out of the total workforce of 4000. Putin answered that unemployment benefit had been increased to 5000 roubles. True, he omitted to say that the woman, whose wage was 6000 roubles, was not entitled to this maximum unemployment benefit (it starts only for those who earn upward of 15,000 roubles). Putin advised her to look for a job in other places or to retrain. In reply, people told him that they had long been travelling to other cities, but could find no jobs. A similar argument broke out over farmers' complaints that the price at which the government buys grain from them does not cover the production cost. Putin disagreed. He cited twice the price cited by the farmer. It remained unclear whether Putin's or the farmer's figures were right.
Lola Tagayeva