VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Yesterday, the Government summarised the interim results of the state property privatisation programme. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that the failure to meet the programme targets had become a standard practice. The crisis has also played a role in this. Therefore, the Government decided to revise the approach to state property privatisation. For now, only the property worth less than 5 million roubles will be offered for privatisation. The rest will be put on hold until better times.
An expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences went to the taiga to watch the Amur tigress on which Vladimir Putin put a GPS collar last autumn. I accompanied the team as Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent.
The Western wave of anti-crisis strikes, mass meetings and picketing has not reached Russia yet. Therefore, the Russian Government has probably decided to take some preventive action before it happens, first of all to talk to trade union leaders.
Russia is pursuing active diplomacy to achieve a revision of the Brussels gas agreements between the European Union and Ukraine. According to Kommersant, it will be a key issue during a visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Germany on March 31.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday met with representatives of trade unions for what would be the first public discussion of the government’s anti-crisis programme. Kommersant’s special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov reports on the impressive launch of a nationwide public debate on stimulus and bailout policies.
The current financial and economic crisis will not influence the Government’s plans to overhaul the pension system. Pensions will be raised on schedule, while employers will have to pay more into the Pension Fund. The unified social tax will be replaced with insurance premiums.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met yesterday with Chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions Mikhail Shmakov and the heads of primary trade unions. The number of registered unemployed in mid-March was about two million people (in fact, the unofficial figure is six million, as revealed by President Dmitry Medvedev). Another million have a shorter working day or are on forced leaves, and about 500,000 people are slated for layoffs. Despite that, both Mr Putin and Mr Shmakov wanted to say something encouraging to each other. And they did.
The State Duma addressed the issue of international adoption a day after Russian President Medvedev held a meeting on crimes against children. The lower house said it was “seriously concerned about the death of Russian children adopted by foreign nationals and taken out of Russia.”
The Council of the lower house of Parliament yesterday approved questions for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s report to the State Duma.
It was reported the other day that US President Barack Obama appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC, becoming the first US President to sit on a late night chat/comedy show.
