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
Starting January 16, a new website will become available for Russian internet users - "Employment in Russia." Minister of Healthcare and Social Development Tatyana Golikova reported the news to Prime Minister Putin at yesterday's meeting of the Government's Presidium.
The presidium of the United Russia parliamentary party instructed the Duma Rules Committee yesterday to develop regulations on the special procedure of holding the Government Hour while the Prime Minister is in attendance. His address is envisaged under presidential amendments to the Constitution.
Putin will deliver his address at the usual time though in a different capacity. The State Duma is changing its format of communication with officials. The heads of state-owned corporations will now also be invited to answer questions during Government Hours. In a departure from tradition, the Prime Minister will address Parliament in the spring.
A three-hour "Conversation with Vladimir Putin" was broadcast live for free, Rossiya TV Channel told the Communist Party, which then responded by demanding free air time for its own leader as well.
President Dmitry Medvedev told the federal government last night not to apply the gas transit protocol signed by Ukraine until the Ukrainian side retrieves its reservations to it. The protocol concerns international monitoring of the flow of Russian gas across Ukraine to Europe.
As the new year began, civilian staff of the Irkutsk Aviation Engineering Military Institute and some of the students' parents held a hunger strike to protest its closure. But the protest proved of no avail. The oldest and only aviation institute east of the Urals was closed down and is now being transported by military planes to Voronezh. Few at the institute suspected such a development only six weeks ago. But things moved with lightning speed.
President Medvedev expressed dissatisfaction yesterday with the Government's performance. According to the President, anti-recessionary measures are being applied more slowly than necessary, and the tasks with which he commissioned the Government last autumn have only been a third completed. The Kremlin argues that it is not at odds with the Government House. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Putin is criticising officials for the same failures.
The gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine is continuing. Yesterday, Ukraine signed the protocol on control over Russian gas transits to Europe. The international observers have already left for the gas measuring stations. It turned out, however, that Ukraine had added clauses to the protocol, causing Russia's indignation. Moscow decided to declare the document void.
According to the well-known universal law of Central Election Commission Chairman Vladimir Churov, Prime Minister Putin is always right. But does this axiom hold during a global economic crisis?
When the gas crisis was at its peak, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with foreign journalists to explain to them the Russian position once again. Izvestia quotes the most interesting parts of his interview.
