Mr Putin and Mr Shmakov discussed the labour market in Russia, including the issue of creating gainful employment.

“We agree with our Belarusian colleagues that new steps are needed to expand the scope of our cooperation and support both trade between our two countries and joint projects that could stimulate the entirety of our countries’ economies.”

“It is vital that we continue joint efforts to ensure a decent living and social safety net for our citizens and develop our human capital. This is why we have prepared and approved the Concept for the Union State Social Development. Today we will analyse how its key provisions are being implemented.”

"Despite recessionary developments in the global economy, our relations continue to evolve. Moreover, the Belarusian share in the Russian foreign trade turnover has been increasing lately."

“Relations between Cyprus and the Russian Federation are based on long-standing traditions and continue to develop successfully. The legal base for cooperation between our countries is being strengthened. Quite recently, on October 8, the Government of the Russian Federation approved a protocol for an intergovernmental agreement that would protect capital investment. I think that the ratification of this agreement by both countries will make our economic cooperation even more transparent.”

The Council discussed the development of timber processing in the Volga and Urals federal districts. “Fifteen priority investment projects worth 23.6 billion roubles are being implemented for this purpose in these federal districts,” Zubkov said.

"The duty to prevent the pandemic will be mainly shifted to the regional authorities," emphasized Zubkov. "Regional authorities' short-term tasks include drawing up regional vaccination programmes differentiated by risk groups, which will be used in calculating the necessary volumes of pandemic influenza vaccines to be purchased and in providing pandemic influenza vaccine supplies, and working out the logistic plans for supplying pandemic vaccines to municipal medical institutions," said the First Deputy Prime Minister.

“Germany is Russia’s leading trade and economic partner. Last year, Russia-Germany trade exceeded $60 billion. This year it will be considerably smaller because of the crisis. However, I was pleased and even surprised to learn that in January through April German investment in the Russian economy grew 36%.”

The meeting focused on the reform of the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media.

“In the near future, the Government will approve a programme for organising the celebrations of the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Karelia,” said Mr Zubkov when opening the meeting.