Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, Mr Yevkurov.

Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: Good afternoon, Mr Putin.

Vladimir Putin: Let's discuss the current social and economic situation. It remains difficult, as you know. Many crimes are committed, and there are dead soldiers here, even though crime is subsiding somewhat. But we will speak about that separately. For now let's concentrate on the economy and social issues.

I have looked over the statistics. Industrial output has grown by 9.6% in Russia as a whole, but Ingush industry and agriculture are in a slump. Unemployment in Ingushetia remains at an outrageous 23% compared to the national average, which slightly exceeds 2%. These are the main problems that have persisted in your republic for many years. I know what you are doing to improve the situation. Projects are being launched with federal support, and social welfare is being improved, by which I mean the perinatal centre that is being constructed, and other initiatives. Let's discuss this theme in detail.

Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: On the whole, the industrial slump is understandable because we have no major and medium-size industrial enterprises. A better situation would be surprising.

As for agriculture, we have reduced the production slump. Vast areas are going unused, however, because many private farmers are doing nothing on the land allotted them. We have confiscated more than 17,000 hectares of land this year and last year alone to returned it to the government.

A farm development programme has been launched, however, and a lot of equipment has been purchased this year and last year, so we hope for improvement.

Our prospects are all the more optimistic because we have changed our attitude to state unitary companies. We are going to abolish them and privatise them, which is being done everywhere.

We have studied the experience of the Belgorod Region, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia and the Stavropol Territory, and we are planning to plant forests on bare hills and develop horticulture. This also promises good results.

We are making some progress. I want to stress that allocations to Ingushetia have come down 4% this year, not due to new jobs and greater earnings but to the attention we are paying to tax collection. Tax revenues have increased roughly by 40%, and allocations have been cut for this reason. This is a good result for Ingushetia.

As for housing construction, people from landslide risk areas were moved to a new village of fifty comfortable brick homes three weeks ago.

Vladimir Putin: I know. On the whole, two billion roubles have been allocated for housing construction in Ingushetia these three years.

Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: 1.9 billion.

Vladimir Putin: Close to two.

Yunus-Bek Yevkurov: We want to confer with you now to continue making progress on this problem. There are 1,570 households remaining in the danger zone, where the threat is getting worse with each passing year.

Vladimir Putin: Let's discuss this now.