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 journalists worked magnificently and displayed tact and professionalism. I was extremely pleased. Incidentally, radio audiences think the question about snow was the best. Mr Putin said it would snow when God willed it. Mr Putin discussed high-priority issues and talked about the things he knows. And he knows a lot. He gave honest answers. There was little populism, another highly positive aspect.
Vladimir Putin's first live broadcast as Prime Minister lasted 3 hours and 8 minutes. The Prime Minister said 787 sentences made up of 13,171 words and 74,402 letters to answer the questions asked by ordinary Russians. In 2007, when he answered the public's questions as President, he was somewhat more talkative, uttering 14,433 words made up of 82,564 letters in 3 hours and 5 minutes.
At his live televised question-and-answer session, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said labour quotas for foreign workers in Russia should be halved in 2009 amid the ongoing global financial crisis. "Considering the serious situation on the labour market, I think it reasonable to cut the quotas submitted by the regions by at least 50%," Putin said during the session.
Russia may reduce its gas supplies to Ukraine if Kiev fails to sign a long-term agreement on 3-year transition to market prices, or begins siphoning off transit gas going through its territory to other countries in Europe. Ukraine's Naftogaz, which owes Rosukrenergo over $2 billion, does not have enough money even for the first installment of $550 million. Meanwhile, Ukraine has a four-month gas reserve in underground storage.
Yesterday Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a live question-and-answer session with the public. Kommersant special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov, who hasn't missed a single live session of President Putin, believes that yesterday Mr Putin tried his best to show that the things which are the Prime Minister's should be rendered to the Prime Minister. Mr Putin was almost always in control.
Yesterday, far from the number of people who wanted to address Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were able to do so. Media sources said the unasked questions mostly mirrored those that were answered by Mr Putin. The Prime Minister discussed the financial crisis, housing issues, social security and domestic and foreign policies.
Prices of WTI crude fell below $44 per barrel yesterday, while Urals crude plunged to below $41. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the oil companies' losses per metric ton of exports totalled $68, and promised to help them out.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that the state's participation in the large-scale purchase of big business capital was not ruled out. This might become necessary if the measures being taken fail "to bring the state's money to those who need it," he said.
Those television viewers who did not see Vladimir Putin's question-and-answer session from the very start might have thought that they had gone back a year. It all looked like the national leader was answering questions from people who had elected him. There was not a hint that he has changed his position. Only those who saw the session to the end finally heard that there exists President Dmitry Medvedev.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made only one reference to President Dmitry Medvedev during his three hour question and answer session. Many questions from the audience concerned presidential competences-foreign policy, hostilities and military reform. Mr Putin does not rule out his return to presidency in 2012.
Yesterday, replying to questions from Russians, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that the Government could "demand that < ... > infrastructure monopolies do not push up their rates so fast < ... >, remembering that materials for investment programmes are going down < ... >, too".
The main task now is to review risk and prolong loans. "If we demand debt repayment immediately and at any cost, we would bankrupt these companies," Oleg Vyugin, board chairman of MDM Bank, told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
In the Yaroslavl Region, the Prime Minister visited plants manufacturing engines for KamAZ trucks and Superjet planes, and described support measures for young businessmen.
What would you like to ask the Prime Minister?
Regional leaders have started working at the public reception offices of Prime Minister and United Russia Party Chairman Vladimir Putin. It turns out that any problem, including those solved long ago, can be solved on behalf of Mr Putin and with the help of Tatarstan's President Mintimer Shaimiyev.
On December 1, those who showed up at Mr Putin's public reception office in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, were surprised to see President Shaimiyev sitting there. It would only be more surprising if Prime Minister Putin himself was in the office.
At noon today, the Head of Government will talk with Russians on live television. People who have been invited to the studio in Moscow's Gostiny Dvor have already been to Mr Putin's United Russia public reception offices. They will be asking him questions both as Prime Minister and party leader. Mr Putin will also answer questions put to him via telephone, on the Internet, and in text messages during direct link-ups with Russia's regions. Popular TV anchors Maria Sittel and Ernest Mackevicius will host the show.
The two meetings President Dmitry Medvedev held with the Prime Minister and ministers have resulted in a promise by cabinet members to allocate a further 350 billion roubles in support of the economy in the near future. The Central Bank thinks the problems with banks are over, and the White House is now planning to guarantee company loans. The necessary funds may become available from the Investment Fund or the State Investment Programme for 2008 and 2009.
Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov announced that the unified social tax reform could be postponed, that bonus depreciation could be tripled only in the next three to four years, and that companies would be reimbursed for value-added tax payments ahead of schedule.
By pure chance, this column will be published on the day when Vladimir Putin holds a Q&A session with "the nation" - those who were lucky enough to get through to the Prime Minister.
The Russian Academy of Sciences has conducted a study of the political views of Russians. The RAS Sociology Institute has analyzed the data on focus groups in six cities across the country: large, medium, and small. The results of the survey are in many ways paradoxical. They are discussed below by Olga Kryshtanovskaya from the Institute's Center for the Study of Elites.
