Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Ladies and gentlemen,
You all know about the tragedy in the Kuznetsk Basin that occurred in the early morning of May 9. A government commission has been set up that will address issues of support to the families of the victims and injured survivors.
Let me remind you once again that we must do everything in our power to help these people, including resolving their housing problems, getting involved in the education of their children, providing financial support and loans, including mortgages, and once again assessing the technical condition of the coal mining industry.
Mr Zubkov, how is the government commission work going?
Viktor Zubkov: Mr Prime Minister, the commission has directed its constant focus on the disaster at the Raspadskaya mine. Search and rescue operations remain its principal duty, in keeping with the orders you gave in Mezhdurechensk.
Mr Prime Minister, you have seen the scale of destruction, and you know the difficult conditions rescuers are working in. Despite all, every effort has been made not to interrupt the work. Work continued through 11:00 last night.
By that time the situation in the mine had deteriorated sharply: numerous pockets of fire have been located, and the coal is burning. Methane concentration greatly exceeds all permissible limits, and there is a possibility of more explosions. A decision was made to suspend rescue operations. It will take a week, at the least, to extinguish the fire and disburse the methane, according to preliminary estimates. Relevant technical solutions have been found, including the injection of water and later a reagent (chloroflurocarbon), after which ventilators will be switched on.
The death toll for the disaster has reached 66. All bodies have been identified. The fates of 24 people remain unknown. There have been funerals for several of the dead, and the last of the 66 victims will be buried tomorrow.
Ninety-four survivors are receiving medical care. The six most severe cases are in Moscow hospitals. Everything necessary for treatment is available.
Financial assistance will come from federal and regional governments and the owners of the mine. Our commission is paying special attention to ensure that these commitments are fulfilled. The money is available, as we reported to you during the meeting in Mezhdurechensk.
Let me say again that the families of the deceased will receive one million roubles each, while every injured person will receive 400,000 or 200,000 roubles each, depending on the severity of the injury. The amount of regional aid has been determined, as well as financial assistance from the region to pay off any credit liabilities. The owners of the mine will give the family of every person killed in the mine a million roubles, plus the victim's average annual earnings to every family member materially dependent on the victim and three months' earnings to every family, which comes to another 910,000 roubles. In addition to this, families will receive another 140,000 roubles for the funeral, paid annual holidays for children under the age of 15 and education of children younger than 23, as well as funds to address housing issues. Every injured person is entitled to an allowance, the precise amount of which depends on the injury, plus paid annual holidays for children under the age of 15 to be paid by the owners of the mine.
The lists of those killed (I have already cited the death toll) and injured in the tragedy are being compiled. As soon as we get these lists, we will pass them on to the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development and the Ministry of Finance, and transfer the money to the region the same day. Not one day will be wasted.
However, every family has urgent problems. Appeals have come in from victims' families, which include 68 adults and 35 minors. Eight have applied for housing repairs, four for help with university enrolment and tuition fees, 26 for help with medical treatment and holidays, and five for employment assistance.
We will meet with every family to target the aid most effectively, and make relevant decisions.
The circumstances and causes of the disaster are being investigated. The investigation is hindered by the situation in the mine, which I have mentioned, so it is too early to discuss practical results. Mr Alexander Bastrykin, chairman of the Investigation Committee under the Procurator General's office of the Russian Federation, is permanently onsite. There are several theories as to what caused the explosion, and they are all being investigated, and so we are following through on all your instructions.
We are in daily communication with Governor Aman Tuleyev to resolve all issues. At the beginning of next week I will chair a videoconference of the government commission.
Vladimir Putin: Okay, Mr Zubkov. I'd like to ask you and all the members of the commission to thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding the tragedy and make timely technological and humanitarian decisions.
Let's continue our work.
I have approved the rules for granting federal budget subsidies to the enterprises in the timber processing industry. The resolution I signed quotes a sum of 650 million roubles. Mr Zubkov, how are you planning to manage this work?
Viktor Zubkov: I must say that this is a very important decision - to give 650 million roubles worth of subsidies to the timber processing industry. This is double the amount for 2008-2009. These subsidies will allow us to be reimbursed for part of the loans received in 2009-2010 for building up stocks of off-season timber, attract an additional loan of almost 11 billion roubles and procure an extra six million cubic meters of wood. We believe that these subsidies will also allow us to increase output by 24 billion roubles. This is an effective measure of stabilizing the operation of the timber industry, keeping our production capacities active and reducing the level of potential unemployment.
Implementation of this resolution will make it possible to increase federal budget revenues by 3.2 billion roubles. This is not simply aid to the timber industry - it will produce real revenue for the federal budget.
Vladimir Putin: Good. As you know, President Dmitry Medvedev recently paid a visit to Turkey. I think this visit was a great success, especially concerning the economy, including the energy industry. Obviously, the agreements on nuclear energy cooperation are the most advanced of all. Mr Sechin is the Russian co-chairman of the intergovernmental commission and I'd like to ask him to comment on these decisions and agreements so that we are all informed as to what has been achieved in this respect.
Igor Sechin: As per the president's directive, in recent years we have considerably stepped up cooperation with the Republic of Turkey. This is one of our most active partnerships.
During the visit, around 20 documents were signed, many of which are of a systemic nature, as you said - in particular, the raft of documents on cooperation in the energy sector.
For the first time, Russian nuclear power companies will have the opportunity to build four generating units at once. That decision was made for four construction sites, and the companies will not only provide design, construction and servicing of the fuel cycle; they will own the nuclear power plant. This is a unique solution, which was discussed during your visit in August 2009.
In the months leading up to the president's visit, we were able to agree on all the details and nuances of this work. We defined an economic arrangement for this company on issuing capacities on terms that are satisfactory to both the Turkish and Russian sides.
