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 regions will be able to cover budget losses from the easing of the tax burden on enterprises at 100 billion roubles. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced at a conference in Yaroslavl that the regions will get 0.5% more from the profit tax and 40% of the excise duties on petrol and oil, receiving about 105 billion roubles of additional revenue. Experts say, though, that far more will be needed to cover the regions' losses.
Amid the global financial crisis, Russia nationalised its first company yesterday. Kommersant correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov thinks Vladimir Putin did this publicly to demonstrate what can be expected from the Russian Government in the future.
WHATEVER MAY HAPPEN IN THE RELATIONS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION, MOSCOW AND BRUSSELS HAVE NEVER STRAYED FROM THE ESTABLISHED FORMAT OF BILATERAL COOPERATION. RUSSIA-EU SUMMITS WERE HELD AT THE HEIGHT OF TRADE WARS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SOME EU MEMBERS AND AFTER TRAGIC EVENTS SUCH AS THE WAR IN GEORGIA. THIS IS A WELCOME PHENOMENON IF ONLY BECAUSE TWICE A YEAR, BOTH SIDES HAVE A CHANCE TO TELL EACH OTHER WHAT THEY THINK.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that the new anti-crisis plan must be ready by December 20 (the previous deadline was December 5), and that budgetary anti-crisis calculations for 2009 and 2010-2012 are to begin on December 16 (rather than December 9).
The state-run Vnesheconombank (VEB), through which the government is helping victims of the crisis, is asking Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to give it 950 billion roubles ($34.16 billion). The money is needed to help VEB itself.
Tomorrow the leader of the United Russia party, Vladimir Putin, is going to hold a live question-and-answer session with the public, which is planned to last for at least two hours. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is going to press for giving their leader as much airtime.
Bloggers commenting on the government's anti-crisis measures freely indulge in humour and irony. Trying to come to grips with the reality of the crisis, they think they must rely on themselves rather than wait for assistance from the government.
The Government Presidium met yesterday, mainly to consider the authorities' fulfilment of anti-crisis measures. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin listened to reports ranging from the rehabilitation of problem banks and construction of transport facilities in Sochi to the tests of a new missile. Reassuring reports gave a full picture of the Government's effective and exhaustive moves. Mr Putin's Government cannot, by definition, be otherwise in Russian eyes.
United Russia activists consolidated their positions this November. The influence of senior officials tackling financial-economic issues was also stabilised.
Over the eight years of Vladimir Putin's first and second presidential terms, we were able to observe a moving consolidation of the elites at all levels and a virtual lack of conflicts between the regional and federal levels. Much of the credit for this must go to the fairly high authority commanded by the federal administration and Putin personally. Regional leaders realized that it was not in their favor to thumb their noses at the authorities, as they had sometimes done during Boris Yeltsin's presidency.
Recent initiatives by the Russian government, particularly those involving tax code modifications, reveal a total lack of the officials' desire to seek outside advice. In making these decisions, officials do not bother to have discussions with either companies' representatives, who would have to bring much more insurance payments into the treasury in case of legislative decisions taken , or employees, who are likely to carry the burden of increased taxes passed on to them by businesses. Advice from State Duma deputies is disregarded as well. All this results in the government losing credibility - and credibility has always implied that no decisions derogating civil rights were taken behind their back.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta's editorial board would like to apologise to Mr Trefilov for publishing incorrect and inaccurate facts.
There has been much discussion of how adequate the government's actions are in the face of the economic crisis. I don't think they are, but I am not an economist, so I will leave such assessments to the professionals. The problem is that the financial crunch has rapidly grown into a broader economic crisis and is now outgrowing the purely economic sphere, increasingly attaining an important social and political dimension. The goals our political system is now facing are urgent and of paramount importance, crucial for its very survival, even.
The Government is continuing to implement its anti-crisis programme. Yet financial aid to banks and businesses is not bringing marked improvement to the economy. Yesterday Putin said that the Russian market was too dependent on pessimistic sentiments prevailing on foreign stock markets, and the decisions on which securities to buy or sell are made mainly outside Russia according to rules that have little relevance to the Russian economy and businesses.
When Boris Yeltsin was elected for a second term in 1996 a map with indicator lights signaling places where crises were brewing appeared at the Kremlin. Journalists were shown the map room. At the time the Kremlin tried to reassure the public. "I think it was called the situation analysis room. It was important to demonstrate that he keeps his finger on the pulse of the nation", political scientist Alexei Titkov remembers. A similar map with illuminated indicators is being put up by the President's Administration, this time for internal use, to know that the nation is under control.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was the last witness to address a Georgian parliamentary commission investigating the South Ossetian war. It took him five hours to say who had unleashed the war and why, how he had met with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, and why he had been chewing on his necktie. The baffled opposition says the President might have been delirious. Professor Valery Kvaratskhelia, head of the Georgian-Russian Friendship Centre, described President Saakashvili's testimony as "the ravings of a madman".
A week after the United Russia party congress, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's speech sounds much like a pre-election one. The Prime Minister is getting ready for the new elections, assuming the role of a triumphant and capable person who will handle the economic crisis, experts say. Putin is promising budget inflows and tax reduction - but in doing so he is running a great risk, as no one is able to make a shrewd guess at oil prices, which are now lower than those listed in the budget. OPEC members and Russia could mutually introduce oil extraction limits and increase the price of an oil barrel - and the state of affairs will turn disastrous if they do not.
German energy giant E.ON has asked for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's personal guarantees to back their investments in Russia's energy sector and gas supply contracts to Europe. The Prime Minister agreed to oblige.
The people of Russia have resumed their favourite pastime in trying to guess when, and if, Vladimir Putin will stage a presidential comeback.
This week, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is beginning a series of Government meetings to define Russia's fiscal policy for 2009 and 2010-2012: on December 5, anti-crisis budget measures will be considered, while on December 9, the first attempt will be made to put together a three-year budget for 2010 and the following two years. Government moves will depend on economic figures reported for November. Non-core indicators, such as railway haulage and domestic gas consumption (both of which dropped by 20%), show that the Government will have to work on the basis that industry has taken a nosedive at the end of 2008.
