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
According to the Russian Prime Minister, the future gas price is becoming a key issue for the Russian economy. The fact that Vladimir Putin deemed it necessary to point to the end of "an era of cheap gas" when addressing the 7th ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum largely testifies to the alarmist mood in the government. The thing is that while gas prices are tied to oil prices, albeit indirectly, gas prices will fall following a landslide of oil prices, even if not right away.
On December 27, the New York Times urged the new President to improve relations with Russia, publishing an editorial titled "Mr Obama and Mr Putin". As is clear from the title, the article advises Mr Obama to deal with Prime Minister Putin rather than President Dmitry Medvedev.
The outgoing Year of the Rat, according to the Chinese Zodiac, was generally considered worse than any other leap year. As for the upcoming Year of the Ox, political astrologists say it will be even worse. The Russian elite has never been so pessimistic in the last 15 years. Russia remains hostage to the West even after Putin and Medvedev threw down the gauntlet to it. What is an economic chill to Europe and the United States is a bad flu to Russia.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin revisited his native city to see trains and paintings and listen to music.
On December 24, the Japanese Government supported motorists in Russia's Far East and called on the Russian Government to abolish its resolution on raising car-import duties. The Japanese Foreign Ministry said this decision ran counter to free-trade principles and could complicate Russia's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The presidential amendments to the Constitution, including bolstering Parliament's control over the Government, will be enacted in mid-January. Yesterday corresponding alterations to Duma regulations were introduced in the lower chamber. Incumbent MPs could have used their new right in February or March, had they adopted this initiative before the new year. But the MPs seem unwilling to expand their authority. Clearly, during the next half a year the format of the lower chamber's dialogue with the Cabinet will remain unchanged. The most important point is that the document lacks a provision about the necessity for the Prime Minister to report to the Duma.
Having started overseas last August, the crisis reached Russia this autumn, and hit it much stronger. In the West, it took the crisis almost a year to move from the virtual economy and finances into production, whereas here it turned from a financial disaster into an economic one within a couple of months, paralysing entire industries.
Vladimir Putin kept the promise he made to Dima Rogachev, a boy who was sick with leukaemia. About three years ago, 10-year-old Dima wrote a letter to Putin, saying, "Come and have tea and pancakes with me". Putin came to meet the boy and promised to build a state-of-the-art medical centre in Moscow.
Yesterday Russia's State Council and Security Council members convened for a meeting. It was announced that the meeting's major aim would be reviewing relations with the CIS, but Kommersant special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov found out that in fact the gathering, which both President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended, focused on measures to counter the crisis, whose scale the Government seems to have underestimated.
The gold-mining sector is asking Vladimir Putin for help.
Tens of thousands of Bashkortostan residents address deputies annually. This year, the amount of written requests to the republic's parliament increased twofold.
In late December 2007, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev officially inaugurated the Year of the Family in Russia.
The Japanese Government officially called on Russia not to raise car-import duties. Tokyo believes that the protectionist measures of Vladimir Putin's Government do not match the principles of the WTO which Moscow wants to join. Analysts say the threat to deny Russia access to the WTO will not work. The Japanese automotive industry depends on exports to Russia's Far East just like Russia relies heavily on Japanese imports.
When Novaya Gazeta asked me what television personalities I would have liked to invite to my New Year's party, I was at a loss. It had been such a lackluster year that it left me no choice. The main strategists, creative directors, authors and actors ended up being just two people: Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev. Not that I was crying tears into my pillow on long winter nights dreaming of celebrating the New Year with that particular couple - it was just that these two, the Prime Minister and the President, dominated the television screens during the outgoing year.
We talked with famous TV anchor Sergei Dorenko about Russia's joys and sorrows of the past year.
Yesterday Prime Minister Putin received the Varfolomeyevs from Buryatia in his residence at Novo-Ogaryovo. Mr Putin invited the family to Moscow after 9-year-old Dasha called the Prime Minister during the Q&A session on December 4 and asked for a Cinderella dress.
The next US president, Barack Obama, could not resist the latest political trend popular with male presidents - posing for the camera with bared torsos. Naked from the waist up, Obama was photographed in the Hawaii Islands, where he spent his holiday with his wife and children.
The Finance Ministry will unofficially sequester 2009 budget spending by 6% to 7% without any public announcement or discussion. As instructed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on December 12, the Ministry informed the other ministries and government departments that their spending limits for 2009 were cut back to 85% of the initially budgeted amounts - with the exception of norm-related items, which make up half of the budget. This approach will enable the Finance Ministry to have 500 billion to 600 billion roubles at the beginning of 2009 (1.5% of GDP) in hidden spending reserves.
On December 23, officers of the Khabarovsk Territorial Traffic Safety Inspectorate removed a white VAZ-2101 Lada car from a private-company garage in Khabarovsk. Those involved in a December 21 protest against the Government's decision to raise foreign car import duties wanted to present the car to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
