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 scandals surrounding the founding fathers of United Russia, Vladislav Reznik and Valery Draganov, which erupted shortly before the party's jubilee congress marked the start of an anti-corruption drive. They also sent an important signal: there would no longer be untouchables in the party after Vladimir Putin became its head. As a result, even top political figures are in a risk group. This paper's experts see this as a message to the representatives of the old federal and regional elites that their time is over.
The case of Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak will undoubtedly go down in history as a vivid example of the feud between different clans. Nobody seems to doubt that the case has political-economic and not legal roots.
Vladimir Putin continued his working visit in Siberia yesterday where he inaugurated another bridge, urged people to get rid of "hole-in-the-wall places" and approved the transport strategy through 2030. As chairman of the party in power he helped a local businessman obtain a bank loan.
The second day of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's trip to Siberia (after Krasnoyarsk, he visited Novosibirsk yesterday) turned out to be very fruitful. He held a meeting on the Russian transport system development strategy through 2030, met with depositors and the President of Alfa-Bank, and visited an exhibition of innovative developments by transport higher education institutions in Russia put on at the Siberian State Railway University and a United Russia public reception office, one of the many known across the country as Mr Putin's reception offices. Wherever he went, he went to painstaking lengths to convince people that there is no crisis in Russia.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has warned bankers not to raise interest rates on loans issued on the inter-bank market from state support funds. Alpha Bank president Pyotr Aven agreed.
The Russian Government plans to initiate a new state-controlled corporation for developing space programmes. The new corporation, to be created in 2009, will comprise federal unitary state enterprises (FGUPs), now part of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). Although the decision was initiated by top Roscosmos managers, sources inside the agency said they did not understand the need for the change, and that the state already controlled the cost-effective FGUPs. However, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin believes this is not enough, that all Russian citizens must benefit from the use of satellites.
Judging by everything, Suleiman Kerimov, a major Russian investor, is having problems meeting his financial obligations. According to Handelsblatt, Mr Kerimov was unable to pay a margin call the other day, while the impression until recently was that his GNK company was lucky and that he would not go the way of some other Russian billionaires hit by the crisis. Tidal waves coming from Wall Street can shake up the Russian oligarchs well and truly, but the ultimate winner is likely to be only the state.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin paid his fourth visit to Krasnoyarsk, a city on the banks of the Yenisei River. The visit's atmosphere was quite positive. Clad in a brown parka and brown trousers, the Russian Prime Minister was in a good mood as he walked out of the plane and down the ladder at Yemelyanovo airport. It appears that the creators of the programme of Mr Putin's Krasnoyarsk visit realised that he has been tackling difficult problems lately, including ways of coping with the current financial crisis. Mr Putin's latest Krasnoyarsk visit was, in fact, a guided tour of local economic achievements.
On October 22, 2008, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will chair a meeting in Krasnoyarsk (East Siberia) devoted to Russia's transport strategy for the period through 2030. The problem, discussed by the Government many times throughout the year, has not become less pressing, but in fact, appears to be more acute than ever. The thing is that under the present-day conditions, the announced projects (we will discuss motorways here) cannot be subsidised as lavishly as before, which is, perhaps, only for the better.
Senior Russian officials, who have been avoiding speaking about the crisis, have suddenly started making non-trivial statements. Speaking at the State Duma on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin said that the Russian stock indices would continue to fall. The indices did fall, and a prompt investor even managed to buy all shares of Sberbank offered at the stock exchange for a very cheap price. Curiously enough, according to official Sberbank information, four of the bank's top managers have bought additional Sberbank stocks, taking advantage of the falling prices.
Last week one of the main Washington "hawks", Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Richard G. Lugar, summarised the main points of the energy confrontation between Russia and the West. His conclusions appear exceptionally flattering to Moscow, namely to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Speaking at Washington's National Defence University, Sen. Lugar stated that NATO, the U.S. and the EU failed to take on Russia's energy strategy in Europe. The Senator noted "Russia's unchecked movement toward becoming an energy supply monopoly" over Europe, calling this factor "one of the most damaging foreign policy developments of the post-Cold War era."
