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 Russian Government has taken its first step beyond just regulating the economy and towards systemic restrictions on state spending and direct support for industry. At the Government House yesterday, an inner cabinet meeting for the first time discussed a 15% cut in the approved tariff increases and a reduction in financing for special federal programmes by the same amount. A state commission was set up to distribute 625 billion roubles allocated as direct support between 300 strategic businesses, whose number was later to be raised to 1,500.
The Government is drawing up a list of companies in need of state support, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a Government Presidium meeting. Qualifications have been determined. The list will have two parts, one for federal and one for regional aid-300 companies for the former and 1,200 for the latter. As the Government explains, the list is necessary to overcome the formidable barriers through which allocations must travel to reach industry. The companies on the list produce a summary 85% of the gross domestic product and are principal employers, so their survival will prevent skyrocketing unemployment. Experts forecast tough competition for a place on the list. The race will be all the closer as the Government promises to make it an open-end list with terms prolonged when necessary. Mr Putin might sign an initial version of the federal list by tomorrow.
The government has made quite a few decisions to support the banking sector, but it takes time for funds to reach industries, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lamented yesterday. To accelerate this process, it was decided to compile a list of major companies (accounting for 85% of the country's GDP) that are to be given "prime attention."
The Government may agree to increase VEB's capitalisation and guarantee its liabilities under an anti-crisis plan
Motorists in Russian cities staged mass actions yesterday to protest the rise of customs duties on imported used cars yesterday. In Novosibirsk protesters challenged Vladimir Putin, who raised the duties, to change from his government Mercedes to a Russian-made Volga. In Krasnoyarsk protesters advised him to "help the oligarchs out of his own pocket", while in Vladivostok several thousand demonstrators paralyzed traffic in the city for five hours demanding the resignation of Mr Putin's Government.
Moody's has revised the outlook from positive to stable on Russia's Baa1 sovereign rating and the ratings of eight state-controlled banks, which implies that their upgrade possibilities are tangibly reduced. Moody's will leave Russia's rating at no higher than Baa for the next 12 to 18 months. According to the agency, the Russian government spends too much from the country's reserves to support the rouble, which is an "ineffective policy."
At a meeting of the EurAsEC Interstate Heads of Government Council on Friday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of talks on giving Kyrgyzstan a loan of up to $2 billion to support the local economy. This is a huge sum, over 60% of the country's GDP. In the same address, Mr Putin spoke about the "reserved funds" to support the Russian banking system - 9 trillion roubles, 20.5% of the 2008 GDP, according to estimates made in September. 4 trillion roubles (9% of the GDP) have already been allocated. Earlier, Russia offered a $1 million loan to Belarus (another million is promised for the beginning of 2009), and began talks with Iceland about a loan of 4 billion euros.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is concerned about the growth of unemployment and does not see prospects for the better development of the situation.
The authorities have admitted that the Russian economy has gone into a recession. The one who had the courage to do so was Andrei Klepach, Deputy Economy Minister; higher-ranking officials are not yet daring to utter the word. Experts' forecasts are still gloomier than official ones: in 2009 they do not rule out negative growth in industry. A faulty anti-crisis policy, not the state of the world's economy, is to blame for this.
The Finance Ministry is ready to okay a proposal by Rosgosstrakh's private investors to issue new shares. The final say lies with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The Finance Ministry will offer Putin two options for Rosgosstrakh, a ministry source told Vedomosti. According to the source, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin held a meeting last week to discuss the matter, at which it was decided to send the Prime Minister a memorandum describing the two choices.
At the end of last week, the Russian government raised duties on chicken and pork imports in 2009. Russian meat producers are satisfied with measures that restrict competition with cheaper meat imports. However, economists believe that in crisis conditions, the government must support ordinary consumers, whose diet depends on the prices of chicken imports. Experts propose price regulation for Russian meat-producing companies in order to prevent a surge in meat prices.
The Central Election Commission cited people awarded for contributing to the electoral system's development. To mark the 15th anniversary of Russia's electoral system, the Central Election Commission yesterday awarded President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin CEC commemorative badges signifying "those who have made a significant contribution to the development and functioning of Russia's electoral system." The list includes speakers from both houses of parliament, former and sitting deputies, and all prime ministers with the exception of Mikhail Kasyanov.
The decision to create the commission was adopted Wednesday. It will be composed of MPs, officials, managers and businessmen, including Alexander Abramov ("Evraz"), Andrei Borodin (the Bank of Moscow), Sergei Generalov ("Industrial Investors"), Anatoly Karachinsky (IBS) and David Yakobashvili ("Wimm-Bill-Dann"). (See the full list at www.vedomosti.ru) The commission will be headed by Alexander Shokhin, a member of the United Russia presidium and the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. The commission's members are not obliged to join United Russia.
No demand for the company's products, personnel on vacation, the working week cut down to three days, these are the typical symptoms of Russian companies damaged by the global economic crisis. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin not only makes out "prescriptions" from the Government House but pays visits to the "diseased" as well. Last week he visited the NPO Saturn and Avtodizel, the latter part of the GAZ Group. Last Thursday, he arrived in Rostov-on-Don to support a major farm equipment manufacturer, the Rostselmash plant.
A week has elapsed since Vladimir Putin's latest Q&A session. Though he has changed office from President to Prime Minister since the previous session of December 2007, the number of addresses has actually risen, according to the calculations of meticulous experts. Mr Putin set another record-the session lasted three hours and eight minutes, three minutes longer than in 2007, with 80 questions answered, as opposed to 72 in 2007. All told, there were 1,636,800 telephone calls and 642,000 SMS messages.
The call received by Prime Minister Putin from the mother of a six-year-old amputee stirred up all of Bashkiria. Ilvira Fayurshina from the village of Karmasan in the Ufa area complained that her adopted son Kostya Irayev, whose leg was amputated when he was three months old, was forced to endure annual examinations at a medical commission to confirm the physical disability.
Russian developers are sharply reducing construction and are renouncing new projects. This may jeopardize the high-priority Affordable Housing national project and prevent the Government from commissioning 80 million square metres of housing by 2010, as promised by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last year. Regional authorities say developers are no longer interested in available construction sites.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that a state commission will be created to work on the anti-recessionary programme and the analysis of economic and social developments in Russia. The new commission will be chaired by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, who has been meeting with businessmen for the last few months to involve them in anti-recessionary planning in accordance with the Prime Minister's order.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised to cut migrant-worker quotas in 2009 by half. Instead of fulfilling this promise, the Government has halved possible reserve-quota increases or declines. Health and Social Development Minister Tatiana Golikova, rather than the Prime Minister, will decide whether to admit two million or six million migrants when the official quota is 3.97 million workers.
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.
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.
