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 regions will be able to cover budget losses from the easing of the tax burden on enterprises at 100 billion roubles. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced at a conference in Yaroslavl that the regions will get 0.5% more from the profit tax and 40% of the excise duties on petrol and oil, receiving about 105 billion roubles of additional revenue. Experts say, though, that far more will be needed to cover the regions' losses.
Amid the global financial crisis, Russia nationalised its first company yesterday. Kommersant correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov thinks Vladimir Putin did this publicly to demonstrate what can be expected from the Russian Government in the future.
WHATEVER MAY HAPPEN IN THE RELATIONS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION, MOSCOW AND BRUSSELS HAVE NEVER STRAYED FROM THE ESTABLISHED FORMAT OF BILATERAL COOPERATION. RUSSIA-EU SUMMITS WERE HELD AT THE HEIGHT OF TRADE WARS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SOME EU MEMBERS AND AFTER TRAGIC EVENTS SUCH AS THE WAR IN GEORGIA. THIS IS A WELCOME PHENOMENON IF ONLY BECAUSE TWICE A YEAR, BOTH SIDES HAVE A CHANCE TO TELL EACH OTHER WHAT THEY THINK.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that the new anti-crisis plan must be ready by December 20 (the previous deadline was December 5), and that budgetary anti-crisis calculations for 2009 and 2010-2012 are to begin on December 16 (rather than December 9).
The state-run Vnesheconombank (VEB), through which the government is helping victims of the crisis, is asking Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to give it 950 billion roubles ($34.16 billion). The money is needed to help VEB itself.
Tomorrow the leader of the United Russia party, Vladimir Putin, is going to hold a live question-and-answer session with the public, which is planned to last for at least two hours. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is going to press for giving their leader as much airtime.
Bloggers commenting on the government's anti-crisis measures freely indulge in humour and irony. Trying to come to grips with the reality of the crisis, they think they must rely on themselves rather than wait for assistance from the government.
The Government Presidium met yesterday, mainly to consider the authorities' fulfilment of anti-crisis measures. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin listened to reports ranging from the rehabilitation of problem banks and construction of transport facilities in Sochi to the tests of a new missile. Reassuring reports gave a full picture of the Government's effective and exhaustive moves. Mr Putin's Government cannot, by definition, be otherwise in Russian eyes.
United Russia activists consolidated their positions this November. The influence of senior officials tackling financial-economic issues was also stabilised.
Over the eight years of Vladimir Putin's first and second presidential terms, we were able to observe a moving consolidation of the elites at all levels and a virtual lack of conflicts between the regional and federal levels. Much of the credit for this must go to the fairly high authority commanded by the federal administration and Putin personally. Regional leaders realized that it was not in their favor to thumb their noses at the authorities, as they had sometimes done during Boris Yeltsin's presidency.
