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
Tens of thousands of Bashkortostan residents address deputies annually. This year, the amount of written requests to the republic's parliament increased twofold.
In late December 2007, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev officially inaugurated the Year of the Family in Russia.
The Japanese Government officially called on Russia not to raise car-import duties. Tokyo believes that the protectionist measures of Vladimir Putin's Government do not match the principles of the WTO which Moscow wants to join. Analysts say the threat to deny Russia access to the WTO will not work. The Japanese automotive industry depends on exports to Russia's Far East just like Russia relies heavily on Japanese imports.
When Novaya Gazeta asked me what television personalities I would have liked to invite to my New Year's party, I was at a loss. It had been such a lackluster year that it left me no choice. The main strategists, creative directors, authors and actors ended up being just two people: Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev. Not that I was crying tears into my pillow on long winter nights dreaming of celebrating the New Year with that particular couple - it was just that these two, the Prime Minister and the President, dominated the television screens during the outgoing year.
We talked with famous TV anchor Sergei Dorenko about Russia's joys and sorrows of the past year.
Yesterday Prime Minister Putin received the Varfolomeyevs from Buryatia in his residence at Novo-Ogaryovo. Mr Putin invited the family to Moscow after 9-year-old Dasha called the Prime Minister during the Q&A session on December 4 and asked for a Cinderella dress.
The next US president, Barack Obama, could not resist the latest political trend popular with male presidents - posing for the camera with bared torsos. Naked from the waist up, Obama was photographed in the Hawaii Islands, where he spent his holiday with his wife and children.
The Finance Ministry will unofficially sequester 2009 budget spending by 6% to 7% without any public announcement or discussion. As instructed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on December 12, the Ministry informed the other ministries and government departments that their spending limits for 2009 were cut back to 85% of the initially budgeted amounts - with the exception of norm-related items, which make up half of the budget. This approach will enable the Finance Ministry to have 500 billion to 600 billion roubles at the beginning of 2009 (1.5% of GDP) in hidden spending reserves.
On December 23, officers of the Khabarovsk Territorial Traffic Safety Inspectorate removed a white VAZ-2101 Lada car from a private-company garage in Khabarovsk. Those involved in a December 21 protest against the Government's decision to raise foreign car import duties wanted to present the car to Prime Minister 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.
Russian employment services fail to place the unemployed back in jobs amid current layoffs, as reported at Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov on December 20.
Russians have difficulty in naming the winners and the main events of 2008. As usual, bad news attracts more attention, and Russians are simply stunned by the main bad news, which is the economic crisis.
The presidium of the Presidential Council on Developing Local Self-Government met in Lipetsk yesterday. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin acknowledged in his address that "not all problems had been settled during the transition period, namely - the municipal boundary description and municipal property delineation. These affairs are all too often muddled. As a result, the Government has to postpone the deadline for describing and fixing the boundaries of municipal entities and for settling municipal property disputes until January 1, 2012."
In Ulyanovsk and Tolyatti, mass rallies were held yesterday in support of a government decision to raise duties on foreign cars imported into Russia. They came after earlier protests staged in the Far East and Siberia against these protective measures that threaten to cut jobs there. Government policy has thus led to a large-scale conflict between the interests of different regions in Russia, and the opposition is warning of new social upheavals.
Another scandal is brewing over mortgages, which had been growing for six years. A flourishing business has waned overnight, and the future of mortgage lenders is grim.
Russian companies have estimated that their rescue will cost 3.5 trillion roubles, but the government does not have that much. First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has summed up the requests of a range of industries after a series of meetings with their officials: companies have asked for a total of 3.5 trillion roubles on top of the existing loan portfolio.
Yesterday Prime Minister Vladimir Putin virtually put an end to a heated debate about the tariffs for Russian Railways next year. He announced that tariffs on railway cargo transportation will be increased by 5% on January 1 and the average yearly growth will be 12.4%. Earlier in the week Russian Railways hoped for an 8% increase. In addition, the state will give the rail monopoly 50 billion roubles and will buy the company's additional stock issue for 41 billion roubles. Experts say the Government has to meet the railway halfway because of a sharp decline in freight traffic. To ease the burden, tariffs will be raised in stages.
On December 18, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin went to the Lipetsk Region where he chaired a meeting of the Presidium of the Presidential Council for the Development of Local Self-Government.
The appearance of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a Euroleague round 8 basketball game at CSKA sports centre did not bring success to the army team: as the game with Real Madrid was drawing to a close, the team seemed to lose its drive and was defeated by its main rival for first place in the group: 78-82.
