Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Fursenko, the first few days of the new academic year are now behind us. What is your assessment of the situation? It's more or less clear now. How ready are the regions for this work, do you think?

Andrei Fursenko: Mr Putin, first of all, it was a joint effort. Not to absolve any individual party of responsibility, but to emphasise that these were all joint commissions involving the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor) and the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief. In general, in our opinion, schools are better prepared than they were last year. This does not mean that they were all ready - repair work is still underway in a few schools, and transport was provided to take them to other schools so those kids could also start school on September 1. In general, the first days of the school year are progressing as normal, there are no emergencies, and conditions are essentially good. But there is still work to be done. We are now considering the financial state of the education system, but judging from the reports we received from the regions, it has all got off to a normal start.

Vladimir Putin: How was the beginning of the school year for those kids who lost their homes in the fires?

Andrei Fursenko: I was just going to talk about that. As you recall, schools were fortunately affected very little. In the Ryazan region, full educational provision has been made for two schools - children have not only been accommodated, but all the necessary conditions have been created, computers have been installed, classrooms were set up in the Forestry Administration building, which had escaped fire-damage, so all conditions have been met. The same goes for the other regions. Ministry employees have visited almost every region affected by the fires. That was one of the main issues. The children have been provided with textbooks and everything they need for their studies, and schools have also been provided with everything that they require. I would therefore like to report back on the implementation of another one of your directives. When you travelled from the Russian Far East to central Russia, you dropped in on a town in the Chita region...

Vladimir Putin: Aksenovo-Zilovskoye.

Andrei Fursenko: One of our members of staff visited that town. There are two schools there that are not in a very good condition, although the educational process seems well organised. First, in accordance with your request, we will soon resolve the issue of supplying them with up-to-date computers, because although they have 20 computers, most are very old, and some can not even access the internet. In addition, there is an opportunity to somewhat reorganise where children there study, enabling one school to provide preschool classes, because about 40-45 kids in that town are in need of preschool education, and there's a waiting list.

And we agreed with the regional authorities that we will take on equipment provision - to be honest, there is an acute shortage of offices there - and that the region will undertake the required school repairs. That will not happen immediately because it's difficult to fit it in during the school year, but I hope that the necessary repairs will be carried out next year. They need to replace the windows, and everything is quite dilapidated. And what is also important, as people there also told you, is to equip the school gym and playing field, facilities which would not only be used by the schoolchildren, but also by village residents.

Vladimir Putin: Do this together with the Ministry of Sport. And how is transport provision being dealt with? As a whole, I mean, not only regarding this village, but in general?

Andrei Fursenko: I do have a request for you. A support programme for the Russian car industry has already been prepared. Under it funds were allocated to lay on special transport provision, buses, for these children. Consequently we now have collected information from the regions. This relates primarily to those regions affected by natural disasters, as they need some form of transport provision for these children. Plus a number of regions are pro-actively reorganising their school systems and building new village schools. Parents and children are ready to travel to them, but we need rapid transit buses. This, incidentally, applies to the town we just mentioned: Aksenovo-Zilovskoye.

So I would ask you to issue the appropriate instructions. We have proposed a system that would speed the process of procuring buses for these towns. If you approve it, then I think that a minimum of one billion roubles from our ministry's budget this year would cover the delivery of these buses to the villages.

Vladimir Putin: Good. Formulate a proposal and we will resolve this issue.

On September 1, we visited the Siberian Federal University together. Students and graduates raised a few issues. I believe that they are general in nature. I ask that you do not forget what we discussed there, and to prepare the appropriate solutions.

Andrei Fursenko: Yes, sir. I remember that these were systematic questions about innovation. There are issues there that not only affect us, but which affect us primarily. Support for innovation is our responsibility. Some issues of the recognition...

Vladimir Putin: The recognition of academic degrees obtained abroad, and some other issues. The issue is not even in the recognition, but in the fact that people who have these certificates were allowed to take part in various competitions for grants.

Andrei Fursenko: We will resolve this issue fairly quickly. But recognition requires some regulatory decisions. I think that this year - not the school year, but the calendar year - we will be able to resolve this.

Vladimir Putin: There is no need for any sweeping recognition. This should be a systematic, calm and balanced undertaking, but regarding access to various competitions - this an issue that needs to be addressed and not put off indefinitely.

Andrei Fursenko: Yes, sir.