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 main confirmation of a consumer’s rights, the receipt, will be discarded. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised small business that the requirement to use cash registers would be eliminated. The respective draft law will be introduced by July 1. MK examined how consumers would protect their rights without receipts.
According to the latest VTsIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Centre) poll, only 13% of respondents expect that Government measures will result in a quick, positive effect, while 32% of respondents hope that things will change for the better in the medium term. This means that less than 45% of the population thinks positively of the Government’s anti-crisis plan. Still, the number of those strongly critical of the authorities is not high - only 8%. Even fewer are calling for the Government’s resignation – 1%. The rest have either no hopes or opinion.
The recent National Forum on Small and Medium Businesses has set some important precedents. For the first time it was attended by the country’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who promised unprecedented measures of support, beginning with tax breaks and access to government tenders and ending with the promise to pull down administrative barriers.
The United States says it doubts the feasibility of the South Stream project.
Most Russians perceive the Chechen President as a boor. But for the Chechens Mr Kadyrov is a prophet and a tribune, embodying the hopes of a long-suffering people. A devout Muslim, he fits in well within the narrow framework of the values that prevail in that republic. He prays daily in the new mosque, he does not drink or smoke. He is thought to be a guarantor of peace for which a million people yearn after two bloody wars for independence. He is the one who will restore the devastated country, the Chechens believe.
The court has decreed the release of former Yukos lawyer Svetlana Bakhmina. President Medvedev has met with human rights activists. The liberal-minded public is talking of a new thaw. But author and television presenter Andrei Maximov thinks a thaw should come from within you, not outside of you.
What was so much argued for by MPs, businessmen, governors, workers, farmers, and others has finally become reality – the Bank of Russia reduced the refinancing rate. As of last week, the rate was 12.5%. Public pressure only partially contributed to the decision. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had the final say on the issue. He sent the head of the Central Bank a subtle, but compelling message to act.
In late March, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised 25 billion roubles to automotive giant AvtoVAZ. The state-owned Russian Technology Corporation will receive the total sum from the federal budget and will issue it to AvtoVAZ in the form of a one-year interest-free loan.
Vladimir Putin criticises Government officials for desultory lawmaking.
The Russian delegation to Sofia will be led by Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko.
Entrepreneurs will enjoy preferential loans and be inspected less often.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced government-approved measures to support small and medium enterprises. The Government has approved tax breaks for SMEs, including a doubling (to 60 million roubles) of the annual turnover that makes an enterprise eligible for a simplified taxation scheme. More serious breaks have been turned down, and by 2012 the Government will be ready to consider lifting all the tax breaks.
President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered an audit of supervisory bodies so that their corrupt officials who try to fleece small businesses could be slapped on the wrists. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday attended the national forum on the development of small and medium-sized business and promised tax breaks to its participants.
When will government assistance to banks reach the real sector at acceptable rates? When will they curb the appetites of top managers who enjoy government support and pay themselves hundreds of millions in bonuses? Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made his views perfectly clear at yesterday’s meeting devoted to support of the banking system.
German company Qimonda AG, one of the world’s leading memory chip producers which is now going through a bankruptcy procedure, may be bought by a Russian investor, it was announced yesterday. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed interest in the company during talks with the Prime Minister of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich. The latter quoted the Russian Prime Minister as saying that he was going to order a “quick and thorough check” of the opportunities that Russian investors have with regard to Qimonda, Reuters reports.
Confidence in the national currency has been restored, the rouble has steadied and inflation has slowed down, he said. “Inflation may run at 1.1 to 1.2% in April, according to the Ministry of Economic Development forecasts.
A delegation from Saxony will visit Kaluga Region and Tatarstan.
The Lipetsk ice cream factory gives United Russia a scare.
The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday cancelled his earlier planned visit to Sofia where he was to attend the summit Natural Gas for Europe: Security and Partnership. Also yesterday, ahead of the gas forum, the Kremlin unveiled Russia’s proposals on a “new legal framework of international cooperation in the energy sphere”. This may suggest that Russia does not expect anything useful to emerge from the meeting of gas suppliers and consumers: it has recently quarreled with both.
The Finnish President Tarja Halonen interviewed by Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
