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
Russia is a unique country and civilization. Its uniqueness lies in the enduring peaceful coexistence of various ethnic communities and religions. Unlike the U.S., Russia is not a "melting pot"; it has managed to work out a common Russian identity while preserving the cultural and national characteristics of each ethnic community.
Surgutneftegaz has again changed the schedule for modernising its oil refinery in Kirishi (Leningrad Region). The company will delay the commission of a hydrocracking facility for a year and of a catalytic cracking installation for two years with plans to convert to Euro 5 fuel production only in 2017. Meanwhile, government-endorsed technical regulations compel the oil companies to convert by 2015. On February 12, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called upon them to comply with the schedule.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting on the development of the oil industry in the town of Kirishi, Leningrad Region, yesterday. The Prime Minister made no bones about the fact that the oil industry, “with all due respect”, would not continue to enjoy the benefits it was counting on, certainly not by comparison with other industries. Our special correspondent ANDREI KOLESNIKOV thinks that can be regarded as a sensation: the participants in the meeting apparently expected something very different.
Russia has avoided the shock of the crisis, Vladimir Putin said at a Government meeting.
Last Thursday your newspaper carried an amusing article titled “Rich Russians Don’t Moderate Their Appetites Even in a Crisis”. “In the morning they beg the Government for money and in the evening they relax on overseas islands and buy property abroad,” Andrei Lavrov writes. He cites as a vivid example of such egregious behaviour my purchase of the British newspaper Evening Standard. “Meanwhile, in Russia the weekly magazine Ogonyok, which has more than a hundred year-long history, was shut down,” the author laments.
It came out yesterday that there are two bidders for a stake in Polyus Zoloto, the largest gold producing company in Russia. In addition to Suleiman Kerimov’s group, which claims 37% of the shares, VTB-Capital has filed a bid with the Federal Anti-Monopoly service for 50% less 1 share. Unofficial sources say that VTB-Capital is also acting in the interests of Mr Kerimov. However, VTB did not reveal this fact to the bureaucrats and the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service may thus turn the bank down. Suleiman Kerimov’s bid is to be considered by the Foreign Investment Commission, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Putin visited the Russian aircraft-building corporation MIG yesterday and presided over the first meeting of the Council of General and Chief Designers, leading scientists, and experts in the field of high technology set up by the Russian Prime Minister in October 2008. “I simply wanted the people who generate the main ideas and organize this process to feel that they have a direct link to the country’s leadership,” the Prime Minister said when opening the meeting.
Government assistance of nearly 200 billion roubles promised by the prime minister has not yet reached the automakers. By now, only two resolutions have been signed: one on state purchases of automobiles totalling 12.5 billion roubles and one on subsidising auto loans worth 6 billion roubles.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is convinced that defence-industry enterprises must receive state contracts from ministries as soon as possible. "It is already mid-February, and time is ripe for signing contracts," Mr Putin said, while opening the February 10 Government meeting.
Europe should not put Russia down again because it is weakened itself.