In addition, we discussed other issues related to our cooperation - including those in the gas sector. Corporate documents that are distinguished by their mutually beneficial and mutually acceptable nature were signed on the sidelines of this visit. The Turkish side approved the construction and implementation of the South Stream project. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan stated unequivocally that the project has Turkish support and that the necessary documents permitting construction in the Turkish economic zone would be issued in November 2010.
In addition, oil delivery issues and the implementation of the Samsun-Ceyhan project were discussed. The relevant documents for these projects have also been signed.
Vladimir Putin: And when will construction of the nuclear power plant begin? Have some kind of deadlines been set?
Igor Sechin: A construction contract defining all of the details and legal obligations of the parties should be signed very soon. Then construction will start. The first two generating units are to be completed within seven years.
Vladimir Putin: Outstanding, good. Thank you very much.
Mr Zhukov (addressing Alexander Zhukov), I asked you to focus on monitoring the prices of essential medicines. How is this work coming along, and what are the results?
Alexander Zhukov: Yes, Mr Putin, this work is being regularly carried out in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Monitoring is in progress on both prices of essential medicines and the completeness of the product range and other requirements defined by government regulations.
According to the latest information gathered between April 15 and May 10, which is after this issue was discussed, there have been 2,636 inspections in pharmacies in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Incidents of the sale of medicines at prices other than the registered prices were uncovered in 217 of these pharmacies - 8.2% of the total number of inspected pharmacies. They are in violation. And in 362 pharmacies, there were prices that were higher than maximum allowable rates. It should be said that there were considerably fewer such violations than at the outset, during the first week of inspections. Here the figure reached 50%. At the time, during the first inspections, prices were several times higher than maximum allowable rates.
Nevertheless, we issued 639 orders to remedy violations following the results of the monitoring and oversight operations. Information on 503 of the inspected pharmacies has been sent to licensing bodies, who will take the appropriate measures, in other words, revoke licences.
We forwarded materials on the inspection of 423 pharmacies to the general prosecutor's office.
We already have complete results on the monitoring of prices for the first quarter. Prices have fallen around 2% on average compared with prices on January 1, 2010.
Nevertheless, as we can see from the results of the inspections, there are still violations; therefore, we will continue with both monitoring and comprehensive inspections in all constituent entities.
Vladimir Putin: Good. Tell us a little bit about the labour market, please - the unemployment situation.
Alexander Zhukov: Since the end of February, the number of registered unemployed has been falling. In the period from May 5 to May 12, the number of registered unemployed fell by 23,817, and as of today stands at 2.122 million people, which is 160,000 less than the peak in February. Unemployment fell in 73 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
This is very important - there were also 600,000 fewer workers on "down time" by the fault of their administrations or on forced leave in this period. The total number of such workers fell by 55,000 and now stands at 972,000, while in the peak period, there were more than 1.6 million.
These are signs of potential. In other words, if people are being taken back, they return to full time work at those companies that were on "down time" or had forced leave. This is also an important indicator.
Programmes are being implemented in full in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Twenty-five billion roubles have been allocated for the implementation of regional programmes.
In addition, starting in December, monitoring of the situation in single-industry towns has been carried out particularly scrupulously. Based on the results of this monitoring, 140 single-industry towns where the unemployment situation is worse than the Russian average were identified. Therefore, we are offering these single industry towns part of the unspent funds for regional programmes - we have around seven billion roubles available. We will direct part of these funds - approximately 3.2 billion roubles - towards these single-industry towns and additional employment programmes.
First and foremost, these include programmes for the support and development of small and medium businesses; in other words, with starting one's own business - we feel that this is the way forward for single-industry towns. This entails sending people for re-training and temporary work. If we make such a decision, a total of around 120,000 additional people will be involved in these programs.
We believe that this is currently very important for single-industry towns - those that are in need. We will provide them with considerable support.
Vladimir Putin: Good, we'll see. Thank you. Let's talk about today's agenda now. Next week, negotiations are planned with Russia's partners in the customs union - Belarus and Kazakhstan. We must resolve the remaining issues so that the customs code can enter into force on July 1, 2010, as was planned in our joint work schedule.
We have already reached one of the key agreements, namely on the distribution of proceeds from import duties among the budgets of the member states of the Customs union. I believe that we were able to set a fair formula that accounts for the structure of the foreign trade relations of our three governments to the greatest possible degree.
Under the plan, Russia will receive 87.97% of the proceeds, while Belarus and Kazakhstan will get 4.7% and 7.33% respectively. As you can see, every decimal point matters here; after all, in the end, it is a matter of a considerable part of our revenue. Remember that even in the crisis year of 2009, duties added 467 billion roubles to the Russian state coffers. We must now approve the draft agreement on the procedure for the crediting and distribution of import duties and a number of other customs union documents, which will clear the way for their signing and subsequent ratification.
I would like to emphasise once more that establishing a customs union and, subsequently, a common economic space for Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan is a conscious and principled decision. We will strive for a reasoned integration that is as close as possible. This will include not only a unified customs territory, but common capital and labour markets, a unified transport system and much, much more. I am convinced that the establishment of a common economic space will spur economic development in Russia in a significant way. It offers additional opportunities for both individuals and businesses. They will essentially be able to freely choose where it is most convenient for them work, to carry out their plans and projects, and this means that the government must make a more concerted effort to improve the investment climate. And I'm sure that such competition will be to our advantage.
Another issue is the North Caucasus Federal District. We agreed upon extraordinary managerial authority for the presidential envoy and deputy prime minister when we adopted the resolutions on the parameters of the new federal district's operations. Alexander Khloponin will report on this today.