Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that the United Russia party must provide the link between the country’s citizens and the power structures. The Prime Minister, who is also Chairman of United Russia, was speaking at a meeting with the Party’s leaders.

During the talk the effectiveness of measures developed and implemented by the Government and the Central Bank in protecting the Russian banking system against the possible negative impact of the world financial crisis was noted.

Mr Zubkov also announced that the Government intended to implement a special five-year programme for the development of the dairy industry in Russia. The key elements of the programme, he said, must be the production and primary processing of milk on the basis of rural cooperation.

"We need to promote mass sports, which is what we have been doing in recent years consistently and will do in the near future. The juniors, many of them at least, will compete in Vancouver and later in Sochi in 2014. Of course, their fans will expect results, expect victories."