Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: I'm listening.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: I will describe the situation in brief. I must say that the Federal Security Service, Interior Ministry and other federal bodies have done a lot of work. They have managed to reduce the crime rate substantially. According to the prosecutor's office, they have made the most progress in reducing the rate of major crime. And of course we would like these operations on eliminating separate gangs to be the final ones.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, I heard about it.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: In terms of the economy, federally targeted programme funds have started to come in partially.
Vladimir Putin: How much money have you received?
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: There must be 11 billion roubles. Some 258 million have already been allocated by the public utilities services. In late July or early August the money from the Ministry of Regional Development, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Agriculture will be allocated as well. Thus we are planning on the full amount. There have been no major disruptions so far, we only have some questions about the documentation.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, I have already spoken about this at our combined meeting, I will tell my colleagues to help you prepare the documents in a proper and timely manner. We cannot proceed without them.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: Exactly. But what was the problem? Last year we sent the documentation along with our request, but we got no money. We have only started to get it. This year some 318 million roubles have been allocated for the documentation and all the federally targeted programmes.
Vladimir Putin: What is the top priority of the programme?
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: Industrial production. We are building infrastructure, parks and sites investor use.
Vladimir Putin: You mean the preparation of sites for industrial development?
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: Yes, plus the preparation of documents for a hospital, which must be built there, a school and units of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Vladimir Putin: I studied the issue, this woman spoke about.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: The perinatal centre.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, the perinatal centre. It is an expensive project, we will need another two billion Roubles. Of course we need to consider the needs of the region, the city and the suburbs. We need to weigh it, maybe even adjust the project a little bit.
And actually the religious leaders' proposals to increase the traditional bride price seem interesting to me.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: Yes, the bride price.
Vladimir Putin: From 12,500 to 30,000 roubles due to the inflation, they said.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: Inflation, right.
Vladimir Putin: Let me remind you that, the inflation rate in the Russian Federation stands at about six percent annually. Thus increasing the bride price from 12,500 to 30,000 exceeds inflation estimates. And we do not need to provoke inflation. And to be clear, the bride price tradition is not exactly an Islamic tradition. We need to examine this more carefully.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: Yes, but that is the point... It is good that we held the Muslim conference, the first one in five years. We discussed some interesting questions. It was the public who decided to increase the bride price, not us. And the money from the bride price will not end up in somebody else's pocket; it will go to families - to buy clothes for a bride and things for children.
Vladimir Putin: It is clear. Families with girls in them probably benefit from it. It is a tool for supporting young families.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: Blood feud topped the agenda during the conference. We have managed to reconcile some 150 families over the last two years. We have done a lot in this area.
We increased the rate to 1 million roubles, because homicide has many consequences. But these crimes were committed knowing the rate was a paltry 100,000 roubles. And now that the rate has been increased, people think twice before committing the crime.
Then again, when somebody does something intentionally, the family will not protect him further. This step is an educational one, a preventive measure.
Vladimir Putin: Of course it is better to avoid all these...
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: It is preferable. We discussed how to abide by the law...
Vladimir Putin: How to change to a modern way of settling disputes, and these crimes should be avoided regardless.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: Naturally. We insist on this and we want all matters to be settled according to the law. However we realize that we will not be able to put an end to it today.
Vladimir Putin: And has the birth rate really started to drop in Ingushetia?
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: No, to the contrary. The birth rate is growing. The woman spoke about the five-year death rate analysis, while the birth rate has increased in fact.
Vladimir Putin: The birth rate has increased and the population is obviously growing. She must have formulated it inaccurately. But the death rate is high.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: She emphasised the death rate.
Vladimir Putin: The death rate is high, that's true.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: And speaking about the perinatal centre, Mr Putin! We have discussed the issue, we need some 1.13 billion roubles.
Vladimir Putin: For the perinatal centre?
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: Exactly. That is the first point. Second. We have told the Ministry of Healthcare that we need not a huge amount of money but to have at least enough money to build this facility in order to bring up our children with a decent quality of life. Many people at the ministries forget (and it is understandable, they don't have to think about Ingushetia constantly) that Ingushetia does not have the infrastructure many other jurisdictions have.
Vladimir Putin: We will definitely examine it.