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, replying to questions from Russians, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that the Government could "demand that < ... > infrastructure monopolies do not push up their rates so fast < ... >, remembering that materials for investment programmes are going down < ... >, too".
The main task now is to review risk and prolong loans. "If we demand debt repayment immediately and at any cost, we would bankrupt these companies," Oleg Vyugin, board chairman of MDM Bank, told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
In the Yaroslavl Region, the Prime Minister visited plants manufacturing engines for KamAZ trucks and Superjet planes, and described support measures for young businessmen.
What would you like to ask the Prime Minister?
Regional leaders have started working at the public reception offices of Prime Minister and United Russia Party Chairman Vladimir Putin. It turns out that any problem, including those solved long ago, can be solved on behalf of Mr Putin and with the help of Tatarstan's President Mintimer Shaimiyev.
On December 1, those who showed up at Mr Putin's public reception office in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, were surprised to see President Shaimiyev sitting there. It would only be more surprising if Prime Minister Putin himself was in the office.
At noon today, the Head of Government will talk with Russians on live television. People who have been invited to the studio in Moscow's Gostiny Dvor have already been to Mr Putin's United Russia public reception offices. They will be asking him questions both as Prime Minister and party leader. Mr Putin will also answer questions put to him via telephone, on the Internet, and in text messages during direct link-ups with Russia's regions. Popular TV anchors Maria Sittel and Ernest Mackevicius will host the show.
The two meetings President Dmitry Medvedev held with the Prime Minister and ministers have resulted in a promise by cabinet members to allocate a further 350 billion roubles in support of the economy in the near future. The Central Bank thinks the problems with banks are over, and the White House is now planning to guarantee company loans. The necessary funds may become available from the Investment Fund or the State Investment Programme for 2008 and 2009.
Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov announced that the unified social tax reform could be postponed, that bonus depreciation could be tripled only in the next three to four years, and that companies would be reimbursed for value-added tax payments ahead of schedule.
By pure chance, this column will be published on the day when Vladimir Putin holds a Q&A session with "the nation" - those who were lucky enough to get through to the Prime Minister.
The Russian Academy of Sciences has conducted a study of the political views of Russians. The RAS Sociology Institute has analyzed the data on focus groups in six cities across the country: large, medium, and small. The results of the survey are in many ways paradoxical. They are discussed below by Olga Kryshtanovskaya from the Institute's Center for the Study of Elites.
