Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Let's begin by exchanging our current information. The spring sowing campaign is almost complete. Ms Skrynnik (addressing Yelena Skrynnik, Minister of Agriculture), how are the things going?

Yelena Skrynnik: The spring sowing is 95% complete, and we expect to finish work in the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts in the next few days. As planned, spring grain crops have been planted over an area of about 30 million hectares, which is almost 2 million hectares more than last year. Moreover, other crops have been planted over an additional 1 million hectares of land. Our total area of spring crops covers 50 million hectares.

This year we intend to increase the production of buckwheat to 600,000 tonnes – that is, we intend to reach the annual output of the pre-drought period. And as a result of larger planting areas, the sugar beet harvest will also increase. This is our prediction.

We have analysed our crop areas. According to estimates – provided weather is favourable – we expect to harvest 85 million tonnes of grain, which would be enough to meet the country's domestic demand and restore our export capacity. As of this day, the situation looks pretty good.

Vladimir Putin: Good.

Yelena Skrynnik: This is how we assess it.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

On June 14, Russia celebrates World Blood Donor Day. Back in 2008, we decided to develop our blood banking system. Please, what is happening in this area? (Addressing Tatyana Golikova, Minister of Healthcare and Social Development)

Tatyana Golikova: In 2008, we decided to include the development of blood services in the national Healthcare project. Of course, this decision came from the understanding that blood components are widely used in all areas of medicine. At the time, there was a shortage in blood and blood components that was felt acutely.

The programme that we adopted as part of the national project took place on three fronts: the modernisation of the blood banking system itself, the establishment of an integrated information system to facilitate blood banking development, and the promotion of blood donation. Recently, the programme has come to include 65 institutions of leading Russian regions, mostly blood transfusion stations fitted with cutting-edge medical equipment. Moreover, we have installed computers and servers at blood banks in order to set up an integrated information network. In 2011, this project has involved 23 Russian regions, and correspondingly 23 blood banking institutions.

I would also like to mention some performance indicators that we currently have. The overall number of blood donors increased by 4.2% nationwide, that of blood plasma donors by 11.6%, and the storage of whole blood grew by 7.4%. The number of blood donors per population of 1,000 grew from 12, when we began, to 14. Our pioneer outreach campaign, if I may use that term, was an important factor in our effort to attract people, as they had been very poorly informed. We held a series of events together with our federal television networks, and not only federal ones, and set up a special web portal about blood banking. We were surprised when in 2010, Russia -- represented by our ministry and the Federal Medical Biological Agency, as well as a corresponding communications company that helped us (which we selected through a competition) -- won the most prestigious international award for communication companies, from among 3,000 blood donation-related projects. Ours was named the most socially oriented and the most effective campaign.

As for the upcoming World Blood Donor Day on June 14, our second nationwide campaign, “Thank you, donor!” will take place from June 13 through 19. All events will be held in all 83 of regions of the Russian Federation. In Moscow, they will take place not only in the city-run institutions, but also at the Federal Blood Centre and at the ministry premises in downtown Moscow, where volunteers will be handing out satin ribbons to donors to thank them for giving blood.

In conclusion, I would like to invite all of you, colleagues, and all ministries staff  to prove you are responsible citizens and come to blood donation stations on June 14.

Vladimir Putin: Good, thank you. How much have we invested in the development of this system?

Tatyana Golikova: Very little in 2008, but we have been investing up to 5 billion roubles each year since.

Vladimir Putin: An appropriate amount. Fine, thank you.

Mr Fursenko (addressing Andrei Fursenko), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has reviewed the innovation policy in Russia. What are the results? Where should we direct our attention?

Andrei Fursenko: Mr Putin, the review of Russia’s national innovation policy was presented in Moscow on June 6. The review was prepared by experts from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. All OECD member states undergo such reviews on a regular basis, which is why the quality of this assessment is considered to be very high, perhaps the most recognised assessment in the world. We have been working on it for almost two years. First, we drafted a basic report, and then the group of experts from the OECD came. They not only studied the basic report, they travelled around the country to meetings at various centres. What is interesting, first of all, is that they commended and supported the action our government has taken within the framework of this programme of innovative development. Their assessment was quite high, at that. They said that Russia is joining, or is approaching, the group of leading nations in this field. They paid particular attention to the development of university education.

Secondly, they provided us with a series of recommendations. Some of these, I would say, seemed to us if not surprising, then at least new. For example, they recommended that we focus more attention not on small businesses, which we talk so much about, but on innovative development by large corporations on one hand, and on the other hand, by individuals. The experts stressed that small businesses are only part of a system that will not develop if these two elements are neglected.

The next point is that they paid a good deal of attention to the conversion of military technology for civilian use. They stressed that it is essential to ensure that the civilian sphere makes a greater contribution to the development of military dual-use technology.

There was a series of further recommendations. Given that we intend to join this organisation, this review indicates that at least in this aspect we fully meet the OECD criteria. Besides this, we hope that this practical advice will be used. The OECD published their review in English and we translated it into Russian. We plan to publish it on our website and to distribute it to our colleagues. In addition, this review is in a sense an international rating. Its publication and the assessment it gives demonstrate that Russia indeed belongs to the group of leading countries.

Vladimir Putin: Good. Thank you. Mr Avdeyev, we started renovating the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory one year ago today. The Tchaikovsky Competition is about to begin soon. How are the renovations going? Will we be able to complete it on time?

