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
The Nizhny Novgorod branch of the ruling Yedinaya Rossiya (United Russia) party has been discussing the possibility of establishing a special fund that would provide material assistance to the visitors of Prime Minister Putin’s Public Liaison Office. The party’s leadership reacted negatively to the initiative.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Veliky Novgorod, where he toured the world's largest plant for the production of mineral fertilisers, Acron. There, Mr Putin held a meeting on the problems facing the industry's agro-chemical sector. In the second half of 2008, its output dropped by 30%.
In a Sunday interview with Bloomberg Television, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed "cautious optimism" about relations between Russia and the United States. Mr Putin said he was picking up "certain signals" indicating that Barack Obama is going to change US foreign policy priorities, especially those concerning the deployment of a missile defence shield in Europe and NATO membership of Ukraine and Georgia.
Before the New Year, Georgi Siromashki, a Bulgarian pensioner in the town of Ruse, Bulgaria, always laughed at his Sofia pal Khristo Lozev: Even he, Georgi, living in the provinces, had gas, while Lozev, although a resident of the capital, was still using wood and coal to keep his house warm. Now, it is Georgi who envies his friend. During the Russian-Ukrainian gas conflict he had to sleep in two sweaters and spend his entire pension on an expensive electric heater.
MICHAEL PETERS, a design and branding consultant and head of the Michael Peters and Partners (MP&P) company, is confident that now is the time for Russian companies to invest in their brands. In an interview with RBC Daily correspondent ALEXANDER KLENIN, he said the Russian market had a big potential and described how Russian top managers could succeed abroad.
Mikheil Saakashvili has at last discovered Georgia’s main enemy. It is Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. “Since Shah Abbas Georgia has never had such a vigilant enemy as Putin,” Saakashvili said on Friday, speaking live on Georgian television. The telecast lasted four hours, during which the President answered questions from the nation. The most often asked question was this: “Misha, when are you going to resign?”
On January 19, Prime Minister Putin instructed the ministry of finance to revise the 2009 budget, proceeding from the average oil price of $41 per barrel and the dollar exchange rate of 35 roubles for one dollar. Despite the fact that even these estimates appear too optimistic, the rouble started to appreciate against the dollar in the foreign exchange market last week. Some experts even believe that a new economic and currency policy has been launched in the country.
Russia is a great power and it is now as powerful as ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union; but what does it have to offer to other people? For Russians, Putin represents an era of relative prosperity, whereas for Europeans his image is rather terrifying.
Vlast is analysing the results of the 4th quarter and the entire 2008. While 2007 gave the answer to the question who the next russian president was going to be, 2008 can be called the year when some myths were dispelled.
Party leaders will be elected for two terms. However the new rule will not apply to Vladimir Putin or Boris Gryzlov. The initiative to establish party leadership rotation and reduce the minimum party size requirement comes from President Medvedev. According to Vladimir Pligin, Committee Chairman for Constitutional Legislation, the draft law instituting the above provisions has been prepared by the Presidential Executive Office and will be submitted to the Duma shortly. Mr Pligin, who participated in the consideration of the draft law last week, said that the size requirement for registering a party was to be reduced from 50,000 to 45,000 people, and within one to two years the limit would be further reduced to 30,000.
