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
Recently, well-known opposition politicians Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov released a joint report entitled “Putin and the Crisis” (presented at the Nezavisimaya Gazeta on February 20). The report once again drew the attention of the public to the deplorable state of the Russian economy and the inadequacy of many Government decisions.
Yesterday, President Obama’s personal photographer Pete Souza surprised his photo-journalist colleagues in the US and in Russia by making a sensational discovery in his old film.
The first direct elections of regional leaders were held in Moscow, St Petersburg and Tatarstan on June 12, 1991, simultaneously with the first presidential elections. By that time, the Russian republics were granted the right to elect their Presidents.
Pensions will be increased four times this year. The miners of Kuzbass, which the Prime Minister visited last week, were the first to learn the details.
In recent time, Russia and America remind us of polar opposites who have become twins. Having looked into the abyss of the economic crisis, Yankees gave up on the free market principles and started using federal money in the spirit of the Soviet State Planning Committee. But isn’t this similarity purely external? Won’t the crisis increase our lag behind the developed world? Director of Russian and Asian Programmes at the Washington-based Centre for Defence Information Nikolai Zlobin gave an affirmative answer to both questions. Are they twins or opposites?
Moscow has been hosting Old Timer Gallery, the largest vintage car show in Eastern Europe, for the last seven years.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre (GKNPT) yesterday and pledged to allocate over eight billion roubles to support the industry. Kommersant’s Andrei Kolesnikov couldn’t help but notice that while some were trying to save the industry, others were helping to destroy it – by welding the seams improperly.
The Supervisory Board of the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending (AHML) is considering the agency’s business plan for the first half of 2009, and a forecast plan for the second half of the year.
Mr Putin proposed a detailed review of all the anti-crisis measures and decisions implemented so far and, based on the results of the review, preparing a comprehensive document comprising both the decisions made and the new plans through end of 2009. The document, according to the Prime Minister, will be submitted to the State Duma together with the budget bills and will be published in the media.
During his meeting with Mongolian Prime Minister Sanjaagiin Bayar in Moscow yesterday, Vladimir Putin urged the need to protect Russian companies working in Mongolia. The laws On Minerals and On Tax on Growing Prices for Some Types of Products adopted two years ago seriously infringe upon the interests of Russian investors, who have lost $2.5 billion of their profits. The Mongolian Prime Minister promised to look into the situation, but independent experts believe the chances of an out-of-court settlement of the conflict are nil. In their opinion, Ulan-Bator will fight to the last to uphold its right to determine the level of taxes on joint ventures.
After returning from Brussels, where the modernisation of the Ukrainian gas transportation system (GTS) will be discussed on March 23, Yulia Tymoshenko will go to Moscow on March 27 for talks with Vladimir Putin. The meeting will be part of the session of the sub-commission on trade and economic cooperation.
Vladimir Putin met his Mongolian counterpart Sanjaagiin Bayar yesterday.
Russia’s entry into the world economic crisis prompted some experts and public personalities to declare that the “tacit contract” between the authorities and society needs to be revised. Those who initiated the discussion proceeded on the assumption that the current contract is both social and economic in character. They claimed that Russian citizens had voluntarily traded their rights and freedoms for higher living standards. However, now that the crisis is upon us, the oil bonanza has ended and incomes are falling, the contract should be declared null and void and citizens should get their rights and freedoms back.
The small opposition in Tatarstan is eagerly discussing the latest rumours circulating in the capital. Allegedly, Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the Federation Council, who is also the leader of the Just Russia party, was recently granted an audience with President Dmitry Medvedev and complained about the results of the elections in Tatarstan on March 1.
It would not be easy to find a person who is happy with the current situation. The country needs change. The question is what should be changed and who will administer it. It is good that we always have supporters of genuine democracy and real capitalism. But it is bad that their practical recipes are often muddled.
During a meeting with miners Prime Minister Putin made a slip of the tongue. Speaking about Ukraine he said that Gazprom did not intend to penalise a neighbour who is “facing default” for failing to take off all the gas contracted for because “one does not kick a partner who is down”. What he said was new both from the point of view of the Russian language and traditional morality. You “do not kick an enemy who is down”. As for “partner” you normally “support a partner”, “don’t leave a partner in need”, “agree” with him or “warn” or at worst “break up” with a partner. The expression “kick a partner who is down” is almost an oxymoron which describes a very peculiar type of business relations.
Elections of the mayors of large cities is one of the few areas of political life that has so far escaped a purge. The mayors are elected by universal secret ballot and you do not have to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures to be registered as a candidate. Instead you can make a money deposit.
A congress of the members of the United Russia cadre reserve took place in Oryol on Saturday. On behalf of the head of the party’s Supreme Council, Boris Gryzlov, the first two hundred letters of recommendation were handed to those who, in the party’s opinion, were high-level professionals and strong state supporters. The party will soon make a short list of the top 300 managers who have a chance to make it to the presidential personnel pool. Kommersant has learned the names of some of them.
Gennady Timchenko, co-owner of the Swiss oil trader Gunvor and Bank Rossiya, has filed a libel suit against The Economist magazine with the High Court in London. Mr Timchenko worked with Vladimir Putin at St Petersburg Mayor’s Office in the early 1990s. He is co-founder of the judo club Yavara-Neva fund of which Vladimir Putin is the honorary president. In November last year The Economist carried an article about rampant corruption in Russia.
Life in the Urals has become harder. People here read their destiny from the pillars of acrid black smoke rising from the chimneys of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant (MMK)….
