Translated material
Taming the recession
Vladimir Putin reported to deputies on the successes of his government
Yesterday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for the second time during his premiership spoke at a plenary meeting of the State Duma with an annual report on the results of government activities. For an hour and a half, he told deputies about what the cabinet of ministers had done in the crisis year of 2009, said that the Russian economy had emerged from recession, and also shared the cabinet’s plans for the near future. After this, the deputies asked the head of government questions, shared concerns, and complained about individual ministers and governors. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, the prime minister's comrade-in-arms in the United Russia party, was especially hard hit. The prime minister did not defend Mr. Luzhkov from parliamentary criticism.“It is important for all of us, both the government and those present in this room, to pursue a responsible financial and economic policy, so as not to go with an outstretched hand to anyone, losing economic and then political sovereignty,” Mr. Putin said. He recalled that the Russian government did not carry out sequestration - a frontal cut of all budget items. “We chose a different path. In fact, we maintained the planned budget volume... Moreover, budget expenses increased by 27.3%, while revenues, on the contrary, fell by 20.9%. 50% of the budget was allocated to wages and social benefits... We prevented the destruction of the real sector and the financial system, and did not allow the population’s income to decline,” the prime minister continued to describe to deputies the achievements of his government.
At the same time, Mr. Putin self-critically admitted that wages in certain sectors have been frozen. But overall the situation looks optimistic. “On average, citizens’ incomes even increased slightly in 2009 – by 2.3%. At the expense of state employees and pensioners, and not at the expense of the oligarchs, who have become a little impoverished,” the prime minister said.
Vladimir Putin promised that the government will continue to take targeted anti-crisis measures, as it did with support for the Russian automobile industry or the housing market.
He drew the deputies’ attention to such positive indicators of the country’s development as an increase in the birth rate and a decrease in mortality: “In 2009, 1 million 763 thousand children were born, which is 50 thousand more than the previous year. At the same time, the mortality rate decreased by 3% and the average life expectancy of Russians increased.” According to the head of the cabinet, by 2015 the government intends to increase the average life expectancy in the country to 71 years.
The prime minister also remembered his own presidency, talking about his “brainchild” - “maternity capital”. “I came up with this name myself,” Mr. Putin clarified. According to him, there are many proposals from citizens to expand the scope of application of maternity capital. As a result, the government came to the decision to allow the use of maternity capital for the construction of individual housing. Vladimir Putin explained that initially the restrictions “were intended to ensure the interests of the woman so that this money would not be stolen.”
According to the prime minister, Russia was the only country that, during the crisis, decided to significantly increase pensions. Their growth in 2009 was 10.7%. “In Russia there are no longer pensioners who live below the official poverty line. Of course, this does not mean that they have become rich, we must continue to work to improve their standard of living,” Mr. Putin said. And he promised that in the fall the government would consider increasing the salaries of public sector employees and benefits for military personnel.
The head of government also assessed the situation in the defense-industrial complex positively, noting that here, too, gloomy expectations were not justified. According to him, production volumes in the defense industry in 2009 increased by 13%.
The Prime Minister confirmed his already expressed point of view that it is too early for Russia to switch to a progressive scale of income tax, which at least two of the four Duma factions - the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia - so want.
The head of government responded to those opponents who often criticize the government’s anti-crisis program for, in their opinion, excessively pumping money into the banking sector: “It was necessary to protect depositors and prevent a collapse in lending to the real sector. Nothing was given away for free. Everything is in the form of loans. Many of them have already been returned to the state. Moreover, the treasury has also earned money.”
Mr. Putin said he considered it inappropriate to abandon plans for a planned increase in insurance premiums from January 1, 2010, which replaced the unified social tax. He recalled that the government had already “made a pause for business.” “Now there are arguments that increasing the rate of insurance contributions to the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund from 3.1 to 5.1% will be a big burden. Of course, this is a serious argument, but I am sure that there is no need to abandon this,” the prime minister believes. Meanwhile, even Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who usually takes a tough position on tax issues, proposed not to increase the amount of insurance contributions to the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund in 2011.
Among the tasks for the next two years, Vladimir Putin named returning the economy to the path of sustainable growth, supporting innovation, and the high-quality development of human-oriented industries. “We cannot afford to live with a permanent budget deficit of 6%. By 2012, the deficit should be reduced to 3%, and in the future it is necessary to return to a deficit-free budget and accumulate,” the prime minister believes. He sees a way out in a radical increase in the efficiency of budget expenditures. According to Mr. Putin, we now have a lot of parallel expenses for the same purposes, which are not controlled by the relevant departments.
The head of government announced to deputies that “the recession in our economy is over” and it’s time to move “from crisis management to sustainable innovative development.”
After which the Duma moved on to questions and speeches from factions. Oleg Smolin from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation warned the prime minister against the upcoming reform of budgetary institutions, which provides for their division into two types - state-owned and budgetary ones. The latter will be transferred from estimates to government orders and will receive the right to provide paid services with the funds received fully included in their own budget. The parliamentarian, citing expert opinions, said that the reform would lead to a reduction in free education and an increase in corruption and would be comparable in its harmful power to monetization and voucher privatization. In response, Mr. Putin referred to the opinions of other experts who, on the contrary, believe that thanks to the reform, free services will not disappear, but “the basis for corruption will be reduced,” since the institutions themselves “will receive more rights, will manage their resources independently, before our eyes.” workforce, and the cost structure will not be imposed by officials.”
The leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennady Zyuganov, expressed the opinion that the crisis gave the last decade, during which the course of the country's development was determined by Mr. Putin, an unsatisfactory assessment. He also referred to the words of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that the country had reached a dead end and modernization was needed. After this, Comrade Zyuganov moved on to criticize individual ministers. “No one in the army pronounces the name of the Minister of Defense without swearing,” said the main communist and demanded that Anatoly Serdyukov resign. Traditionally, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin got it from Zyuganov.
The leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation handed over to the prime minister the program of socialist modernization developed by the communists and invited him to familiarize himself with it. Mr. Putin, as it turns out, has already become familiar with it. “You propose to freeze prices. But the next step is to close the country. Are we ready for this? - the prime minister asked rhetorically. — We achieved a lot in Soviet times. I don’t belong to that category of people who criticize everything. I returned the anthem of the USSR as the anthem of the Russian Federation. But let’s face the facts: the economic model turned out to be ineffective.”
LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky used the platform to denounce the Moscow authorities and proposed dismissing the mayor of the capital, Yuri Luzhkov. “He himself will never write a statement,” suggested Mr. Zhirinovsky. At the same time, he was shaking a folder of incriminating evidence on the topic that Mr. Luzhkov allegedly sold a large and strategically important plot of land in the city center to foreign entrepreneurs. The parliamentarian argued that Mr. Luzhkov wants to “give the fattest pieces abroad.” United Russia members, unable to withstand the oratorical pressure of the LDPR leader, stamped their feet and pounded their fists on the tables.
“Colleagues here criticized Moscow very strongly. True, we are not discussing Moscow today. It was said that this is a very corrupt (Moscow - Ed. ) government, that they stole everything. And then Vladimir Volfovich said that Luzhkov wants to pay for border, the fattest pieces. Why does Luzhkov want to give the fattest pieces? Can you imagine that Luzhkov wanted to give the fattest pieces to someone abroad? - Mr. Putin asked, causing laughter in the room. “I think that Vladimir Volfovich is mistaken,” the prime minister added with a smile.
As a result, the Duma took note of the government report and information from the Central Bank on anti-crisis measures for 2009.