Share prices of the company you invested your money in, fell by 50% within a day. The following day they rallied 50%. Is everything all right? The answer to this question, which most russian economists have been asking since July 2008, is simple but nightmarish.
Prime Minster Vladimir Putin's black Labrador, Connie, is hooked up to satellites, specifically the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS). The GLONASS signal will completely cover all of Russia by the end of the year, while receiver-navigators will be readily available to anyone. Meanwhile Prime Minster Putin's Labrador, Connie, received a tracking collar containing a satellite-guided positioning receiver from Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov this week.
The work schedules of top leaders can be indicative and... instructive. For someone who carefully follows the sequence of their working visits and meetings it is easy to see what problems the country faces and how it may go about solving them.
NTV first appeared on the air at St Petersburg's Channel Five on October 10, 1993. On January 17, 1994, President Boris Yeltsin decreed that NTV overtake evening time on educational Channel Four. It received the entire channel on November 11, 1996. Many Russians think that the old NTV finished on April 14, 2001, and its heir has only one thing in common with it-the green globe emblem.
The Medvedev-Putin duo is losing the popularity acquired in September, Levada Centre pollsters found during their latest survey. They suggest that the euphoria following the "short victorious war" with Georgia has died down.
The financial crisis, which has struck the world and affected Russia, has been covered by Russia's state-owned media and the privately-owned media favoured by the Government in an extremely biased manner. On the one hand, the crisis is in the air, but on the other hand, there seems to be no crisis at all. TV news broadcasts permanently assert that the crisis has delivered another blow to the U.S., EU, and other countries' financial systems, and what measures those countries' governments have undertaken to rectify the situation.
Russia's Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova reported to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on social benefits for disabled persons. Last May, President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on social benefits for disabled persons giving them a choice of receiving a car or a 100,000 rouble compensation in cash.
The Government's financial aid to Russian mothers bore tangible fruit this year. By the end of the year 1.7 million babies will be born in Russia, the birth rate is up 10%, the Social Insurance Fund announced yesterday. One contributing factor was last year's introduction of a programme of maternity certificates and the allocation of "mother's capital" at the birth of a second child. Financial market problems should not affect the birth rate dynamics in the country. This was the objective Prime Minister Vladimir Putin set for the Minister of Health and Social Development, Tatyana Golikova, yesterday. The Minister had some good news for the Premier.
Before the week is out, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin may sign a resolution on the criteria for state investments in Russian shares and bonds. The first money could reach the market within a week's time.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a government meeting on ensuring fuel supplies to electric power industry facilities. Mr Putin ordered the Energy Ministry and Russian Railways (RZD) to develop monthly schedules for fuel delivery to electric power plants.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with the former Minister for Regional Development Dmitry Kozak (he has since been appointed to a new position; see article on page 7) and Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin. Mr Putin instructed the Ministers to urgently allocate an additional 50 billion roubles from the Housing and Utilities Fund (HUF) to support the construction industry. "The most important goal for HUF is to support the elimination of the housing stock unfit for living. Under the current circumstances, it is necessary to rapidly allocate extra subsidies for the Russian constituent entities to buy housing for resettlement of people from apartment buildings unfit for living," Mr Putin said.
The grandiose preparatory work for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi now has a manager. Yesterday saw another sharp turn in the career of Dmitry Kozak, the Minister of Regional Development and one of the people closest to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He has been appointed Deputy Prime Minister "in charge of the Olympics". In the morning President Dmitry Medvedev conferred with Mr Putin shortly before the meeting of the State Council for Sports. They decided that a Government member should be put in charge of implementing the Olympic dream. "If you recall the 1980 Olympics, a Deputy Prime Minister was in charge of these issues," the President said.
Mr Putin began his cabinet meeting with preparations for heating season in the regions with a thorough questioning of ministers on all sorts of subjects. The discussion first turned to things not connected with winter preparations.
