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
Few years in Russian history were as eventful as the last year of the 20th century. A young and active president launched half a dozen reforms, routed separatists in the Caucasus and declared deregulation of the economy. The impressions of Putin the reformer outweighed the aftertaste of Putin who was building a vertical power structure and distancing himself from the oligarchs.
The mayoral run-off in Murmansk will take place on March 15. The headquarters of Mayor Mikhail Savchenko and his rival, Regional Vice-Governor Sergei Subbotin, are accusing each other of resorting to bureaucratic clout and mudslinging. Meanwhile, Murmansk Governor Yury Yevdokimov is angry that he has been made party to this “smear campaign” and insists he is not resigning.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spent yesterday in Novokuznetsk, a city where the snow is black and mines are experiencing serious difficulties. The Government Commission on Regional Development also met for its session there, but for Mr Putin it was equally important to see with his own eyes how an industrial city was struggling amid the crisis.
Election time is a period when certain politicians lose all sense of measure. If they have nothing to show to the electorate, they boast of their friendship with celebrities. Sergei Subbotin, a candidate for the post of Mayor of Murmansk, is running his campaign under the informal slogan of a Putin pal. True, as it often happens, it is unlikely that the Prime Minister knows his self-named friend and associate from Adam.
Yesterday, Hungary’s Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány arrived in Moscow to meet with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The parties discussed the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline to be laid through Hungary, bypassing Ukraine. The pipeline is expected to be commissioned in 2015. A corresponding agreement was signed yesterday between Gazprom and its Hungarian partners.
The Finance Ministry estimates that in 2011 the Government will need to resort to foreign borrowings to cover the budget deficit.
Russia and Hungary have agreed the principles of a joint company to build the Hungarian section of the South Stream pipeline. At the same time, however, Hungary explicitly lends its support to the rival alternative to South Stream – the Nabucco pipeline. Experts, however, believe that capacities of both pipelines will not be needed for over ten years due to the decreased demand for gas.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany at the Government Reception House yesterday. Our special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov thinks it was the most nervous meeting with a European representative since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian gas crisis.
Governors will be persuaded to cut expenses by one trillion roubles.
During Boris Yeltsin’s presidency, there were several attempts to reform the civil service. In December 1991, the Chief Directorate for Civil Service Personnel Training was established, which developed a civil service reform concept and a number of draft laws. The Directorate, however, was disbanded after two and a half years. In July 1995, the law On Civil Service Principles in the Russian Federation was adopted. It was a framework law, which required numerous clarifications. In 1997, attempts at reform were continued by an expert group headed by Presidential Advisor Mikhail Krasnov. The group prepared 12 reform concepts however they were never realised due to frequent Government changes.
The Government is no longer able to work under the terms of the current Budget Code, which prescribes stringent limitations on using oil and gas revenues and on the budget deficit level. It has been decided to use the Reserve Fund to cover the deficit. Amendments to the Budget Code were discussed yesterday at the Government’s meeting. “The current terms have served us well; the balanced budget policy has ensured macroeconomic stability and allowed us to completely resolve the foreign debt issue, which amounted to 150 billion roubles in January 2000,” Prime Minister Putin said, praising the Cabinet’s work during the last 9 years.
The Prime Minister was shown unique ship-testing basins.
Whether or not more Government members will be sacked, Igor Sechin's influence continues to grow
Municipal elections have shown that the United Russia Party is more of a liability than an asset for candidates.
An opinion poll conducted by Levada Centre in February has revealed that Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev’s approval ratings are 48% and 36%, respectively. In February 2008, on the eve of the presidential elections, the ratings were 62% and 39%. Over the course of the year Vladimir Putin’s rating dropped by 22.6% and President Medvedev’s by 7.7%, which sociologists attribute mainly to the economic crisis. According to some forecasts the crisis may last for 2 to 3 years, until the next presidential elections, due in 2012.
The first meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and new US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held in Geneva on Friday merely ticked off the problems piled up in bilateral relations. The two sides stated that the links between Russia and the United States were “overloaded” and needed to be “reset”, an operation that will be carried out by a permanent bilateral commission co-chaired by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and US Vice President Joseph Biden.
