Translated material
Putin's plans
The Presidents of Russia instructed the leadership of the State Duma
Both Russian presidents - the current Vladimir Putin and the elected but not yet inaugurated Dmitry Medvedev - met yesterday with the leaders of parliamentary factions and vice-speakers of the State Duma. They explained to deputies what they should do first and made it clear that no fundamental reform of the structure of government was expected.The current head of state appealed to the deputies with a request to develop laws for the implementation of the concept of Russia's development until 2020 already in the spring session. “As soon as possible, it is necessary to develop a clear plan for legislative activity for the near future, and the main emphasis should be on legislative support for the long-term plan for the country’s economic development until 2020,” said Vladimir Putin.
Mr. Putin noted that each of the areas of this plan requires the development of a whole package of legislative acts. He recalled that the government is already actively preparing all the documents and is working through them in working order. The current president called on the deputies to join this work, discuss all documents at the zero reading stage, and also show their own initiative, without waiting for proposals from the cabinet of ministers. “There has actually been a significant renewal of the highest authorities in the country, and now it is necessary to take a good working pace that corresponds to the scale and level of the tasks facing the country,” Mr. Putin said.
Going into detail, the president advised parliamentarians to adopt a law on co-financing voluntary pension savings as soon as possible. “The practical mechanisms of this system have been tested, and in order for our citizens to be able to take advantage of it this year, it is necessary to make changes and additions to the current federal legislation as soon as possible,” the head of state noted.
The pension topic was raised at the meeting by the head of the Duma faction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov, who recalled that in the USSR the average pension is 90 rubles. would correspond to today's 9 thousand, but now pensioners receive an average of 3-4 thousand rubles. “I consider improving the pension system one of the most important tasks for the near future. True, 90 rubles, which they received in Soviet times, do not correspond to 400 dollars. This is no more than 120-150 dollars. And even 90 rubles. “We couldn’t buy a damn thing,” Mr. Putin replied. “But this does not mean that we should not think about improving (the pension system); on the contrary, the replacement rate must not only be maintained, but also increased.” He emphasized that “all sectoral directions of modernization of the social sphere should be linked with each other and their ultimate goal should be the formation of a qualitatively new policy of social development.” “The key task is the adoption of a package of laws that improve the tax system. We are talking about reducing the tax burden on expenses in education, healthcare and pension insurance,” said the head of state.
The current president also called on the State Duma to pay special attention to the adoption of laws related to housing construction during the spring session. He is convinced that with such high growth rates in the construction sector, it is possible to solve the housing problem in the coming years.
Another eternal topic is the fight against corruption. “We have to complete work on bills that increase the transparency of the activities of the judiciary and government bodies, and therefore strengthen the protection of our citizens from possible abuses,” Mr. Putin said. Speaking about the development of small business, the President noted that it is necessary to move more boldly from permitting to notification procedures.
The President expressed his enthusiasm for the successes in solving demographic problems and urged “not to stop there.” LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky made a proposal to create “father’s capital” by analogy with mother’s in order to encourage men to improve the demographic situation. But the president did not agree with this approach. “I came up with the term “maternity capital” myself, and the idea itself belongs to me. I proceeded from the fact that women bear the main burden of giving birth and raising a child,” Mr. Putin explained to Mr. Zhirinovsky the nature of childbirth. At the same time, he agreed that “we need to think about how to support the institution of fatherhood.”
Suddenly, a discussion arose on the topic of administrative reform between the State Duma speaker, the leader of United Russia, Boris Gryzlov, and the elected president, Dmitry Medvedev. The speaker proposed reforming the management system by including federal agencies and services in the structure of ministries. He noted that the executive branch includes 85 government bodies (16 ministries, 33 agencies, 34 services and two committees). Mr. Gryzlov expressed the opinion that such a structure is cumbersome, that is, he actually stood in opposition to the administrative reform carried out under Vladimir Putin. At the same time, according to the State Duma speaker, some agencies do not fit into the structure in which they are located and are trying to pursue “policies that do not correspond to the one that was discussed.”
However, Mr. Medvedev, elected president to ensure continuity of policy, reminded Boris Gryzlov that “a complete abandonment of the principles that were laid down during the administrative reform four years ago would also be wrong.”
“If we return control functions to the ministries, then the ministries that issue regulatory material and determine industry policy will control themselves. And this is not very correct - control institutions should remain, Mr. Medvedev believes. “As to how many ministries, agencies and services are needed, that is a matter that requires further discussion.”
Dmitry Medvedev promised to conduct a constant and constructive dialogue “with all healthy political forces in society.” “Parliamentary parties play a major role in the development of the socio-economic mechanism in the country and the formation of the legislative landscape. Your ideas are the basis of such work, and the result is manifested in such areas... I would like to ask you for such meetings,” Mr. Medvedev told parliamentarians.
Considering that President Vladimir Putin met with the leadership of the State Duma and parliamentary factions regularly, it is unlikely that parliamentarians will dare to refuse the same meetings with President Dmitry Medvedev.
Putin met with Yavlinsky
The leader of the Yabloko party, Grigory Yavlinsky, at yesterday’s meeting with the current Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced the need to release from custody the chairman of the St. Petersburg branch of the party, Maxim Reznik. Putin, Mr. Yavlinsky said, “promised to look into it.”
“During the meeting, three topics were discussed in detail: economic policy, modernization of the Russian economy and property rights; about the political opposition in Russia; about the need to release Maxim Reznik from custody. The last time the Yabloko leader met with the head of state was on December 6, 2006,” the Yabloko press service reported.