Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Ladies and gentlemen,
As you know, a terrible crime was committed yesterday at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport. This outrageous act of senseless violence claimed the lives of several dozen people and injured over 100. I'd like to invite you now to join me in a moment of silence to honour the memory of these people. (Everybody stands up.)
As for the legal side of this tragedy, I am confident that this crime will be solved and that the perpetrators will be punished. It is the government’s duty to provide support to the injured and the families of those killed in the blast. I have already signed the corresponding resolution. The governments of Moscow and the Moscow Region will also allocate funds for social needs from the regional budgets.
I’d like to mention the size of the aggregate social payments. The families of those killed will receive a total of 3 million roubles from the federal and regional budgets. The survivors who suffered grave damage to their health will get 1.9 million, and those with minor injuries will receive 1.2 million. I would like to ask the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development to supervise the distribution of benefits and promptly respond to all requests from the doctors treating the Domodedovo survivors.
There is another important point I’d like to make. People from different regions of Russia and other countries were injured in the blast. It is important to keep their relatives informed about the event and the state of their health.
Therefore, I am asking the Transport Ministry to take care of information issues, along with the airport management, so that news is promptly delivered to any interested party.
Please, Mr Levitin (to the transport Minister), please report on the current situation at Domodedovo, as well as the state of other airports across Russia.
Igor Levitin: Mr Putin, colleagues. The ministry has taken emergency measures to tighten transport security upon the prime minister’s instructions. Airports outside Moscow and elsewhere in Russia immediately switched over to emergency operations. We are working in close contact with the Federal Security Service, the Interior Ministry and the Emergencies Ministry; also, we have been making additional plans to carry out joint actions in emergencies.
I would like to add that we have tightened security and established contact with regional services at all the major railway stations and bus stations. We are working with the mayor of Moscow and the governor of the Moscow Region. We have held an interdepartmental meeting, which was attended by the top ranking officers of the Federal Security Service, the Interior Ministry and the Emergencies Ministry, as well as other federal agencies and services to determine additional measures to tighten transport security.
Vladimir Putin: We’ll discuss transport security later behind closed doors. I would like to hear more about your proposals, and I have my own ideas, too. Now, Ms Golikova (to the Healthcare Minister), would you like to add anything to what you have already told me?
Tatyana Golikova: The death toll from the Domodedovo blast has remained at 35 since this morning, and there are 110 injured. We have received some adjusted data for the survivors currently receiving treatment: as of this hour, we have seven people in critical condition and 40 seriously injured; 49 people are in stable condition, and 14 patients are in good condition. Necessary medical treatment was administered to 24 patients last night. However, as I said, these statistics may change. I just cited the latest figures available.
The process of identifying the victims is progressing slowly. There are foreign nationals among the dead and the seriously injured in the hospitals now. We are working on this together with the government. The medical facilities have all the basic necessities, and the necessary medical treatment is being provided.
Vladimir Putin: Good. No matter how difficult it is for us now, we need to continue working in all the fields that are vital for our country, such as preparing for spring sowing. Let’s go straight to the work planned for today.
Mr Zubkov, you held a teleconference on preparations for spring farm work. Please, do ahead.
Viktor Zubkov: Mr Putin and my esteemed colleagues, today I held a teleconference devoted to the development of livestock breeding and preparations for spring sowing campaign. We discussed how the government’s measures to deal with the consequences of the drought have been working.
Regional leaders confirmed that the prompt actions taken by the government in response to the drought, such as the allocation of funds (35 billion roubles), the ban on grain exports, and the prolongation of reduced tariffs for grain transportation have kept losses to a minimum. In general, the livestock breeding sector operated in the black in 2010: poultry production increased by 11%, and pork by 8%.
The governors believed that distribution of grain from the intervention fund proved to be a very good step – 1.13 million tonnes of grain were sent to the regions. We are now preparing a resolution on selling another 2 million tonnes to the regions at the reduced price. We will submit to you another resolution on trading grain on the exchange. Mr Putin, you will be able to sign it today. Therefore, all these measure will allow us to stabilise the situation on the grain market.
Yesterday I held a meeting, where we approved a number of approaches and decisions on allocating five billion roubles to the regions that managed to preserve their livestock (21 regions). I think that we will submit the document for you to sign by the end of the week.
We have also defined the lending volumes for spring sowing. Some 220 billion roubles will be allocated for these purposes, with 150 billion lent by banks. Rosselkhozbank has allocated 105 billion roubles, Sberbank – 45 billion. We agreed that the interest rates will range between 9% and 12%. We did not have such low rates last year or the year before.
Mineral fertilizer producers have guaranteed today that they will provide 2.7 million tonnes of mineral fertilizers this year. The only sensitive issue was the provision of diesel fuel and petrol. It’s worth mentioning that prices for diesel fuel and petrol grew 35.5% and 11%, respectively, last year. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Agriculture prepared a draft resolution on a 10% discount for spring farm work. I believe that the officials at the Government’s Executive Office will also have a look at it, and you will sign it then.
The weather services have been monitoring the weather and have come to the conclusion that we will be able to produce about 45 million tonnes of grain from the winter crops and another 42 million tonnes if we carry out spring farm work promptly and successfully. I believe we will manage to do this. Therefore, we will be able to produce about 85-87 million tonnes of grain this year, which will allow us to satisfy domestic demand and begin exporting grain abroad. These were the issues we covered.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Mr Kudrin, I would like to hear a report on the performance of the consolidated budgets of the Russian regions. You have the preliminary data, don’t you?
Alexei Kudrin: Yes. Mr Putin, colleagues. I would like to report on the performance of the Russian regions’ consolidated budgets.
