The prime minister hopes that the ruling party will be at its best during the forthcoming elections.
On Thursday, Vladimir Putin continued summing up the 5th State Duma’s performance before the United Russia officials who were invited to his residence at Novo-Ogaryovo. The day before this, he addressed the last plenary meeting of the legislature.
He said that the past four years were a period when Russia had to face up to the world financial crisis, from which it emerged with minimal losses by comparison with many Western countries. This was achieved largely because the United Russia-dominated State Duma reacted, to quote Putin, “quickly and in a cooperative manner.” But there were “constant debates and disagreements.” Before being approved, some bills were opened to public discussion. This should become a regular practice, he said.
“Not everything was done to the best effect, but on the whole, the legislature’s performance merits good marks,” Putin said, adding that all the decisions were valid from an economic point of view.
“We didn’t drag this country into debt slavery. We see what’s happening in many Western European countries: social unrest in Portugal and Greece. Even Italy is teetering. Problems are building up in France as well. What’s behind this? The debt! And where has the debt come from? It’s the result of ill-timed decision-making,” he said.
According to Putin, the same thing is happening in the United States.
“It’s absolutely the same thing! There is no consolidation in their society; the leading political forces in the Congress are unable to reach agreement, and this is affecting the economy. Hopefully, nothing like that will happen here,” he said.
“You should work for maximum electoral effect. If we paralyse the parliament, we, like some other nations, will be unable to pass the right decisions at critical moments. We would only make promises and live at the expense of future generations, as this country did in the 1990s. Eventually this would pull us over a line which our partners and friends in Europe have already crossed,” Putin said.
In Russia today, the economy is stable and a record low inflation rate – under 7% – is expected this year, he added.
“I remember well our debates [in 2008] and how some government members demanded that, in a crisis environment, the parliament should hand its decision-making powers over to the government. But you insisted on abiding by the legislation and promised to work fast. It’s a viable parliament that helped us to cope with the crisis the way we did,” Putin said.
At this point the lights started blinking in the room and finally went out. Stability or no stability, small kinks can occur even at the prime minister’s residence.
Andrei Ryabtsev