On December 19, Vladimir Putin will have another meeting with heads of the Russian auto companies. They will meet at a KamAZ plant to discuss ways of supporting the automotive sector in crisis conditions. It is expected that car manufacturers will ask the Prime Minister to take urgent measures for stimulating demand and providing funds on easy terms. The previous meeting, which was held in May, initiated the decision to raise customs duties on car imports to 35%.
VTsIOM public opinion agency has found that few have taken notice of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's efforts to steady the economy as he toured the country. Fifty-six per cent of those polled know nothing about the Government's anti-crisis measures. And those who are informed do not applaud "Putin's plans": only one in ten (11%) called them adequate.
On December 17, 2008, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with the ministers in charge of national projects at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence. The funds allocated for the priority trend in state policy are not always spent rationally and the projects are far from perfect, the Prime Minister said.
People will pay more for gas and other utility services starting January 1, 2009. Before the crisis, there was a sort of tacit agreement between the Government and energy companies whereby Russians had to pay the minimum and Western clients the maximum for energy. Now it seems that energy companies are determined to make domestic consumers pay more.
Time Magazine has named President-elect Barack Obama the Man of the Year yesterday. The influential American weekly awards this honourable title every December to a person, or group of people, who has exerted the most powerful impact on global events over the outgoing year. Obama left other candidates, such as America's former First Lady Hillary Clinton, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, and head of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, far behind. Last year, Time named then-Russian President Vladimir Putin the Man of the Year.
Rumours were spreading that the filmmakers lacked the money to edit an episode of the popular Russian TV sitcom "My Beautiful Nanny," which has Vladimir Putin's look-alike meeting the main character, Vika Prutkovskaya. Prior to the premiere of the sitcom's new season on channel CTC, the buzz and press reports on the plot had been that Vika, hired as a nanny, would move to a house in the elite Rublyovka neighbourhood of Moscow. Later she would go to a posh French ski resort in Kurshavel and meet Vladimir Putin, who is a known downhill skier. According to reports, a Putin look-alike was hired to film the episode - however, the photographs in the press showed Vika with a man that only vaguely resembled Mr Putin.
On December 19, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will chair a meeting with the CEOs of Russian automotive giants at truck maker KAMAZ in Naberezhnye Chelny in Tatarstan, the Government press service said. During the meeting, Mr Putin will decide on measures to support automakers who want the Government to promptly facilitate demand and to issue easy-term loan guarantees.
Like Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, Russian leaders were cornered as public unrest, stirred by skyrocketing car import duties, swept Vladivostok. Russia experienced something similar in 1993, when Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin capitulated unconditionally. Vladimir Putin, the present Prime Minister, would never do that-concessions are not part of his political philosophy. Besides, the unrest in the Far East is only the tip of an iceberg. Are Russian leaders ready to face mass protest, which is inevitable in the midst of an economic crisis? And why do they provoke public protest even when it can be prevented?
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spent yesterday sorting out farming problems. He began his working day by visiting the Yershovo dairy farm. Putin admired the calves, inspected the cowsheds and also toured the cow milking house. He was told that all yields were computer-monitored. One cow produces 19 litres of quality milk daily. "Cows must be flocking here," the Prime Minister joked.
The Russian economy shows a downward trend. According to the results of the fourth quarter of this year, the GDP growth rates will drop to 2.6% against 7.3% in the preceding three quarters, the economic development ministry reports. Government experts do not know how long the recession will last. However, a statement made by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the heads of government of the EurAsEC countries on December 12 that the Russian Government would reserve about 9 trillion roubles ($306.23 billion) for support of the banking sector alone gives us grounds to believe that the Government is preparing for a protracted recession.
Disputes on the history of Holodomor, a famine in Ukraine in the early 1930s, and what was behind it reach the highest tension when they come to opinion clashes on Joseph Stalin. Two or more generations of Ukrainians (I mean mainly the Eastern Orthodox population in central and south Ukraine) remember the horrors of Stalinist collectivisation and Holodomor. Many Russian peasants, especially religious ones, also considered Stalin an atrocious killer. Still, they forgave him many sins, especially after the victory in World War Two. As for Professor Anatoly Butenko, war veteran and my teacher and superior at the Economic Research Institute of the World Socialist System, who survived the 1932 famine in a village near Poltava, his views on Stalin were as harsh as the one held by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko now.
