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 7th ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) was held at Moscow's President Hotel on December 23, 2008. The participants representing eleven gas producing countries signed an intergovernmental agreement and approved the GECF Charter institutionalising the forum as an international intergovernmental organisation. The choice of the new organisation's headquarters was decided by a one-vote majority: St Petersburg lost the vote to Qatar's Doha.
The Russian parliament has always looked with awe at signals from the Kremlin which could be interpreted as the strengthening of the legislature's role. This is understandable. Surely, the deputies remember Dmitry Medvedev's verdict who said pointedly if a parliamentary republic is to appear in Russia, it will not happen too soon. Nevertheless, some steps in this direction have already been made, primarily that of making Vladimir Putin leader of the United Russia party. First, this has undoubtedly strengthened the party's control over the State Duma, the Russian parliament's lower house. Second, Vladimir Putin was appointed prime minister when he was already United Russia's leader. Third, a precedent has been created for Putin's politically resonant communication with the country while being Number One in the party. Amendments to the Constitution on the State Duma's control over the government and to the law on the government look rather weak against this background.
On December 23, the governmental commission on sustainable development of the Russian economy met for the second time at the Government House on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment. It was expected to submit the final version of the federal list of companies that could rely on urgent state aid.
The outgoing year has provided a sea of change - both for the world and for Russia. Although the early signs were clear, few wanted to believe that the crash of the US subprime mortgage market would trigger a global economic crisis - the largest since the Great Depression. It was clear that President George W. Bush would step down to give way to one with a new agenda, but few expected his replacement to be not just a dark-skinned politician, but also an uncommon young leader of global calibre.
US President Elect Barack Obama topped Newsweek’s list of the world’s fifty leading politicians, businessmen, and community activists, published shortly before New Year’s. Chinese President Hu Jintao came second, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy third. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the only Russian on the list, ranked 9th.
The outgoing year 2008 has been exceptionally important, complicated and dramatic. Summing up its political results is not an easy task. The main reason is that the context of political development has changed. The change of context divides the past year into two parts: the events roughly in the first half of the year differ dramatically from those that followed.
Vladimir Putin began yesterday's meeting of the Government Presidium by reviewing the tentative results of the latest anti-crisis measures.
Dasha Varfolomeyeva, a nine-year-old schoolgirl from Buryatia who Vladimir Putin invited to Moscow after she addressed the Prime Minister during his Q&A session, had never seen a proper skating rink before.
Although the Government has decided to cut budget spending by 15% next year, it found a 28% increase in defence spending to be the key to supporting domestic industry. Growth of military spending for 2010 and 2011 was also approved by yesterday's cabinet meeting. The results of the budget reshuffling must be approved by the commission for budget projections, whose scheduled meeting on December 23 was postponed indefinitely.
The governing party will tell the President from amongst whom to choose regional governors. Dmitry Medvedev yesterday introduced a bill at the State Duma which changes the procedure of appointing the heads of Russian regions. Now all the candidates for governor will be nominated by the party which has won the majority in the corresponding regional parliament.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently surprised us again. He announced a crash programme to save Russia's auto industry. The industry will get funding, he said, and buyers, interest-free loans. Finally, left-hand-drive cars will be transported to the Far East for free, either Ladas or Logans. The decision has its flip side, though: high import duties will be introduced on foreign makes. The Far East, accustomed to low-priced used Japanese right-hand-drive cars, will have to change its habits. The news immediately stirred up local trouble. But here evidence becomes conflicting. Some speak of large crowds of protesters, others of a couple of hundred "tough guys" who converged for their rally on brand-new Cruisers.
Opening yesterday's cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin listed his latest anti-crisis measures: supporting Russian farmers by subsidising part of the loan interest rate and raising import duties on farm produce, encouraging demand for Russian cars by increasing state orders, developing the leasing market, and compensating citizens wishing to buy on credit a car in 2009 worth not more than 350,000 roubles for 8.6% of the loan rate.
All of Russia's major industrial companies have now turned out to be strategic. The Government is shelving the idea of a commodity-based economy, analysts are saying with a sigh.
Russia's biggest consumer lender said it would support its borrowers finding themselves in dire straits because of the financial crisis by rescheduling their debt.
On December 21, nine-year-old Dasha Varfolomeyeva, who had phoned Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during the December 4 live question-and-answer session and asked him to give her a Cinderella-style dress for the New Year, arrived in Moscow at his invitation. Dasha, her 14-year-old sister Anya and their mother Natalia from Buryatia landed at about 12 p.m. at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport. Government staff officials were waiting for them, brandishing a sign "Darya Varfolomeyeva".
Over the weekend Russia was swept by protests against the rise of car import duties. The authorities took every measure to prevent a repeat of large-scale protests a week earlier. For example, an OMON unit from the Moscow area was flown in to control the demonstrators. The OMON force clubbed all demonstrators indiscriminately. However, the protestors did not confine themselves to economic demands and carried some political slogans, including the resignation of the Government.
The total capitalisation of the state-owned Sberbank and Vneshtorgbank, which conducted IPOs in 2007, has plunged by $99 billion this year. Naturally, this drop in bank capitalisation was caused by the global financial crisis, which became aggravated in September and expedited this process. The price of Sberbank and VTB shares has tended to decline since early 2008. This is hardly surprising in view of the global financial crisis, caused by the 2007 US subprime mortgage crisis.
Mass protests took place in several major Russian cities on December 14 and 15. On December 16 the authorities announced that the reductions of the Interior Ministry's troops (one of their tasks is riot control) would be put on hold.
The change of president was the highlight of domestic political life in Russia in 2008. Some people expected the new leader to stay the former course while others expected a drastic change of domestic and foreign policy. Both were proved wrong.
Vlast is summing up the year in Russian television, as it always does. Analyses of programme ratings have brought our columnist ARINA BORODINA to the conclusion that the Russian public is becoming more sophisticated in its preferences, though within limits set by the higher authorities.