Alexander Avdeyev: Yes, Mr Putin, the renovations have been completed, and the hall is available for viewing. They have performed outstanding work amounting to some 1.5 billion roubles in order to restore and preserve the acoustics. Notably, the sound is better now than it was before because they removed equipment from the basement so that the sound now resonates through both the floor and the ceiling. This is a major event for us and most likely for the arts in general because this excellent hall can now be used by the world’s best musicians. That’s really something to celebrate. We renovated everything, including the paintings. We also commissioned stucco mouldings and exact replicas of the state-of-the-art chairs in Italy. Indeed, the Conservatory staff, led by our professor and rector, Alexander Sokolov, have accomplished the impossible, with the assistance of the current and previous Moscow municipal governments. We will open the Tchaikovsky Competition on June 14, as scheduled. One can come donate blood and then go straight to enjoying the Tchaikovsky Competition.

Vladimir Putin: Good idea. Alright. We also have a Festival of Small Towns, don’t we?

Alexander Avdeyev: Yes, we do, but not so many people know about it. There are nearly 300 small town theatres in Russia. Such a dense and professional small theatre network is not available anywhere else in the word. And Yevgeny Mironov (theatre and cinema actor) has organized this festival yet again. This time it was held in the town of Konakovo and brought together 11 theatres from Russian towns whose names may sound familiar to many, but finding them on the map may be a challenge: Volzhsk, Prokopievsk, Minusinsk, and Rybinsk. These are amazingly good theatres. The actors are paid 8,000 -10,000 roubles per month, but act professionally with great skill. We have agreed to establish an Association of Small Town Theatres and register all provincial theatres in small towns. We will set ourselves to it. Many thanks go to Yevgeny Mironov.

Vladimir Putin: Just don’t forget about our agreements and the concerns voiced by cultural activists during our previous meeting.

Alexander Avdeyev: Yes, we are doing so and properly monitoring the execution. You are absolutely right.

Vladimir Putin: A few words about the Strategic Initiatives Agency. As you know, we spoke about creating such an agency in order to remove the bureaucratic barriers hampering the promotion of interesting and promising projects. As of today, June 8, we have about 1,500 visitors registered on the website. We are about to conduct a contest to select the agency’s head and the heads of different departments within the agency. I am saying this to remind you about it and ask you to be more active in helping establish this agency. I hope it will perform its functions effectively. They have already come up with a few new projects that look very interesting to me.

I would like to make sure that everyone surrounding this work pays attention and promotes these ideas. However, we first need to complete the organisational side of things.

One the agency’s key goals, like I said in the beginning, is to overcome bureaucratic hurdles. Today, we will look into amendments to legislative acts designed to streamline the procedures for providing public services. As a matter of fact, we will consider amendments to laws that are designed to protect individuals in this sphere. Let me be frank: we have many problems and face sharp criticism with regard to the performance of federal, regional and municipal officials – and we are well aware of it. People complain about their refusal to accept papers, runarounds, and requests to provide unnecessary documents. It’s no secret that many officials keep things complicated by asking applicants to bring in all kinds of superfluous approvals.

What are our proposals? First, we propose the introduction of administrative liability for federal officials who violate the standards and procedures governing the provision of public services. Subsequently, this liability should apply to regional and local government officials as well. We will introduce personal liability for requesting documents or fees that are not set forth in the administrative regulations for the provision of services. This sanction will equally apply in the case of the unjustified refusal to accept documents or the untimely provision of public services. For your information, these violations will be fined in the amount of 3,000 to 5,000 roubles. The fine for violating the application registration deadline will amount to 1,000 to 3,000 roubles.

Second. Often, complaints against the authorities are considered by the authorities themselves. This vicious circle should be broken. Therefore, we will draft a new law assigning special status to complaints made against the government authorities or local government and will also introduce a special investigatory and decision-making procedure. What kind of sanctions? It is proposed to establish a special type of complaint against the authorities – an administrative complaint. The deadline for its consideration will be set at 10 days beginning from the date of its registration. Failure to comply with the deadline or the established procedure to consider such a complaint, or refusal to register an administrative complaint, will result in a fine of 10,000 to 30,000 roubles.

Certainly we should improve the provision of public services across the board. By late 2015, we plan to open about 2,500 all-purpose centres that will function as one-stop shops for these services and plan on establishing similar centres in all municipal authorities.

Let me reiterate: the fee for public services will be charged only in accordance with the Tax Code or the list of paid services approved by the Russian government. Anything more is illegal and arbitrary and should be precluded. The service fees should be determined and posted on the common portal for public and municipal services and on the websites of these organisations by September 2011. Specifically, all federal, regional and municipal authorities must finish drafting the public service administrative procedures by July 1, 2012.  

There are a few more items on the agenda, and I would like to point out one of them: the approval of the Russian Language federal targeted programme. Our plan is to allocate 2.5 billion roubles towards its implementation until 2015. Notably, this is the third such special programme to support the Russian language. We have done a lot lately to reinforce its position as a language of interethnic communication. I would also like to mention the need to promote interest in learning Russian in the CIS and other countries.

Certainly, the effect of this programme will be maximised if we enlist the support of the public, research organisations, business circles and representatives of traditional religious faiths. We need to use the organisational and informational resources available at the Russky Mir foundation and the International Fund for the Humanitarian Cooperation of the CIS States. We need to promote this idea through our bilateral international and inter-governmental relations. In 2012, the Season of Russian Language and Literature opens in France. I would like the federal ministries, Foreign Ministry and the Federal Agency for International Humanitarian Cooperation to focus on this humanitarian project.

Let me reiterate: the preservation and dissemination of the Russian language is a national goal and one of our absolute priorities.