Sergei Sobyanin cuts Government Staff for the second time in six months.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is completing the reform of the Government Staff. The National Projects Department has been shut down and the staff will be cut by 10%.
There is no doubt that our President wants Russia to be a lawful and free country. One has to be a naïve cynic (cynics are often naïve) to think that anyone can say, “Freedom is better than non-freedom” while thinking to himself, “How easy it is to cheat these fools”.
The first months of the crisis put a halt to the talk of an imminent population explosion that the country’s leaders have been predicting for a number of years. The baby-boom was a pet topic of former President and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The problem was also a major plank in Dmitry Medvedev’s election platform. Toward the end of 2008 both leaders were pleased to note the growing birth rate and the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development was confidently making optimistic forecasts. However, over the past few months the topic has never been raised at the high level and experts claim that the country is facing a demographic slump.
Before introducing amendments to this year’s budget, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will discuss the amended parameters of the nation’s main financial document with the opposition parties in the Duma. The Communists are expected to be the first to meet with the Prime Minister. The KPRF at the Duma has prepared an updated anti-crisis package.
For three years the Government will be paying double compensation to Russians for “Soviet-era deposits”.
The Federal Antimonopoly Service Directorate in the Krasnoyarsk Territory has fined “Rys” (Lynx), a local shop that sells fishing and hunting gear. The antimonopoly body claims that the merchants unlawfully used a photograph of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Minister of Emergencies Sergei Shoigu fishing in Tyva for advertising purposes. The shop may face a fine of up to 500,000 roubles.
Addressing a meeting of the Government Presidium in Moscow yesterday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned that Russia could suspend supplies of our energy resources to Ukraine and Europe. He also promised another $500 million loan to Belarus, which is a more reliable partner. He also appointed his reliable Minister of Agriculture, Alexei Gordeyev, as Governor of the Voronezh Region.
At a government presidium meeting on March 5, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin asked the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service to look into a paradoxical situation that had evolved in the agricultural sector: wholesale prices of oils and lubricants are rising despite the stabilisation of oil prices at $40-$45 per barrel.
The rouble will not fall – a promise made yesterday by the Russian Prime Minister at a meeting with members of the public. He said that even a temporary fall in oil prices could not threaten the rouble. Experts say that the Central Bank has no grounds to devalue the rouble at present, although they note that Mr Putin's words should be taken only as a short-term forecast. There are currently no preconditions for a fall of the rouble. In fact, the rouble could strengthen. That is what Prime Minister Putin said when he met with members of the public in a job centre in Podolsk.
Last February there was something like the thaw – well, not quite the thaw, but a new programme was launched, which sought to free Russia of its current masters.
Yesterday Russia’s unemployment figures fell - by two people at least. The Minister for Healthcare and Social Development, Tatyana Golikova, set the precedent. She spent Wednesday morning at the Federation Council (see page 12) but in the afternoon she found herself in Podolksk, near Moscow. Having met an unemployed cook, Mikhail Vershinin, in the town centre, the minister got him a job at the ZiO-Podolsk Machine-Building Factory loading cargo.
In the first ten months of his premiership, Mr Putin has visited four universities (in Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, St Petersburg and Vladivostok), but not once (at least publicly) has he chaired a meeting on the issues of higher education. Yesterday the Prime Minister filled this gap.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin paid a visit to the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MFTI) at Dolgoprudny, outside Moscow, yesterday. There he inspected several laboratories and a student hostel, and chaired a meeting on higher education. But his most important discovery was that there were such people on Earth as MFTI students, and the Prime Minister hugely enjoyed his conversation with them.
The need to offset the budget deficit in 2009 out of the Reserve Fund will make it necessary to amend the Law On the Budget, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a meeting on economic issues yesterday.
Vladimir Putin began his working week with the Big Russian Encyclopedia brought to his Novo-Ogaryovo residence by Yuri Osipov, the President of the RAS.
