Speech by Vladimir Putin at a Cabinet meeting on May 12, 2008

Good afternoon.

President Dmitry Medvedev today signed a decree on a new structure of federal executive bodies. Decrees on principal personal appointments are also signed. The structure has been updated to cater to economic and social needs of the state administration.

A Ministry for Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy has been created.

The Industry and Energy Ministry has been divided into two ministries: a Ministry of Industry taking over trade from the Economic Development and Trade Ministry and a Ministry of Energy.

The Ministry for Telecommunications and Information Technologies has been restructured into a Ministry of Telecommunications and Mass Communications. The new ministry absorbs the services supervising and controlling mass information media, including electronic media, mass communications media, and telecommunications. The Ministry of Culture will focus on the protection of cultural heritage and archives. For reference: departments concerned with archives and cultural protection have remained with the ministry.

The Ministry of Natural Resources has acquired a new function, to look after the environment, and will now have all services concerned with supervision and control in this sphere grouped under one roof.

The Economic Development Ministry has been granted new powers to deal with land and real estate relations, and will now include departments concerned with land registration and cadastre.

A new agency has been set up to deal with CIS affairs. The agency is included in the Foreign Ministry.

A number of federal agencies concerned with health, industry, energy and construction have been abolished, and their functions passed to the appropriate ministries.

The government has spun off a number of services to federal ministries: those concerned with weather and meteorology and engineering supervision went to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment; air navigation to the Ministry of Transport; statistics to the Economic Development and Trade Ministry; and sports and tourism to the newly established Ministry of Sports, Tourism and Youth Politics.

The prime minister will have more deputies: two first deputies, three deputies, deputy prime minister and chief of government staff, and deputy prime minister and finance minister.

I wish to stress that in adjusting and optimising the structure of federal executive bodies of authority we proceeded from the need to improve the standards and effectiveness of state administration and its personnel potential.

Appropriate decrees by the President of Russia have appointed the following First Deputies of the Prime Minister: Victor Zubkov and Igor Shuvalov.

Alexander Zhukov, Sergei Ivanov and Igor Sechin are Deputy Prime Ministers.

Sergei Sobyanin is Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of Government Staff.

Alexei Kudrin is Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister.

Rashid Nurgaliev is Interior Minister.

Sergei Shoigu is Minister for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief.

Sergei Lavrov is Foreign Minister.

Anatoly Serdyukov is Defence Minister.

Alexander Konovalov is Justice Minister.

Tatiana Golikova is Minister of Health and Social Development.

Alexander Avdeyev is Minister of Culture.

Andrei Fursenko is Minister of Education and Science.

Yury Trutnev is Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment.

Victor Khristenko is Minister of Industry and Trade.

Dmitry Kozak is Minister of Regional Development.

Igor Shchegolev is Minister of Telecommunications and Mass Communications.

Alexei Gordeyev is Minister of Agriculture.

Vitaly Mutko is Minister of Sports, Tourism and Youth Politics.

Igor Levitin is Minister of Transport.

Elvira Nabiullina is Minister of Economic Development.

Sergei Shmatko is Minister of Energy.

Now I will briefly inform you of the sharing of duties between the deputy prime ministers.

First Deputy Prime Minister Victor Zubkov will deal with national projects for agriculture, and formulate and implement a state policy on fisheries and the forest and agro-industrial sector. He will have a number of relevant commissions placed under his authority.

First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov will formulate a state policy on external economic activity and foreign trade, a state policy on technical regulation, regulate negotiations on Russia's entry into the World Trade Organisation, provide government support for small business, manage state property, formulate a state policy on a common economic space and freedom of economic activity, pursue an anti-monopoly policy, develop competition, and formulate a state tariff policy. He will also formulate a state policy on the social and economic development of the Russian regions. I have listed only the most important of his functions, there are many more.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov will implement priority national projects (apart from the farming project) and a state policy on education, health, social welfare, affordable and comfortable housing, culture, arts, and physical training and sports, including preparations for the Olympic Games in Sochi, sports development, communicate with religious associations, and so on.

Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin will formulate and implement a state policy on industrial development (apart from the defence industry) and energy, a state policy on nature management and environmental protection, and exercise environmental, technological and nuclear supervision.

Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of Government Staff Sergei Sobyanin will formulate, in accordance with socio-economic priorities, a policy broken down by objectives, targets, indices, and efficiency of bodies of executive authority in the regions, delimit powers between federal bodies of state authority, bodies of state authority in the regions, and bodies of local government, coordinate their activities, organise law-making and fulfil some other functions.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin will formulate main lines of socio-economic development, pursue a uniform financial, fiscal and monetary policy, manage state debt and financial assets, plan state finances, schedule the execution of the national budget, formulate a state investment policy, and ensure state regulation of financial markets.

Such is a general list of duties shared by the deputies of the prime minister.

A new cabinet (two-thirds of its members are new-comers) has been formed and is embarking on its duties.

As I spoke in the State Duma, I outlined a programme of first-order tasks to be fulfilled by the government. The support I got from the deputies means that we can work closely with parliamentarians. I call the ministers' attention to the need to work with all parties represented in the State Duma, not only with those that backed the vote of the prime minister. We should work with all deputies of the State Duma, regardless of their affiliation. Our plans must translate into legal reality in the shortest time possible.

At the spring and autumn sessions, we must submit a raft of legislative initiatives to the State Duma. They are concerned with the development of our financial market, tax system, and support for business. Also, before the year is out, we must lay down a normative groundwork for changes in the social sphere, education, and health.

All these years we have been directly preoccupied with these matters, especially in the past six months. The general outline of what to do is clear. Please focus on preparing the appropriate projects.

I draw your particular attention to the minimum wage. From January 1, 2009, it must be set at 4,430 roubles. In the year before last, we increased it twice, and last year two more times. Now we must almost double it to 4,430. It was 2,300, right?

I ask the ministries and departments concerned to come up with proposals on this subject without delay.

At the next Cabinet meetings, we are to examine scenarios and forecasts for Russia's social and economic development through 2011, put together budgets, decide on taxes, and propose additional social protection for veterans and disabled persons.

The government has its work cut out, and its size is determined by the scale of the tasks facing the country and therefore the government.

We must do everything to promote Russia's development and to increase the welfare of its people.