The regions had revenues of 6.552 trillion roubles, 11% more than last year. Thus the surplus was 628 billion roubles. The expenditures were 6.684 trillion roubles; they grew by 7%, or by 431 billion roubles.
I would like to say that the main sources of income grew, which corresponds to the growth of the economy. Income tax grew by 42% last year. It’s clear that it grew from the minimal figures of the economic downturn (it was falling then), and the surplus from income tax only was 450 billion roubles last year. Individual income tax grew 7%, excise duties - 33%, and property taxes - 9%. Some 1.392 trillion roubles were provided by the federal budget for all kinds of aid. Thus the federal budget’s support was 21% of all incomes of the regions; one-fifth of all revenues were provided by the federal budget.
The regional budget’s deficit was 132 billion roubles, while the figure stood at 329 billion roubles last year; we cut the budget deficit by more than 50%. Some 59 regions had a budget deficit worth 215 billion roubles, while 24 regions had a surplus of 82 billion roubles.
We have been paying wages steadily; the share of wages amounted to 29% of the total expenses incurred by the Russian regions. Borrowings were made in standard amounts, and debts were repaid in a timely manner. Therefore, the Russian regions were stable in their work, and revenues and expenditures grew consistently.
Vladimir Putin: Good. Thank you. Let us now move to the agenda of today’s meeting.
As you know, this summer I toured several regions of the Far East with members of the federal and local governments to look over development plans for the region. We visited the proposed site for a future Russian space centre, Vostochny, sealing the decision on the choice of this site.
The creation of the space centre in the Far East is a new large-scale national project, which will help us accomplish our most ambitious goals for space exploration. Vostochny will be up to the highest international standards.
With the new space centre, Russia will become a truly self-sufficient space power, able to launch all types of spacecraft, including cargo spacecraft and space station modules. The facilities of Vostochny will also be used through the programmes for manned flights and missions to the moon and Mars. We hope to strengthen Russia’s position on the global market of space technology and services, where we clearly have a competitive edge.
There are over 20 space centres in the world. China, South Korea, Indonesia and Brazil are building new launch pads. And the project for the Guiana Space Centre is well underway. There is a high demand for space technology and services, and, obviously, it will continue to grow.
Through the Vostochny project, we will draw investment to the Russian high-tech sector; Russian plants will consistently receive orders, which will create several thousand new jobs in the country.
We expect that this project will foster the development of the Far East, attracting highly-qualified specialists to the region and getting local manufacturing companies involved.
We have set aside 24.5 billion roubles for the construction of the space centre in the federal budget from 2011 to 2013, and we will need to provide an additional 57 billion roubles in 2014 and 2015.
All the engineering and design plans for Vostochny must be ready by the end of 2011. We must have the first complex of the space centre operational and start launching spacecraft from there in 2015. In 2018, we plan to finish the second stage of the project and kick off the manned flight programme. It’s also important that public infrastructure, including housing, hospitals and clinics, is developed before the space centre is completed.
The plan for the Vostochny project is being coordinated right now. In my opinion, this process has dragged on too long. According to our preliminary plans, the plan should have been finished by now. But coordination between government agencies has taken too long. I’d like you, Mr Ivanov, to take personal control of this issue. The plan for Vostochny must be submitted to the government and adopted by the end of February; the construction of facilities must begin on schedule.
I’d also like to inform you about one decision that is expected to contribute to the development of the Far East. As you know, we are carrying out the Eastern Gas Programme. Last year we started to supply gas to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky through it. Over the next three or four years we will connect more towns and villages in three large regions, the Sakhalin Region, and the Kamchatka and Primorye Territories, to the gas supply network. We also have plans for Yakutia, the Khabarovsk Territory, the Amur Region and the Jewish Autonomous Region.
Clearly, we need to work out a well-balanced energy pricing policy for the Far East. Energy prices should not restrict the development of the region’s economy or place an additional burden on local budgets, businesses and ordinary people. This is why the federal government has developed additional mechanisms of financial support for the region. We will subsidise gas supplies through the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok pipeline, providing 1.9 billion roubles in 2011, 11.2 billion in 2012 and 11.5 billion in 2013 for these purposes.
We have made the decision to set the gas price for Kamchatka at 4,500 roubles per 1,000 cubic metres, which is two times lower than last year. Overall, between 2011 and 2013 we will provide Kamchatka with 5.7 billion roubles in energy price subsidies.
I’d like to draw the attention of the Energy Ministry, regional leaders and major companies operating in the industry to one of our most important priorities – the need to jointly build a low-pressure pipeline system. We must ensure stable gas supplies not only to major consumers but also to ordinary people.
The next issue on our agenda is the need to amend the Labour Code in order to protect the rights and health of athletes and eliminate doping in sports. We discussed this problem at a meeting on sports in the town of Novogorsk, which took place on January 17, if I’m not mistaken. At that meeting, we reviewed the Strategy for the Development of Physical Fitness and Sports up to 2020.
We have introduced administrative consequences for attempts to force prohibited drugs on athletes. We also charged the Ministry of Sport with developing national anti-doping rules, giving it additional authority.
This year sports medicine alone will receive 2.5 billion roubles, compared with the 130 million roubles that we allotted for it in 2010. Every athlete preparing for the Olympics and other major competitions will have an individual healthcare programme and will be treated at Russia’s leading medical centres. We are doing our best to keep various crooks and charlatans out of sports.
The amendments to the Labour Code will oblige athletes to observe Russian and international anti-doping rules.
Let us move on to discussing these issues.