By Igor Naumov
For the first time in six months the Cabinet met on the fifth floor of the White House after costly repairs had been completed. The Prime Minister's office, private apartment and the government conference hall are all on that floor. The Government Presidium is housed in the former reception room, which has been lavishly refurbished. Having reviewed the efforts of the authorities to deal with the liquidity crisis and stop the fall of stock exchange indexes, the Prime Minister declared that the market had in fact been restored.
The Prime Minister's area in the Government House was closed for refurbishment in late winter, so it was the first time since Vladimir Putin was appointed Prime Minister that he was chairing an open meeting of the Cabinet. Every Government member who entered the conference room sniffed the air for the smells that accompany any interior repair work. The journalists were trying to identify the smells and comparing notes with Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko and Minister of Telecommunications and Mass Communications Igor Shchyogolev, who sat nearby. In reply the ministers smiled mysteriously. "Maybe that's the smell of nanotechnology," a Nezavisimaya Gazeta correspondent suggested. "Nanotechnology doesn't smell like this," Mr Fursenko replied with an air of authority. Perhaps it was the smell of money: The 2008 budget earmarked up to 2 billion roubles for the refurbishment of the White House. "Maybe that's the smell of power," one of the lower-ranking officials suggested.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin was among the late comers. Automatically he made for his usual place, forgetting that the Presidium had moved to another floor and that the seating arrangements had changed. Mr Kudrin was intercepted by his fellow ministers, who showed him where his new seat was.
As for Prime Minister Putin, he had no problem finding his seat at the head of the table. The Prime Minister exuded optimism. He sounded triumphant as he reviewed the results of the titanic efforts of the Government and the Central Bank to combat last week's liquidity crisis in the stock market and in the banking sphere. The Prime Minister praised Mr Kudrin and Central Bank President Sergei Ignatyev. "I think that the financial authorities have reacted promptly. The measures taken have yielded a positive result," he said. He believes that the situation has not just been stabilised but that "the market has in fact recovered". "That is what reserves are for: In order to feel secure. I encourage all the agencies concerned to continue to keep the situation under review," the Prime Minister said. The Ministers and Deputy Prime Ministers concerned busily jotted down Mr Putin's instructions. Only Mr Kudrin did not take any notes, trusting his memory. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister continued thinking aloud: If the banks need to be treated with attention and care, the Government is prepared to do that without necessarily introducing government regulation of that sphere.
According to established tradition, the Deputy Prime Ministers and Ministers took turns to report on progress in fulfilling their current assignments. As usual, Mr Putin determined the sequence and the subjects of the reports. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin reported on his trip to Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Some of the information in that report was secret and Mr Sechin asked to be allowed to convey that information to the Prime Minister privately.
Minister of Healthcare and Social Development Tatyana Golikova confirmed that the law on co-financing pension savings would come into force on October 1 as planned. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said he would fulfil President Medvedev's instructions concerning the provision of disabled persons with special cars in the medium term. Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev had good news for the Prime Minister. He said the harvesting season in Russia was drawing to a close. Grain crops have been harvested on more than four fifths of the fields. The farmers set another record: 2,590 kg per hectare, more than at any time in the Soviet Union. All this enabled Mr Gordeyev to promise to deliver 95-100 million tonnes of grain, almost 20 million tonnes more than last year.
The reports completed, Mr Putin announced the creation of a Government Commission on the Development of the Energy Industry to be headed by Igor Sechin.