Translated material
Mass therapy session
Vladimir Putin spent three hours in direct communication with Russians
The Russians demonstrated almost complete apoliticality during the next session of live television communication with Vladimir Putin. Yesterday, the President of Russia for almost three hours from a specially equipped studio in the Kremlin answered questions that he was asked live from ten settlements where mobile television stations were installed (from Nakhodka in the Far East to Baltiysk in the Kaliningrad region), by telephone or transmitted via the Internet. This was already the fifth such session; Putin began the practice of such communication in December 2001.Russia's presidency of the G8, prospects for joining the WTO, relations with the United States, party building and the role of the opposition, prospects for Putin's successors - even if questions on these topics were among the more than two million asked, they were not broadcast live. The topic of relations between government and business did not arise, although the conversation took place exactly three years after the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Putin answered questions about Georgia at length and in detail, and without answering a direct question about the admission of Abkhazia to Russia, he made it clear that he did not support this idea. He firmly condemned the manifestations of neo-fascism and nationalism. Explained his recent comments regarding Israeli President Moshe Katsav (journalists are to blame). “I warned” the Sistema corporation, which plans to use the territory of the St. Petersburg Stage Veterans’ House, which is a cultural monument of federal significance, for commercial development. As Commander-in-Chief, he instructed the Baltic Fleet to participate in the construction of the North European Gas Pipeline (three hours later, the acting fleet commander, Vice Admiral Vasily Apanovich, reported that the Baltic Fleet was ready to “solve problems of an environmental, economic and technical nature that will arise for the builders of the submarine gas pipeline").
But, perhaps, the main thing is that the Kremlin did not gloss over the painful topic of interethnic conflicts based on migration. On the contrary, one of the ten mobile television stations was placed in Kondopoga, the Karelian city where pogroms against Caucasian migrants took place a month and a half ago. There were even two points installed where citizens could ask questions to the president, in the city center and on the territory of the largest enterprise - the pulp and paper mill. True, some of the authors of these questions (in total, four Kondopoga residents managed to talk to the president) emphasized that they were “indigenous.”
The director of the House of Creativity for Children and Youth, Tatyana Konashkova, a “native condo woman,” posed the question directly. “You know very well what happened in our city, people died, and the local government demonstrated its insolvency,” she told Putin. “Do we really need such power, and what should we, ordinary residents, do in this situation, when the local government cannot protect us, and it is very weak today?”
The answer sounded discouraging. The head of Karelia, Sergei Katanandov, turned out to be the second person, after former Prosecutor General Ustinov, whom President Putin “could not reach.” “Unfortunately, I tried several times to contact your leader, the chairman of the government of Karelia - he is on a plane, now on vacation, but we will talk to him about this in the most serious way,” the head of state told Ms. Konashkova. At the same time, as you know, it was on the proposal of Vladimir Putin that Sergei Katanandov was vested with the powers of governor for another term at the beginning of this year. Whether the fact that the “subscriber is unavailable” means that he has lost confidence on the part of the president remains unclear. But Mr. Putin recommended that residents of Kondopoga take more seriously those for whom they vote. “Residents of the city, as well as other municipalities of the country, I ask you to pay close attention when you vote for those people who claim to head certain government and management bodies in the municipalities,” he said. noting that weak power is “of course not needed.”
In this sense, it is noteworthy that in yesterday’s speech by Vladimir Putin a new note appeared - the finite administrative resource of presidential power. The head of state, speaking about his instructions to the government, twice with special emphasis uttered the words “I will achieve it.” From which it followed that one command is not enough - the president will actually have to achieve the implementation of these instructions. In one case, the discussion was about the development of documents regulating the access of agricultural producers to trade in markets without resellers (“These markets were not created to sell highly processed products, smoked sausages, and so on, which are still unknown in what conditions they are produced , not so that things brought from the People’s Republic of China are traded there. But all this is also happening,” Putin explained.) In the second case, the president promised to ensure that at the beginning of 2008 (that is, before leaving his post). ) obtain from the government export duty rates on round timber for 2009. However, the history of the issue shows that Putin is truly powerless here. “Five or six years ago, I set the government the task of changing the situation in the industry (timber - Ed. ). There are changes, but they are very minor, and this worries me,” he admitted, explaining that all these years the government has been following the lead of industry lobbyists, who benefit from exporting round timber instead of processing timber in the country.
Finally, another situation where Putin admitted the powerlessness of the authorities is the summer crisis in the alcohol market provoked by government actions. “The highest-ranking officials turned out to be unprepared, did not take into account all the problems and the full scale of the work they were faced with, and did not take proper measures to restore order in a timely manner,” he said, answering a question from a housewife from the Rostov region. - And the Prime Minister paid great attention to this issue. Moreover, I’ll tell you in confidence, even if it’s for the whole country: I tried to find the culprits and punish them. In my opinion, I was never able to do this, because no one wants to be responsible for unprepared decisions.”
With all this, Vladimir Putin likes such difficult work, where no one wants to be responsible for unprepared decisions. And he plans to use the trust he has won among Russians even after leaving the presidency. “Arkady, I think that everything will be fine, I’m even sure of it,” he reassured the driver from the village of Podgorodnyaya Pokrovka in the Orenburg region, who burst out with a cry from the soul: “What will happen to us and to the country after 2008?” Even after losing the levers of power, Putin expressed hope, he will be able to maintain the trust of Russians. “And using this, you and I will be able to influence life in our country and ensure its development in a progressive manner in order to influence what is happening in Russia,” he concluded.
Later, answering questions from journalists, he admitted that the opinion that for Russians (and this was demonstrated by a straight line) is “partly” true is that all politics is concentrated in one person - Vladimir Putin. “That’s why I always try to clarify my position on the 2008 issue,” he said, meaning that the political system must operate in his absence.
As for the person who, in Putin’s opinion, will be worthy of taking his place at the center of this system, he is not yet ready to name his name, the president told reporters. “But, of course, I, like any citizen of Russia, reserve the right to choose when voting and do not believe that I should limit my right to speak out in the media. The time will come, and I will say about it,” he promised.