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
Will AvtoVAZ prevail over its domestic rivals?
Along with the deputies, the Prime Minister’s speech to the State Duma will be heard by all the 25 Deputy Prime Ministers and Ministers except those who are on leave or away on business, said the Prime Minister’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov. The Prime Minister’s speech and answers to questions will take two to two and a half hours, says Mr Peskov. The report itself will take about an hour. In it the Prime Minister is going to speak about the Government’s work during the past year and the anti-crisis package, amendments to the budget and answer 12 questions from the parliamentary parties (three from each), which had been sent to him last week.
The head of Gazprom, Alexei Miller, reported to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday that the construction of the Blue Stream-2 gas pipeline (under the Black Sea via Turkey to Israel) is to go ahead as planned. Turkey has confirmed that it is interested. “I think the new Israeli Government will support the project,” Mr Putin said.
Society must consolidate, study the Government’s anti-crisis plan and accept it in order to cope with the crisis together. This was the appeal Prime Minister Vladimir Putin launched yesterday to the leaders of political parties, representatives of the business community and members of the Public Chamber.
Vladimir Putin yesterday was listening to public comments on the Government’s anti-crisis programme. The meeting had the format of a conversation with the representatives of non-governmental organisations. Also present were the speakers of the two houses of Parliament and leaders of the opposition CPRF and LDPR. The part that was open to the press did not see any impressive anti-crisis initiatives. Academician Velikhov praised the Government and suggested timidly that it should emulate the best of America’s experience.
On Wednesday Prime Minister Vladimir Putin invited the comrades from United Russia to his Novo-Ogaryovo residence to discuss ways out of the crisis (read a more detailed account on our website kp.ru). The fellow party members, engaged in a lively discussion of the food market, did not suspect that a sudden surge of demand for food, or rather dessert, was being displayed in the adjoining room.
When Prime Minister Putin published the anti-crisis programme in March he encouraged all the Cabinet members to organise its public discussion. Fulfilling his instructions the ministers were all over the television screens for two weeks. Mr Putin was the most active of all, which was natural because he was to report the anti-crisis plan to the State Duma on Monday, April 6. The Prime Minister continued the discussion of anti-crisis measures with the leaders of parties and non-governmental organisations yesterday.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had a meeting with the leaders of political parties and representatives of citizens’ organisations to hear their comments on the Government’s anti-crisis programme. “We will take into account any constructive, reasonable and feasible proposals regardless of who makes them,” Mr Putin said surveying the table at which Sergei Mironov, Boriz Gryzlov, Gennady Zyuganov and Vladimir Zhirinovsky were sitting. Mr Putin said that “we cannot pretend that nothing is happening”, assured those present that Russia would emerge strengthened from the crisis, before giving the floor to his guests.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with the leaders of the parliamentary United Russia Party at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence yesterday. Among those invited were Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, his deputies, and the heads of Duma committees. The topic was the Government’s anti-crisis programme. United Russia submitted a package of proposals on social support to the Prime Minister. The package is a bizarre mixture of populism and a clear wish to make the people bear the brunt of the crisis. For example, Boris Gryzlov suggested that “construction” bonds be sold to citizens, the purchase of such bonds would be a test of their patriotism.
The leadership of the United Russia (UR) party yesterday put its proposals on improving the Government’s anti-crisis programme to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The Prime Minister in turn called on the party members to “bring in all the structural units” to explain the anti-crisis measures to the population.
According to Mr Gryzlov, given shrinking state revenues, the population could join the investment process: the anti-crisis plan should identify 10-15 state-backed priority construction projects. The broad masses could contribute to financing these projects by buying non-inscribed investment bonds, some of which would be issued by the Finance Ministry, Mr Gryzlov elaborated his dream that harked back to the Soviet-era projects of the Baikal-Amur Railway and the Virgin Lands development.
Russia is ready to propose to the United Arab Emirates joint projects in the sphere of space exploration, the nuclear industry and of course the power industry, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday during a meeting in Moscow with the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai, Mohammed Al Maktoum.
Initially the G20 summit, which is due to begin in London tomorrow, was expected to come up with revolutionary solutions. High-ranking Russian and Chinese representatives spoke of the need to replace the dollar with a supranational currency and Russia even tabled it as an official motion. True, this week Presidential Aide Arkady Dvorkovich specified that this was an idea for the future and that our country would be happy to join the general discussion rather than pressing for its own agenda to be adopted.
Vladimir Putin yesterday met with the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
The world crisis and the weakening of the US, which may lead to that country’s disintegration, will change the geopolitical map of the world. Over the next few years the former USSR countries will rally around Russia to form a new Eurasian Union with a single currency, parliament and Vladimir Putin as its ruler. The Eurasian Union will be modelled on the European Union as a result of which there will be three power centres in the world: China, EU-1 and EU-2. The author of this sensational forecast is Professor Igor Panarin, Doctor of Political Science from the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited AvtoVAZ on Monday. His visit was a windfall for Russia’s largest automaker and its workers. The auto giant’s stocks surged 40% as a result.
The economy may be in recession, but political parties are plowing on through their usual cycles without reaction to a minor thing like economic crisis. Political routines are inviolable and cannot be affected by time or trouble. If Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet with party leaders he will do so, whatever happens. Only this time the meeting was formally devoted to the Government’s bailout plan, a high-profile policy issue.
The Russian President decided to take a leaf out of Vladimir Putin’s book. Not only did he board a fighter jet, but he told the BBC channel he was ready to pose topless. That was a joke of course, but he made it perfectly clear to the BBC host that major decisions in modern Russia are made by the president. The incumbent president, that is.
Vladimir Putin has expressed a willingness to adjust the government’s anti-crisis measures after discussions with opposition leaders. The opposition, however, is not ready to support the new budget.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau posed a question some 250 years ago: Is law based governance possible and reliable? The philosopher could not give an unequivocal answer to his question. The principle of “social contract” that he formulated was a rather abstract concept. In recent months, Russian analysts, following Lenin’s methodology, have been quickly moving from the abstract to something more real. The new social contract for Russia is discussed by Yevgeny Gontmakher and Alexander Auzan, Andrei Kolesnikov and Andrei Piontkovsky. The declared objective is extremely ambitious – to re-constitute Russia.
