Governor Zhilkin told Mr Putin about a newly completed music theatre, as well as other cultural projects in Astrakhan. They also reviewed the region’s half-year performance in agriculture and housing construction. Additionally, they focused particular attention on programmes for modernising healthcare and education, emphasising the need to raise school teachers’ pay.

“I am confident that we are capable of reaching $60-$70 billion a year in foreign direct investment and achieving a positive balance between capital inflow and outflow in general.”

“The Popular Front was established for the exact purpose of uniting people of different faiths and ethnicities so as to be able to identify the problems that are facing us and come up with the best ways to address them in an open and honest discussion.”

Vladimir Putin and Vitaly Savelyev discussed the results of the airline’s performance in January-June 2011, short-term prospects and the renovation of its air fleet. They focused particularly on better consumer service.

Putin and Morozov talked about the region’s performance in the first six months of 2011, highlighting agriculture, housing and utilities, as well as modernisation of healthcare and education. The prime minister pointed out the need to raise teachers’ salaries to the country’s average.

The prime minister and the governor discussed the performance of the Chelyabinsk Region in the first half of the year. Particular attention was paid to housing construction, problems with housing and utilities, and agriculture. They also discussed the modernisation of the healthcare system, the state of rural roads, courtyard beautification, and the situation with kindergartens in the region.