The prime minister invented this new rallying cry together with writers at their meeting yesterday.
The seventh conference of the Russian Book Union began Wednesday in Moscow's Pashkov House with an informal "election joke."
"I give the floor to our organisation's eternal president, Sergei Stepashin," said the moderator.
Stepashin has been head of the Book Union for ten years.
"Don't joke about eternal presidents," Stepashin said, smiling. "Some people may get the wrong impression."
The audience reacted with applause.
"Our teenagers currently rank 43rd in the world with regard to their desire to read," he went on. "Individual interest in reading is also falling among managers and business people."
The conference participants blamed the internet for the decline of interest to reading. The discussion was in full swing when Vladimir Putin arrived at the conference.
He agreed multimedia technologies have had a negative impact on book publishing, but added that this is a global trend.
"About 1 million e-readers were sold in Russia this year, and their overall sales have increased 200-fold over the last four years," he said. "There are a lot of websites where one can easily download the best works of Russian classic writers, which is certainly good."
Writers and book publishers sighed dejectedly.
"But there are serious concerns too," Putin went on. "New stories, too, become available online immediately upon release, without the writer's approval and, of course, free of charge."
He said a new government commission has been established. "Its purpose is to develop effective legal solutions to protect copyrights."
After that the prime minister met with writers over tea.
Mikhail Veller asked Putin: "Is it admissible for writers' opinions to differ from official views?"
The prime minister replied: "As for whether criticisms regarding the authorities should be more or less harsh, I just don't think there is any point in criticising leadership simply for the sake of criticism. Criticism is able to produce the desired effect only if it is done deftly. In my view, the most important thing is for those who engage in criticism not to do so – and I don't mean to offend anybody – just to satisfy their own vanity. They should instead be motivated by a sincere drive to improve things. Then the odds of receiving a positive reaction will be much higher."
Putin further said he hopes that "in the future, we won't fall into situations in which our fellow countrymen have to leave [Russia] in order to be able to pursue their literary or political activities." He said he agrees about "the need for dialogue between the authorities and the artistic community."
"Then allow me to say a few words in support of Mikhail Veller's remarks," Zakhar Prilepin said.
"What about supporting my remarks?" the prime minister retorted. "Are you planning to attack me now?"
Prilepin subsequently asked Putin to comment on the reports about Transneft executives allegedly misappropriating $4 billion.
Blogger Alexei Navalny wrote that $4 billion of federal funds had been squandered during the construction of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline. The Audit Chamber later confirmed that government losses in the project stand at 3.45 billion roubles.
"If there had been such offenses, these people would have been put behind bars a long time ago," Putin replied to Prilepin's question.
"Not all wrongdoings are the same," he continued. There are crimes such as "theft, robbery, bribe-taking and embezzlement. [And] there are also violations that are not criminal offences, such as improper use of funds."
Suppose a governor was to "spend money on housing construction but invested it in improving healthcare instead," he said. "He didn't use it appropriately but he didn't steal anything. In principle, this may be the case of Transneft."
Tatyana Ustinova said that writers can now write about anything they want. There is no censorship, she said, adding that she would very much like this situation to continue in the future and forever. This is very important. "I support freedom with a clear conscience," she said.
Putin said it was a perfect way to end the meeting: "Let us all have maximum freedom, but at the same time let's never forget about conscience."
Alexander Gamov
