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
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.
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.
The government will review the approved projects requesting allocations from the Investment Fund and suspend the receipt of new requests. It will consider only the projects aimed at supporting crisis-affected sectors, notably engineering, metals production, and the production of construction materials. However, these requests will be considered "especially carefully."
Very soon the Government will approve a competition development programme for Russia. At a meeting of the Council on Competition and Entrepreneurship in the White House yesterday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accepted proposals and requests from businessmen.
The global crisis and grain overproduction have made grain exports unprofitable. Despite this, Russia's agro-industrial sector plans to export 10 million tonnes of grain in 2008. At its meeting yesterday, the Government decided to compensate farms for their losses from the state budget at the expense of the taxpayers.
Yesterday the Cabinet met in full session to review the fulfilment of the federal budget in the first nine months of the year and the use of the Investment Fund. However, the ministers found time to discuss other details. A heated discussion developed on one of the vital issues of the day, powdered milk.
Yesterday, the Federation Council approved and President Medvedev signed into law a bill implementing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's tax initiatives - first and foremost, reducing the profit tax by 4%. The Ministry of Finance has promised the senators, worried by the fact that the emergency tax reduction is being carried out, among other things, at the expense of the prepared regional budgets, to compensate for the regions' losses. In order to do that and to balance the federal budget, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin is ready to spend up to 1 trillion roubles in 2009 from the Reserve Fund. Just a week ago, the Deputy Prime Minister mentioned half the sum needed for such support.
On November 26, 2008, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin convened, for the first time during his second term in office, a meeting of the government's Council on Competition and Entrepreneurship.
The Chairman of United Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, will hold a meeting with the heads of all his public reception offices in early December, according to Kommersant's information. It will recognize the best workers who handle citizens' problems and set the tasks for 2009 in relation to their work in the crisis period.
Russian oil producers, terrified by the dramatic price fall, are lobbying for another cut in oil export tax, with Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin taking their side.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin inspected a section of the Russian-Finnish border and discussed ways to optimise the state border infrastructure at a meeting of the border control commission.
The much-touted purge of the ruling party has been put on hold due to the financial crisis, which allegedly makes it necessary for UR to close its ranks. Experts attribute it to the growing in-fighting among the elites for control of the party and the country's political future. Meanwhile, United Russia is under the watchful eye of its leader: the deputies will now have to give an account of what they did during the period allocated for trips to the regions.
The recent initiatives launched by President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin suggest that the country is drifting away from a presidential toward a parliamentary republic. Both leaders speak in unison on the main issues of the government structure. Meanwhile, if the President and the Prime Minister seem to see eye-to-eye on everything, the inference should not be made that there is no rivalry between ruling clans, NG experts point out.
Russia's numerous customs checkpoints are having trouble inspecting and handling all consignments. Separate measures have been unable to rectify the situation. We must introduce new technologies, create a reliable infrastructure, and make security a priority. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made these statements at a meeting of the State Border Commission at the Constantine Palace in St Petersburg.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a long-term concept of Russia's social and economic development through 2020. Carefully developed by the Economic Development Ministry over the past two years, the document is based on an average projected global economic growth of 4.2% and a global oil price of $99 per barrel from 2008 to 2010.
On December 5, the White House intends to go into battle against the crisis in a regular way. Before that, however, the Government will hold a series of meetings to gather information on how industries performed from September to November, and to sum up proposals for dealing with the economic crisis. The proposals will be collected by the Economic Development Ministry, analysed by the Economic Development and Finance Ministries, and coordinated by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. Anti-crisis planning, involving 11 ministries, eight deputy prime ministers, and one state corporation, will last three weeks and end with a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Putin spent yesterday in his native St Petersburg, where he attended a conference on international law that marked the 140th anniversary of the 1868 St Petersburg Declaration that renounced the use of certain explosive projectiles in times of war. He used the occasion to stress that plans to deploy the third positioning area of a missile defence system in Eastern Europe were "directed against Russia's strategic potential and we cannot but give it an adequate response." He warned: "No one knows who the winner will be, but it is obvious that the world as a whole, and above all Europe, will be the loser."
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin detailed Moscow's view on the European Collective Security Treaty. Speaking about foreign policy issues at an international conference on humanitarian law in St Petersburg, he formulated the so-called "Three No" principles. According to the Prime Minister, the treaty should be based on three principles: "First, it should guarantee that one nation's security is not ensured at the expense of another's. Second, it should prevent any country, military union, or coalition from taking any actions that could weaken common security and unity. And third, it should prevent the development and expansion of military unions from harming other parties in the agreement."
Whether you are United Russia's friend, foe, or are totally indifferent, you cannot deny that it is more than a party in power. It has no rivals to speak of, and possesses an absolute majority in the State Duma and all regional legislatures. It represents every group in the Russian ruling elite, and its leader has Russia's highest public rating. These are hard facts, whether you like them or not.
The Kremlin hopes the global economic crisis could force Washington and Brussels to partially restrain its expansion into the East. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged European countries to put an end to NATO's further expansion, saying if the US decides against basing anti-missile systems in the Czech Republic and in Poland, Russia will not deploy Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad and will disband the Strategic Missile Forces division in the Kaluga Region.
Russia constantly comes up with foreign policy initiatives, and should continue to do so to restore trust between Russia and the West. The international security system has long been in need of an overhaul, if not of replacement, so any proposals merit close attention.
As the crisis reaches its peak, Rostekhnologii is taking over 426 enterprises whose debt exceeds 120 billion roubles. The state corporation hopes for state help.