Of course, crisis is to blame for everything. The dishes coming out of the political kitchen have an increasingly strange taste. Last week we were presented with two dishes. As the first course, Dmitry Medvedev addressing a conference on world politics at Evian (France) lamented the unipolarity of the world which he saw as the root of all evil. The second course was the suggestion that Putin was overstaying his welcome in the Prime Minister's seat and that a search was underway for a new candidate for Premier. We have asked political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky to comment.
The funds earmarked by the Government for Russian companies and banks to repay their foreign debts will hardly be enough for all those wishing to use them. By now, Vnesheconombank (VEB) which, by the Government's decision, will help borrowers repay their debts, has received applications for a total amount exceeding the declared limit of $50 billion, said Vladimir Dmitriyev, VEB's head, on October 13. According to him, the Government is not planning to increase this amount, despite increased demand for funds. A special meeting of VEB's supervisory board, held on October 13, endorsed the criteria to be used in granting loans to Russian companies.
On October 13, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a package of new laws. On the basis of these laws and the government's decisions, the Cabinet of Ministers will switch over from support of the banking system to direct financing of the "most important," or, as we call them here, strategic companies. The state is unprecedentedly boosting its role in regulating the market, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin does not seem to be afraid of this. In criticising the United States for the umpteenth time, he said recently that during the crisis, governments in all countries without exception returned to state regulation of the economy. He neglected to mention, however, what this often leads to.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia's Vnesheconombank (the state Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs) would be the government's agent in placing state money in Russian stocks and bonds this week. There are plans to invest up to 250 billion roubles of state funds before year's end, which, as analysts say, should be enough to stabilize the struggling market. The government said it was also considering investing part of the pension savings to revive the market.
President of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov renamed Victory Prospekt in Grozny into Putin Prospekt in time for the Russian Prime Minister's birthday. Putin admitted that he "does not particularly like" such renaming.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in accordance with the tradition formed during his presidency, will conduct a live televised question-and-answer session with the people following the United Russia conference in November. The public reception offices of the Prime Minister will help organise the event, and have already begun collecting questions for the party leader.
Saturday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the "Golden Autumn" exhibition at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre (VVTs), where he was educated in the problems of tractor and other agricultural equipment producers. Kommersant special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov noticed that the Prime Minister deliberately avoided the word "crisis".
On Friday, the Government of Russia approved the purchase of two strategic companies by foreign investors. Diamond giant De Beers will acquire a 49.99% stake in a diamond subsidiary controlled by oil giant LUKoil, and World's Wings of Switzerland will buy a 25% blocking stake in Sukhoi Civil Aircraft.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday visited the country's largest exhibition of agricultural achievements "The Golden Autumn", which is held annually at the All-Russian Exhibition Centre by the Ministry of Agriculture with support from the Moscow Mayor's Office. The exhibition opened two hours before Mr Putin's arrival. Farmers, businessmen and producers of agricultural equipment were the first to arrive at the brand-new pavilion. They discussed methods of increasing the milk and crop yield, and who was planning to buy new equipment, where they were planning to buy it and how many machines they needed, as well as the advantages of Russian and foreign equipment.
The government will fully guarantee individual bank deposits under 700,000 roubles, and will provide 10-year subordinated loans to reliable banks at 8% interest rate.
On Thursday, journalists from the Prime Minister's pool were told they would see something special at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence: Vladimir Putin was going to share "a pleasant surprise" with them, one that was "not related to economy." No one knew what to expect, and there was a lot of guesswork about it. The most popular version was that Labrador Retriever Connie had birthed a litter of puppies. Members of the Prime Minister's circle cut it short, however, saying, "You've almost got it, but you haven't guessed right yet."
The 77th session of the International Criminal Police Organization's General Assembly opened in St Petersburg on October 7 - the first session of the assembly held in Russia. Officials from the interior ministries of 185 countries - members of Interpol, the UN, European Union, and other international organisations - took part in the session.
