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 Moscow police reports, 11,000 came to the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, where the Patriarch lay in state, on Saturday night and in the wee hours on Sunday, 25,000 on Sunday, 13,000 in the early morning hours on Monday, 22,000 on Monday, and another 11,000 early Tuesday morning.
On December 10, the Government will hold an extended meeting to discuss 20 billion rouble ($719 million) subsidies to Russian regions for the last time in 2008.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda daily has begun to summarise the developments of 2008, which has proved the most turbulent year of the third millennium.
"The speed of Urals crude's fall is breaking not the psychological barrier, but my mind," a Russian financial-economic official said grimly last week when I asked for his opinion about the price of oil plummeting to $35 per barrel.
Dasha Varfolomeyeva from Buryatia will attend a New Year's party in Moscow, pedophiles will not escape tougher sentences, infant-feeding centres in Nizhny Novgorod will not be closed, and an additional 50 billion roubles will be allocated to support the labour market. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made these pledges during his question-and-answer session, and many are already being fulfilled.
A desire to find various implications in every official action can be partly explained by the Government's quest for ostensive secrecy. However, the possibility of subtle combinations does not necessarily mean that every decision has its own intrigue. Simple explanations cannot be deliberately rejected from the outset.
Conversation with Vladimir Putin, a programme that ousted a previously announced episode of the Bandits of Petersburg serial from the schedule, was coming to an end. Oleg Dobrodeyev heaved a sigh of relief. He had every reason to feel assured, with top-notch presenters Ernest Mackevicius and Maria Sittel-but you can never be sure. Russia is a huge country with many mavericks-what if an off-colour question came through on the air, breaking through selection barriers? All worries aside, however, everything went according to the scenario.
After Vladimir Putin supported them in a live broadcast, Nizhny Novgorod mothers think they should start a political party under the name of MTCB, which stands for "milk torrents between curd banks".
The latest statements by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin show that the Government is turning small business into a strategic sector. The next three or four months will show to what extent the executive branch ranging between small municipal agencies and the federal Government matches current realities, and to what extent officials can adequately react to specific developments, govern the country, and work effectively.
On December 5, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chaired a "meeting on economic issues". Like all government meetings in recent days, it began at 6 p.m. and lasted until late at night. The Prime Minister announced preparations for the meeting on November 17. He instructed the deputy prime ministers to hold "coordination conferences" by December 5 in order "to balance bailout applications and possibilities of financing the economy" (see the Kommersant business daily of November 25). When opening the meeting, Mr Putin emphasized that "in adopting the anti-crisis measures, we are thinking, primarily, about the people, not only about the economy as a whole".
Last week, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin talked live on the air with the staff of his regional public reception offices and the people who address them. On the eve of the "live phone-in", Vlast correspondents were working to find out how the best of Putin's reception offices work and what complaints Russian people bring there.
The White House is sending reinforcements to the Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Relations (Vnesheconombank or VEB): January 1, 2009 Mikhail Kopeikin, the deputy head of the Government Office, will take the post of the Bank's deputy board chairman. The man who has for many years upheld the idea of economic development through state investments will monitor it and at the same time tighten government control over anti-crisis resources distributed through VEB.
There will be no presidential election before 2012. The economy may start to pick up in the second or third quarters of next year, but most likely in the spring of 2010. This is what is in store for Russia in the near term. A detailed forecast occupied 188 minutes, an all-time record for Vladimir Putin’s live communication with the people.
"The next [presidential] elections in the Russian Federation will take place in 2012. I think that everyone should perform his duty in his place. There is no need to fuss about what will happen in 2012. Let's make it to that time, and then decide," Vladimir Putin said on Thursday when replying to a question about the possibility of his running in the next election.
The Government is now drafting a new bailout plan that stipulates additional support for the financial sector and domestic industries. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chairs almost daily meetings on the subject.
On Friday evening, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a conference to discuss assistance to the real sector of the economy in the face of the global crisis. Twenty minutes after the conference began, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, Sberbank president German Gref and Alexander Semenyaka, head of the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending (AHML), told journalists about the decision to support mortgages (see an article on p. B1).
The fight for control over the Saturn Research & Production Association, Russia's best engine building company, has ended in a victory for government officials.. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin personally arrived at Rybinsk to nationalise the company.
The printed version of the programme aired on December 5, 2008
Preliminary statistics of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's call-in were announced yesterday. TNS Russia data concerned Muscovites above 18 years of age watching it over Russia Channel. Talk with Vladimir Putin attracted almost half the city, though only one government channel showed a live broadcast this time, unlike Putin's previous question-and-answer sessions. The figures show that the Prime Minister retains his tremendous popularity, far outstripping President Dmitry Medvedev.
Very few questions concerning politics were asked during Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's question and answer session, while his subsequent interview with the press revolved around political matters.
