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 governors who lost their posts were not effective administrators. It is good to change the management sometimes. We have many regional heads who obviously should be dismissed, beginning with [Sergei] Darkin. Therefore I do not see big politics behind these resignations. This should have been done long ago. Vladimir Putin could not take risks, but Dmitry Medvedev has to do it because of the crisis. Besides, he is starting to feel like he is in command now."
By proposing the candidacy of Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev for the post of Governor of the Voronezh Region, President Dmitry Medvedev confirmed the rumours about Mr Gordeyev’s impending resignation which have been in the air since May 2008. Mr Gordeyev was appointed Minister when Vladimir Putin became President in August 1999, and he is the first Minister of Mr Putin’s second Government to be leaving the White House. For almost ten years, Mr Gordeyev was not only a Government member, but also a representative of the agrarian lobby in the White House.
Last Tuesday, the day after the Munich Conference, Russia's representative to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, called a press conference to express his views on the "resetting" of Russian-American relations heralded in Munich by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. The Russian representative said he was very pleased that Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili, who attended the forum, had not been given the floor.
Early opinion polls show that while financial reserves are dwindling, confidence in the Prime Minister and the President is not.
Legendary killer Alexander Solonik was known to have had a soft spot for the Austrian pistol "Glock 17". The personnel of the Prosecutor General's Office and the Investigative Committee will now look every bit like the heroes of Hollywood thrillers, as last week Prime Minister Vladimir Putin extended the list of weapons that prosecutors and investigators were allowed to use. They will now be able to carry 9-mm Glocks, Chezetas and Berettas under their armpits.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul came to Russia on an official visit Friday. Ankara and Moscow are important economic partners for one another. Mutual trade between them stood at about $34 billion last year. As President Dmitry Medvedev noted, that indicator has increased 35 times in the past 10 years, but the two countries have more ambitious plans.
Economic relations between Russia and the European Union need political support, Russian Prime Minister and leader of the United Russia Party Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Head of the European People's Party - European Democrats Jozeph Daul on Friday.
Below is another in our series of articles under the common heading "Where Our Money Ended Up". In the previous issue we assessed the cost to the Government of bailing out the banking system and the amount that the banks got during the course of that operation. Today we will look at which companies and why have been designated as "strategic".
The Constitution vests the President with colossal powers and leverage. Besides, the Kremlin walls have always possessed a kind of magic due to which the incumbent of the top office in the land, however weak he may be, builds up political muscle by the hour and quickly becomes the unchallenged leader in the country. Is Dmitry Medvedev the first exception to that rule or does he just need some more time?
Through cautious actions and half hints... Dmitry Medvedev has been getting rid of his image of docile partner of his influential predecessor... It has been suggested that their relations have soured under the pressure of the economic crisis gripping the country.
Russia is a unique country and civilization. Its uniqueness lies in the enduring peaceful coexistence of various ethnic communities and religions. Unlike the U.S., Russia is not a "melting pot"; it has managed to work out a common Russian identity while preserving the cultural and national characteristics of each ethnic community.
Surgutneftegaz has again changed the schedule for modernising its oil refinery in Kirishi (Leningrad Region). The company will delay the commission of a hydrocracking facility for a year and of a catalytic cracking installation for two years with plans to convert to Euro 5 fuel production only in 2017. Meanwhile, government-endorsed technical regulations compel the oil companies to convert by 2015. On February 12, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called upon them to comply with the schedule.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting on the development of the oil industry in the town of Kirishi, Leningrad Region, yesterday. The Prime Minister made no bones about the fact that the oil industry, “with all due respect”, would not continue to enjoy the benefits it was counting on, certainly not by comparison with other industries. Our special correspondent ANDREI KOLESNIKOV thinks that can be regarded as a sensation: the participants in the meeting apparently expected something very different.
Russia has avoided the shock of the crisis, Vladimir Putin said at a Government meeting.
Last Thursday your newspaper carried an amusing article titled “Rich Russians Don’t Moderate Their Appetites Even in a Crisis”. “In the morning they beg the Government for money and in the evening they relax on overseas islands and buy property abroad,” Andrei Lavrov writes. He cites as a vivid example of such egregious behaviour my purchase of the British newspaper Evening Standard. “Meanwhile, in Russia the weekly magazine Ogonyok, which has more than a hundred year-long history, was shut down,” the author laments.
It came out yesterday that there are two bidders for a stake in Polyus Zoloto, the largest gold producing company in Russia. In addition to Suleiman Kerimov’s group, which claims 37% of the shares, VTB-Capital has filed a bid with the Federal Anti-Monopoly service for 50% less 1 share. Unofficial sources say that VTB-Capital is also acting in the interests of Mr Kerimov. However, VTB did not reveal this fact to the bureaucrats and the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service may thus turn the bank down. Suleiman Kerimov’s bid is to be considered by the Foreign Investment Commission, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Putin visited the Russian aircraft-building corporation MIG yesterday and presided over the first meeting of the Council of General and Chief Designers, leading scientists, and experts in the field of high technology set up by the Russian Prime Minister in October 2008. “I simply wanted the people who generate the main ideas and organize this process to feel that they have a direct link to the country’s leadership,” the Prime Minister said when opening the meeting.
Government assistance of nearly 200 billion roubles promised by the prime minister has not yet reached the automakers. By now, only two resolutions have been signed: one on state purchases of automobiles totalling 12.5 billion roubles and one on subsidising auto loans worth 6 billion roubles.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is convinced that defence-industry enterprises must receive state contracts from ministries as soon as possible. "It is already mid-February, and time is ripe for signing contracts," Mr Putin said, while opening the February 10 Government meeting.
Europe should not put Russia down again because it is weakened itself.
