Parlamentskaya Gazeta: “The Prime Minister’s 7 Days”
Nikolai Kalinin
The work schedules of top leaders can be indicative and... instructive. For someone who carefully follows the sequence of their working visits and meetings it is easy to see what problems the country faces and how it may go about solving them.
Take the Russian Prime Minister's last working week. The world financial crisis which undoubtedly affects Russia's interests was discussed early in the week at a meeting of the Vnesheconombank - Development Bank supervisory board.
Addressing the board, the Prime Minister said that he still considered the stability of the Russian banking system and the preservation of the stability of Russian enterprises to be the key tasks. Vnesheconombank-Development Bank is to spearhead that effort, he said. Its authorised capital will be increased by 75 billion roubles before the end of the year. The money would be used to buy Russian securities and ensure transactions in the domestic financial market.
The problems connected with the world economy and their impact on the Russian economy were the subject of Vladimir Putin's discussion with Vice Premier-Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and the Minister of Regional Development Dmitry Kozak. (Incidentally, two days later Dmitry Kozak was appointed a Vice Premier by presidential decree). That meeting discussed ways to protect the social sphere from the impact of the world financial crisis, with special attention paid to the construction industry. The conversation focused on housing construction and on the problems of housing and utilities. But for Dmitry Kozak the conversation was important because it touched on the building of facilities for the Sochi Olympic Games. Dmitry Kozak will be in charge of this operation in his capacity as Vice Premier.
The Prime Minister had several other significant meetings with Cabinet ministers last week. During a meeting with Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov he discussed housing construction, which is the most pressing social problem in the Armed Forces. Some improvements have taken place recently. But the Prime Minister drew the Minister's attention to the fact that the prices at which housing is bought for servicemen should strictly correspond to current market prices and should on no account be speculative.
The mood was more upbeat in a meeting with the Minister of Health and Social Development Tatyana Golikova. Although official figures are not in yet, those that are available speak about the growing birth rate, Tatyana Golikova believes. The birth rate will amount to 1,270,000 in nine months of 2008, which is 8% more than last year. At this rate, it will be one of the highest birth rates in the last 20 years.
In a working meeting with the Minister for Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu and the President of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, last Tuesday, an emergency was discussed. That republic had been hit by an earthquake. Vladimir Putin wanted to know what had been done to help the victims of the emergency.
According to Sergei Shoigu all the rescue work had been completed by the time of the Kremlin meeting. A commission was inspecting houses and the supply of hospitals and schools. Regarding gas, water, electricity supplies and communications everything had been restored, although in some places only on a temporary basis.
The Minister reported that all the work could be completed within 10-14 days. But while reconstruction work is underway, money is necessary. The Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said that he had asked the Government to allocate the necessary funds once the extent of the destruction was determined. At the time of the conversation it was known that 4,300 houses had been damaged, three district hospitals had to be rebuilt from scratch and many educational and cultural amenities had been destroyed.
Vladimir Putin promised that the Federal Government would bring prompt relief, and, after all the damage to residential structures and the Republic's economy had been assessed, the corresponding funds would be allocated. But he called on the Republic's people to use their own resources as well.
The Prime Minister seemed to be seriously concerned about cleaning up the aftermath of the earthquake in Chechnya. On Thursday the news agencies reported that he was on a working visit to the Chechen Republic. Straight from the Grozny airport Vladimir Putin headed for Gudermes to inspect the progress of the reconstruction work and of cleaning up the aftermath of the recent earthquake.
Nikolai Kalinin.
