Working for the public

Vladimir Putin invited the public to discuss the government’s new anti-crisis plan

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin immediately responded to criticism from President Dmitry Medvedev, who yesterday morning reproached the cabinet for some slowness in supporting the real sector (in terms of providing state guarantees to strategic enterprises). Yesterday evening at his residence in Novo-Ogarevo, Mr. Putin held a meeting on economic issues. There, the prime minister and other meeting participants were presented not only with the adjusted budget, but also with the anti-crisis plan for the entire 2009. Mr Putin said that this document, together with a new version of the country's basic economic law, would be submitted to the State Duma for approval.

This in itself is clearly a new trend. Until now, the government has preferred to do without any help in its current activities, even from legislators. There are examples of the current step of Putin’s cabinet, when not a law, but an operational document will be submitted to the deputies and, in addition, as the prime minister himself stated, the “Anticrisis 2009” plan will be published in the media for wide expert and public discussion, recall in “desk practice” almost impossible.

It is difficult to say what efficiency will result from the broad anti-crisis debate announced yesterday by the Prime Minister. It seems that he himself has not yet undertaken to evaluate this. But he hopes that something good can still come out of this publicity. “I hope that there will be more constructive proposals,” the prime minister reassured, apparently, first of all, himself. And he made it clear that the Anti-Crisis 2009 plan is not a dogma at all, but a guide to action and will change depending on the global economic situation.

As for the adjusted budget for 2009, which must be approved first by the government at a meeting on Thursday, March 19, and then by the Duma, Mr. Putin was not verbose here. He mainly focused on anti-crisis amounts and measures of social support for citizens. The total volume of such funds, according to him, in 2009 will be about 1.5 trillion rubles. In addition, Mr. Putin said that he had signed a decree to subsidize air travel from the Far East. According to him, discount tickets are provided for residents of the Far East up to and including 23 years of age, as well as for people over 60 years of age. “From May 15 to September 16, Far Eastern residents will be able to take advantage of a seasonal 50 percent discount on air tickets for flights to Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Black Sea coast. Discounted tickets will be sold starting April 1,” the prime minister said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced in mid-February that the federal authorities will subsidize by 50% air tickets for flights to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sochi for pensioners and youth of the Far East from May 15 to September 15. In total, according to preliminary estimates of the Ministry of Transport, about 120 thousand people can take advantage of the benefits. All airlines operating regular flights to the Far East will provide the ministry with information on how many seats they can allocate for preferential transportation and at what price. Based on these data, the average ticket price will be determined. It is planned to spend 2.5 billion rubles on the program this year, and 5 billion rubles next year.

Vera KUZNETSOVA