to veterans, plenipotentiaries, ministers and governors

Dmitry Medvedev yesterday showed the power vertical an example of how to take into account the opinions of citizens in their work. First, the president met with veterans of the Great Patriotic War to hear their wishes on both social security issues and preparations for the holiday, and then discussed the same topics at a meeting of the Victory organizing committee, giving instructions to ministers and governors.

Speaking at a meeting of the organizing committee, Mr. Medvedev said that “we now have a time when the state has the opportunity, and most importantly, has the political will to repay its debts.” But, as it turned out, both during the conversation with veterans and during the meeting of the organizing committee, the circle of those to whom the state owes money has not yet been fully determined.

One of the veterans asked to equate home front workers with front-line veterans. Dmitry Medvedev noted that it would not be possible to completely equate things - “after all, the front is the front,” but still instructed the government to think about how to improve the situation of home front workers.

During the meeting of the organizing committee, the topic of home front workers was raised again. Minister of Health and Social Development Tatyana Golikova recalled that the subjects of the federation have the right to independently determine whether or not they accept testimony when recognizing the corresponding status for citizens. As a result, according to Ms. Golikova, in a number of regions, witness statements are not accepted, so people cannot obtain home front veterans’ certificates and enjoy the benefits they are entitled to. “In our country, much less serious circumstances are often confirmed by testimony,” Dmitry Medvedev noted with regret and recommended that the heads of regions and his plenipotentiary representatives in the federal districts “orient the relevant practice in the regions so that this kind of information can be confirmed by testimony.” Mrs. Golikova agreed with this and called on the regions to do this “as soon as possible.”

At a meeting with veterans, the president, speaking about providing them with housing, admitted: “The fact that the state did not do this earlier (did not provide veterans of the Great Patriotic War with housing - Kommersant ) is the problem of the state itself and those who made the decisions. It's on their conscience." At the meeting of the organizing committee, special attention was paid to the housing issue. Mr. Medvedev recalled that according to the original plan, veterans had to submit documents for housing before March 1, 2005. However, documents were submitted after this date, and there are now more than 50 thousand people. “The more such veterans, the better,” the president said and sternly warned. “So that I no longer hear the words “unfortunately” about the fact that the number of these veterans is increasing.” Let us recall that at the previous meeting on the provision of housing for veterans, Minister of Regional Development Viktor Basargin reported to the president that “unfortunately, the number of veterans applying is increasing and increasing.” Yesterday, the President reiterated that the more veterans who apply, the better. Volgograd Governor Anatoly Brovko immediately got his bearings and, reporting on the provision of housing for veterans in the region, said that “fortunately” (specially focusing on this word) their number is increasing. As a result, Mr. Medvedev instructed governors to help veterans collect documents to obtain housing.

However, this is not the only task that governors have to solve. Tatyana Golikova complained to the president that in some regions the provision of medicines to veterans is not very good, although money from the federal budget for these purposes was transferred to the regions immediately after January 1. The minister included Karelia, Nizhny Novgorod, Smolensk, Astrakhan, Vladimir regions, Khabarovsk Territory and Karachay-Cherkessia among such regions. Here Dmitry Medvedev became angry, not so much with the heads of these regions, but with the plenipotentiaries. “I see that the plenipotentiary representatives did not really write down in which regions things were not going very well. Now, come up later and talk to the minister, get a list of regions from the minister,” the president instructed.

In addition, following a conversation with veterans, Dmitry Medvedev made a number of instructions related to “military memorial work.” “I just met with veterans, they, naturally, very much asked to continue this work, to be very attentive to the monuments,” Dmitry Medvedev told the Pobeda organizing committee, noting that “responsibility for this lies with the regions and local governments ".

Yesterday, Mr. Medvedev ordered the allocation of permanent funding to maintain the Mamayev Kurgan memorial in good condition, and to draw up a list of monuments requiring immediate repair and restoration. Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was also instructed to install models of tanks that participated in these battles on the territory of the Battle of Stalingrad panorama museum in Volgograd. In addition, Dmitry Medvedev awarded the titles of cities of military glory to Volokolamsk, Bryansk, Nalchik, Vyborg and Kalach-on-Don (Volgograd region).

Irina Granik, Volgograd

Dmitry Medvedev came ahead of the holiday