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 United Russia Party has suggested creating a powerful PR service to promote the "Russia" brand in the West. The party believes that a new social communications agency should be set up for said purpose within the government structure. The main components of the brand, in their opinion, should be "Putin", "Medvedev" and "the Chelsea football team."
Being the true lawyer that he is, President Dmitry Medvedev likes to itemize everything, even in his oral speech. He divided political reform in his Address into ten "items", ranging from amendments to the Constitution to the rotation of party leaders.
Dmitry Medvedev's first Address to the Federal Assembly was more verbose than that of his predecessor. The duration of his speech, the number of characters, words and sentences exceeded Vladimir Putin's statistics, although Dmitry Medvedev spoke more slowly (see table). The new President's speech was punctuated by applause 56 times, compared with Mr Putin's record of 47 (2006).
A rivalry between Russia and the U.S. in the financial market, leading to the establishment of the rouble as the regional currency, has become official doctrine, underlying the development of the Russian financial market. President Dmitry Medvedev, who devoted part of his Address to this idea, announced the early steps in that direction: a speedy shift of oil and gas exports to rouble settlements.
President Dmitry Medvedev has announced an extension of the terms of the President and the State Duma. It is said at the Kremlin that the reform was conceived during now-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's presidency and that he will be its main beneficiary.
On Saturday, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, after one-on-one and enlarged-format talks, attended a concert given by Mireille Mathieu, whom they later invited to Qaddafi's Bedouin tent for tea. All this time, they were followed by Kommersant's Andrei Kolesnikov.
A Government Resolution has cut oil export duties by 22.8% since November 1, 2008. The Government approved the Finance Ministry's proposal to calculate the duty on the basis of oil prices slightly below $80 per barrel. The Government's decision, which will take effect retroactively (contrary to legislation), will allow Russian oil companies to save $1.9 billion by the year's end. The companies, which insist that the duty should be based on a price of $60 per barrel, claim that oil export has become a debt-making business for them.
Thanks to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Anti-Monopoly Service has become a real power that only a few people dare to ignore. Gaining the service's attention is enough to make major oil companies toe the line and hurry to reduce fuel prices. Those who do not do it quickly enough face lawsuits. The service has been acting much more harshly than before. Since the beginning of 2008, it has filed over 150 lawsuits against oil companies, many of which were closed without issuing fines. Since July 11, when Mr Putin instructed the service to work more effectively, 24 suits have been filed. The service has won eight of them, and the total sum of fines accounts for about a half a billion roubles.
One of the leaders of the Republican Party, David Berdzenishvili, has been telling Olga Allenova why the Georgian opposition plans to take to the streets on November 7.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has no intention of giving up the traditional annual "live video links" with the people that started when he was President. Preparation for the next video link is already under way, mainly through the "public reception offices" of the Chairman of the United Russia Party in the regions. Representatives at these offices select questions for Prime Minister Putin, but complaints are also fed into a single electronic base so that Mr Putin can at any moment know what topics are foremost in people's minds.