As is his tradition, Vladimir Putin marked his 56th birthday in his native St Petersburg - but he did not rest on that day. "This is a personal holiday, and Tuesday is a workday," Putin said at one of the meetings he addressed. "We must each plough our own furrow every day, like St Francis."
Vladimir Putin arrived in St Petersburg late on Monday night, a couple of hours before his birthday. The presentation of the film "Let's Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin" began at the Konstantinovsky Palace, right after midnight on Tuesday on the Prime Minister's birthday. "Shall we say that we have gathered too early or too late?" Putin asked the assembled guests.
Vladimir Putin turned 56 yesterday. He spent his birthday in his native St Petersburg and started his birthday party shortly after midnight, though he admitted that he was born in the early hours of the morning. He had spent a very busy day launching a film about judo, visiting the Trade Union Humanitarian University and a film studio, and then talking with Interpol.
The pension reform talked about by Kremlin officials for years has failed miserably. Since its inception, the Pension Fund budget has been increasingly unable to make both ends meet. Addressing a monthly Government meeting, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin outlined a new pension system.
On October 6, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew to Minsk and attended a regular meeting of the Union State's Council of Ministers at Zaslavl residence near the Belarusian capital. On his way to the meeting, Putin negotiated with President Alexander Lukashenko at the republican Presidential Administration.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered to create a "currency pool" with Belarus, its partner in the Union State, and use the Russian rouble in energy trade with Russia at least as long as the financial markets remained jittery. The idea is, in effect, to peg the Belarusian rouble to the Russian rouble. But, as with the adoption of the Russian rouble, Belarus will still have to change its budget policy if it joins the pool.
Belarus will not bargain away its friendship with Russia. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was trying to reassure Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday. The rest of the negotiations lacked concrete substance.
I recall how Russians were stunned early on in Putin's presidency when he used the expression "we'll waste them in the shithouse." It signalled the start of the invasion of street slang into Russian political vocabulary. Encouraged by the popular masses, the President made a point of peppering his speech with vernacular expressions. He did not care whether he was addressing home or foreign audiences: let the translators figure it out. The translators struggled indeed. They tried to fit his Russian vernacular into the framework of Western political correctness. The result was lamentable, with Putin triumphing over political correctness.
His working visit was packed: first, he had a conversation with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and then held extended two-way negotiations. In the evening, he chaired a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Russia-Belarus Union State.
"This is not about the negligence of individuals, it is about the negligence of the whole system. A system that is incapable of providing leadership and even making absolutely vital decisions to overcome crisis phenomena." Prime Minister Vladimir Putin thus squarely and bluntly put all the blame for the storm in the world economy on Washington. But while "the house that Bush built" is no good, what about the house that Putin built? Pampered by sky-high oil prices and an upturn in the world economy, the political and economic system created by Putin appeared to be relatively effective. But will it be as competitive when the world is heading for trouble?
Last week marked a landmark of sorts: Vladimir Putin has now been Prime Minister for exactly the same period as his first premiership in 1999. This prompted Vlast to compare the two premiers' track records. It found that the Putin of 1999 was far more active than the Putin of 2008, but had shown rather less interest in the domestic economy.
Starting January 1, 2010, the president of an oil company with a monthly salary of 100 million roubles will cost this company the same price as a cafeteria worker with a salary of 35,000 roubles. "We did it to prevent people with low or average salaries from getting the future pension payments of people with high salaries," Vladimir Putin said.
To date, there has been only one street named after Vladimir Putin. One of the two streets in the village of Olgeti in Ingushetia was named after Russia's second President on October 5, 2002. Reportedly, the local people had themselves asked that the street be named after the President "as a token of gratitude to the authorities for assistance in the reconstruction of the village, which was destroyed in a mud slide".
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had to fly to Moscow for talks on gas prices with Vladimir Putin aboard an eight-seat Cessna aircraft because President Viktor Yushchenko had taken her plane.
