Vladimir Putin's opening remarks:

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

At the recent meeting of the general council of trade unions in Moscow, Mr Derbin (chairman of the St Petersburg and Leningrad Region Federation of Trade Unions) suggested that we hold this meeting to discuss the current issues facing this union organisation of the Leningrad Region, an association of several trade unions. However, one way or another, we will touch upon issues affecting the entire country.

I am glad to have this opportunity to meet with you. The St Petersburg and Leningrad Region Federation of Trade Unions is one of the largest and most effective organisations, with an enormous amount of experience. I won't get into the distant past, but suffice it to say that the first trilateral agreement was signed at your organization in 1991, which paved the way for this activity in other regions and all across Russia.

I would also like to mention that it was following the initiative of your association that minimum wage agreements started to be signed in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. This became the basis for similar initiatives in other Russian regions.

Your experience of building successful relationships with government agencies and public organisations deserves special mention. These relationships are very important, as they allow trade unions to coordinate with these organisations, which deal with various aspects of society and the life of every individual. It also allows them to resolve issues with government agencies more quickly.

This is especially important for such large industrial centres as St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. I'm referring to the fact that - and I mentioned this, addressing the general council of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia - trade unions, as an equal participant in trilateral negotiations, are interested in achieving the ultimate goal, which is higher-quality, more efficient and more competitive production.

This principle must be our foundation if we want to improve social conditions and increase wages. The prosperity of Russia and each individual citizen depends on this and this alone. At the same time, everyone understands that competitiveness and profitability are the cornerstones of prosperity.

The social well-being of workers and the entire population is also very important. We realise that the motivation to work hard and efficiently is directly related to this social well-being, fair wages and decent working conditions. It is the job of trade unions to keep close track of this.

However, I would like to emphasise that in the past few years, despite the natural disagreements that arise between employers' associations and trade unions, we nevertheless have been able to use the trilateral format, with government participation, to find the best solutions to the most pressing problems facing the country and its economy.

This positive cooperation is the reason why, with minimal losses, we are overcoming the very serious crisis that has affected the Russian and global economies.

We all know - and you must have heard about it many times, actually, it is your job - that this is the worst recession since World War II. Minus 0.6% is a huge decline. Russia experienced a severe recession too, even worse than in some other developed economies. Nevertheless, we have made it through with minimal losses.

Look what is happening in prosperous West European countries, in the euro zone. In some countries, the retirement age is being raised to 62 both for men and women. Salaries are not only frozen, but even have been cut for public sector workers - by 25% all at once. These are truly difficult times for our neighbours. We are watching it closely and we hope they will get through this crisis. And thankfully we are passing through these turbulent developments in the world and Russian economy much more smoothly, primarily due to the productive work we've done together. Although we experienced a decline, say, in the number of the employed, employment was restored in a year and more than one million new jobs have been created. More than one million jobs! This is a very good pace. We have prevented mass delays in wage and salary payment. Of course, there are some delays, but there were delays even in good years. But we have had no mass delays caused by the crisis.

I would like to take this opportunity to say that the work on a general agreement between all-Russia trade union associations, all-Russia employers' associations and the government of the Russian Federation is coming to a close. The document is now passing through the approval stage, and I hope very much that the general agreements for 2011-2013 will be signed in November.

And I would like to add that a considerable number of social and labour issues are being solved directly in the regions of the Russian Federation, at enterprises and in workers' collectives. I'd like to highlight two key points on this.

First, it is important for trade unions to work with each member of the organisation, to care about his or her wages, education, medical and pension benefits.

As for the second, related point: As you know, I travel all over the country and meet with a lot of people. I receive a large amount of correspondence through several channels: the government and United Russia party. To be frank, an analysis of this correspondence has shows that many questions could have been solved by more energetic trade union activity. More energetic does not mean social uproar - no, I mean more professional, deeper, more intensive, more targeted and more individualised activity. Many issues could have been dealt with at this level.

One more comment on this point. You surely know about this, as we talked about it at the general council meeting, some speakers talked about it and Mr Derbin must have heard this - we are witnessing a decline in trade union membership. It is slight, but it is happening. It seems to me that this is a sign that should not be overlooked either by trade unions, first of all, or by the state.

Actually, this is all I wanted to say to begin with. Thank you.