The United Russia has won elections to the legislatures of all the nine regions held last Sunday. True, it performed less well than in the Duma elections in 2007 when the situation in the country was stable. The most noticeable drop of confidence in “the party of power” was at the municipal level. Experts attribute it to the fact that the crisis has loosened the link in people’s minds between the images of United Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin. The opposition has failed to capitalise on the obvious social demand for left-wing ideas.
President Medvedev’s media quotation index outstrips Vladimir Putin’s for the first time.
Medvedev and Putin are latter-day Kutuzovs
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin uses every meeting with his Ministers to remind them that the crisis has stymied our ambitious plans and that now everything has to be planned anew. Yesterday’s meeting devoted to economic matters was no exception.
The forum Strategy-2020 held by the United Russia Party in Moscow yesterday was devoted to the first year of Dmitry Medvedev’s presidency. The conversation inevitably drifted toward a discussion of the economic crisis, as the two themes proved to be interconnected. One of the most notable speeches was made by the First Deputy Chief of the President’s Executive Office, who assured those present that the political system was working effectively while the calls for changing it were “extremely risky”.
Medvedev’s first year was long in terms of political events, and also very difficult, what with the war in the Caucasus and the economic crisis. He could have limited his efforts to clearing up the consequences of these events, but he has not. He advanced a large-scale programme for developing democratic institutions (“participatory democracy”), initiated a reform of the courts and a national anti-corruption plan, formed a personnel reserve, and proposed a concept for European security.
When I am asked to give my opinion on the government’s anti-crisis strategy, I tend to say: Which strategy? And, more dramatically, of which government?
I don’t want to say that we don’t have a Government. On the contrary, we have at least three Governments.
The Ministry of Finance thinks the Russian President’s interference in the country’s tax policy is unwarranted. This conclusion can be drawn from the ministry’s draft report to Dmitry Medvedev following his instructions to review the system of taxation for the coal sector.
The election of Dmitry Medvedev as Russia’s President appeared to be a big victory for controlled “sovereign democracy.” Operation Successor was planned and carried out so smartly that it looked almost like a miracle of modern technologies, or rather political technologies. They had no problem ensuring the required number of votes.
The presidential elections are over, and some readers will soon have to think about what to do with the former president’s portrait.
Last Friday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is at least an informal head of United Russia, met with the party’s leadership. With his annual report in the State Duma coming in April, Friday’s discussions could be described as a rehearsal for it. The conversation did not last long (just over an hour).
Today marks the one-year anniversary of Dmitry Medvedev’s election to the Russian presidency. Of course, there will be no lack of congratulations and expressions of loyalty from members of the political class. This is the core part of the “programme”. Equally obligatory in such cases is criticism – both direct and “wrapped up” in the same congratulations. In this case, it will be meaningfully reduced to stating “disappointment” in Medvedev’s first year and to deliberations about “missed opportunities” and “remaining chances”.
In 2009, pensions in Russia will be indexed four times, not three, as it was initially planned, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said. The number of pension indexations will depend on the inflation level this year: If it proves higher than the planned target, pensions will be increased in line with a rise in prices. The current law on the budget projects the price rise of 6%-7.5%, whereas the Economic Development Ministry’s latest inflation forecast is 13%. In January, the prices rose by 2.4%, and the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) forecasts a 1.6% rise in February.
Three-year budget planning may be suspended in Russia and the quotas for financing the budget deficit increased. A government meeting on economic issues, to be chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, will discuss these proposals today.
The gradual devaluation of the rouble has mitigated the impact of the crisis on people, said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, thus supporting the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry’s actions.
Demand for souvenirs with the images of Russia’s top leaders has been falling in Moscow since the New Year. This reflects the general downward trend in souvenir sales as most people in the country cannot afford gifts even if they are adorned with the portraits of the country’s leaders. MK has looked into the situation in this specific segment of the market.
Vladimir Putin has shared his views on how to keep teenagers from smoking and alcohol
A conference of European ministers in charge of social cohesion sponsored by the Council of Europe and the Russian Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development will take place in Moscow today. It will be opened by the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe TERRY DAVIS who told Kommersant’s MIKHAIL ZIGAR why Europe is disappointed with Russia.
