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 Nizhny Novgorod branch of the ruling Yedinaya Rossiya (United Russia) party has been discussing the possibility of establishing a special fund that would provide material assistance to the visitors of Prime Minister Putin’s Public Liaison Office. The party’s leadership reacted negatively to the initiative.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Veliky Novgorod, where he toured the world's largest plant for the production of mineral fertilisers, Acron. There, Mr Putin held a meeting on the problems facing the industry's agro-chemical sector. In the second half of 2008, its output dropped by 30%.
In a Sunday interview with Bloomberg Television, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed "cautious optimism" about relations between Russia and the United States. Mr Putin said he was picking up "certain signals" indicating that Barack Obama is going to change US foreign policy priorities, especially those concerning the deployment of a missile defence shield in Europe and NATO membership of Ukraine and Georgia.
Before the New Year, Georgi Siromashki, a Bulgarian pensioner in the town of Ruse, Bulgaria, always laughed at his Sofia pal Khristo Lozev: Even he, Georgi, living in the provinces, had gas, while Lozev, although a resident of the capital, was still using wood and coal to keep his house warm. Now, it is Georgi who envies his friend. During the Russian-Ukrainian gas conflict he had to sleep in two sweaters and spend his entire pension on an expensive electric heater.
MICHAEL PETERS, a design and branding consultant and head of the Michael Peters and Partners (MP&P) company, is confident that now is the time for Russian companies to invest in their brands. In an interview with RBC Daily correspondent ALEXANDER KLENIN, he said the Russian market had a big potential and described how Russian top managers could succeed abroad.
Mikheil Saakashvili has at last discovered Georgia’s main enemy. It is Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. “Since Shah Abbas Georgia has never had such a vigilant enemy as Putin,” Saakashvili said on Friday, speaking live on Georgian television. The telecast lasted four hours, during which the President answered questions from the nation. The most often asked question was this: “Misha, when are you going to resign?”
On January 19, Prime Minister Putin instructed the ministry of finance to revise the 2009 budget, proceeding from the average oil price of $41 per barrel and the dollar exchange rate of 35 roubles for one dollar. Despite the fact that even these estimates appear too optimistic, the rouble started to appreciate against the dollar in the foreign exchange market last week. Some experts even believe that a new economic and currency policy has been launched in the country.
Russia is a great power and it is now as powerful as ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union; but what does it have to offer to other people? For Russians, Putin represents an era of relative prosperity, whereas for Europeans his image is rather terrifying.
Vlast is analysing the results of the 4th quarter and the entire 2008. While 2007 gave the answer to the question who the next russian president was going to be, 2008 can be called the year when some myths were dispelled.
Party leaders will be elected for two terms. However the new rule will not apply to Vladimir Putin or Boris Gryzlov. The initiative to establish party leadership rotation and reduce the minimum party size requirement comes from President Medvedev. According to Vladimir Pligin, Committee Chairman for Constitutional Legislation, the draft law instituting the above provisions has been prepared by the Presidential Executive Office and will be submitted to the Duma shortly. Mr Pligin, who participated in the consideration of the draft law last week, said that the size requirement for registering a party was to be reduced from 50,000 to 45,000 people, and within one to two years the limit would be further reduced to 30,000.
At a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said that between December 31 and January 13, the number of people officially registered as unemployed has increased by 30,000.
Between May 15 and September 15, the flight from the Far East to European Russia will cost 10,000-14,000 roubles. The remainder will be subsidised by the government, as Transport Minister Igor Levitin reported to Vladimir Putin yesterday.
Giving a pep talk to his fellow United Russia party members, Deputy Head of the Government Staff Vladislav Surkov said: "You cannot overcome the crisis by forming a feeble army of number crunchers to fight it. New creative decisions are needed." This call for creativity turned out to be provocative. Some reckoned that it was a veiled attack on the main number cruncher, Alexei Kudrin, especially since the conference was attended by Mr Kudrin's Deputy, Anton Siluanov. Others dismissed Surkov's words as intrigues intended to test Mr Siluanov's mettle and provoke him into revealing what the Finance Ministry really thought.
A stall in the underpass near the Kremlin is piled high with tin figures portraying ... Putin and Medvedev. 5.4 centimetre-high miniatures sell for 400 roubles apiece. The miniatures represent Lenin, Stalin, Khruschev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin, though, truth be told, the figures bear only a faint resemblance to the national leaders.
The Government is trusted less and less, hopes are pinned on Medvedev. Vladimir Putin's rating hit its lowest point since he became Prime Minister. People see no improvements as a result of the Cabinet's anti-crisis measures.
An unpretentious amateur's painting of a frost covered window fetched a fabulous 37 million roubles at an auction last week. The price is on a par with museum canvasses by Kustodiyev and Konchalovsky or installations by Ilya Kabakov. The reason is not just that the auction that took place in St Petersburg on Saturday was a charitable event - the money will go to a children's hospital, a cancer centre and restoration of a church. The value of the picture has more to do with the man who painted it. The author, as an authentic signature attests, is none other than Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
A mother of a large Ufa family complains to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin about the Republic's Law On Education
The Government decided to accommodate the world's largest nickel producer Norilsk Nickel and has abolished export duties on nickel and copper cathodes. Other manufacturers, the Urals Metallurgical Company (UGMK) and the Russian Copper Company (RMK), will also benefit from the Government's decision. The total savings for nickel and copper exporters in 2009 will amount to about $300 million.
The new movie Faust by Russian director Alexander Sokurov premiered in St Petersburg on January 21 as the final part of his tetralogy, described by the acclaimed filmmaker as “the work devoted to history and people”.
At the end of 2008, Prime Minister Putin promised that the Government would partially cover consumers' car loans. "Regardless of the interest rate on the loan, we will cover a portion of the rate," the Prime Minister said. "Those planning to buy a car made in Russia will be better off buying it in 2009," Putin said. Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP) has verified how the promise is being realised.
