Vladimir Putin's opening address:

Good afternoon,

We agreed to meet regularly when we set up the Popular Front's Coordinating Council. The essential goal of the front is to involve new people in the work of federal (regional and municipal) bodies, people with fresh, interesting and popular ideas who are driven by them and are able to translate them into reality. This proposal is linked with United Russia because it is the leading political force in the country, and it has the capability to follow through on these ideas and to place people in the previously mentioned positions of power through its instruments and channels.

In the last few weeks the council's members conducted numerous meetings in the regions, both with public organisations and with individuals. I'd like you to share your ideas and impressions from these meetings. I think we did the right thing in deciding to involve not only individuals, associations and unions, but also work collectives in this work. I've heard the opinion of some of our colleagues, and I must agree – there are thousands of work collectives! It would be unnecessary to try to involve all of them in our front without exception, and this is not our aim. I'm sure that our supporters will by far outnumber those who would like formally to join this national political club. Of course, serious, large work collectives will be welcome to join (if this process starts from the grassroots, which is the most important thing), and we will be grateful for their direct participation in our work.

I'd like to emphasise once again that we intend to make our work as open as possible, and this is the main thing. I think it is always useful to be open to criticism, especially now after the difficult economic crisis and certain problems in the social sphere. We must speak not only about what has been done, but also about what we have failed to do at various levels of power – federal, regional and municipal.

I'd like to emphasise once again that the front's tasks are not limited to participating in the State Duma elections (although this was a reason for its formation). We must look to the future and draft a long-term development strategy. In other words, the front must promote broader public support for decision-making at the federal, regional and municipal levels. The open discussion of major national and regional issues must become the norm for this national club, our front.

The discussion of the federal budget for next year has now begun with the participation of the front's representatives. Hearings on macroeconomic parameters have already been held. In the future, we will also scrutinise every section of the country's fundamental fiscal law. We are going to adopt it for next year and the two subsequent years. I encourage the regions to hold detailed hearings on these issues as well. We must prevent the absurd situations that Doctor Leonid Roshal spoke about at the meeting with medical workers. He mentioned completely unnecessary contests or unfeasible instructions that upset the operation of medical institutions. We must prevent such mishaps, or at least react to them in a timely manner.

I am convinced that we will be able to carry out our ambitious plans to modernise the economy and the social sphere only if we operate with broad public support and work for the people and in their interests. Instead of promising changes for the better in the distant future, we must gradually improve the living standards today.

Needless to say, we are not interested in having people in the front who put their personal interests first. Of course, the interests of society develop from the individual interests of each person but there are public, regional and collective interests. People who think only about their own interests must not be allowed to join the front (especially at the regional and municipal levels but also the federal level). This is a very important point to which I would like to draw your attention. We need people who are ready to work and who have the trust of their compatriots.

I don't need to introduce Leonid Roshal – he is a well-known figure. But few people are familiar with Alexander Vasilyev. I met him in Pskov recently. He managed to unite people around a very important issue, relevant not only to Pskov but to any region and to the country in general. He established the organisation, "Pskov's ruined roads." Is this what you call it? He and his comrades managed to turn an act of protest into a permanent agency, develop relations with the local government and establish control not only over the actions of the authorities, but over contractors as well. This is very important today. Why today in particular? It is always important but it is especially relevant today because we have organised and continue to establish road funds both at the regional and the federal level. It is vital for us to see, from the point of view of public interests, how the authorities will use this money and what contractors will do upon receiving orders. I would appreciate it if Mr Vasilyev would share his experience with the front and then gradually spread it to the rest of the country using the mechanism of the front.

Currently all administrative centres of the country are implementing a big project to improve courtyards and repair urban roads. I recently met with the heads of rural communities, and they asked me why this project is limited to administrative centres. I told them honestly that we have budget restrictions and cannot use the federal budget to pay for such improvements in all regions and cities. But regional road funds are being set up exactly for this purpose. Agencies like Mr Vasilyev's are designed to control such expenses.

I'd like to emphasise once again that the front must be open to regional and local organisations that are familiar with the problems and needs of the people, are able to cooperate with them directly and are ready to work for the benefit of the people, their regions, cities and villages -- that is, for the benefit of our homeland.

It is very important for us to make sure that the front helps competent, energetic and purposeful people to reach all levels of the government.

I'd like to mention one issue that we will have to discuss separately today. I'd like to ask Mr Gryzlov to speak on it later on. I'm referring to the nomination of our candidates to the State Duma and to municipal and regional government bodies in the upcoming elections. We must review and endorse a procedure for preliminary popular voting and the preliminary nomination of potential candidates. I'd like to say right away that this procedure must be as transparent, honest and unbiased as possible. We need real competition that will enable us to nominate the very best. I'd like to address United Russia members in particular. The party itself is interested in helping the most popular, interesting and effective people enter government bodies through its channels. This will only strengthen United Russia, and there is nothing to be afraid of. It is necessary to actively join this work and do everything in our power to facilitate it. Public organisations, people and work collectives will have an opportunity to nominate their candidates. I think this is the right approach when nomination of candidates takes place in the regions where each person and his or her qualities are well known.

The front's election programme will also take place at regional conferences. Nikolai Fyodorov (director of the Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies) is dealing with this issue. I'd like to ask you to thoroughly prepare and discuss the problems and proposals that you will address at the regional level. This will not be difficult for you. You have worked at the regional level for a long time and know your colleagues and regional concerns well. This is why I'd like to pay special attention to this – please clearly identify sore spots, urgent problems and proposals on their resolution. The United Russia programme must thoroughly examine and reflect all these problems. It will have a large regional section. I think we should conduct the party's congress in the very beginning of September in order to have an opportunity to discuss in detail all of our ideas and proposals in the regions.

Let's start working. Mr Gryzlov, please go ahead.

Boris Gryzlov: Thank you. Mr Putin, colleagues.

United Russia is probably the only party whose charter provides for a primary election before any candidate can be nominated for federal, regional or local elections. We propose to amend the provision on the primary election in order to take into account the creation of the Russian Popular Front.

The main and perhaps most important amendment is the change in name. Until now, the provision was called "On the Procedure of the Preliminary Intra-Party Vote." We propose to rename it "On the Procedure of the Preliminary Popular Vote." The name itself will now define the basis for the selection of candidates.

This way, it refers not only to party members but also to representatives of public organisations and individuals who have joined the Russian Popular Front. We have agreed upon the proposed amendment with almost all the members of the coordinating council. I will briefly outline the concept that we propose to use for the preliminary vote.

Our regional coordinating councils will be responsible for the most important task of receiving nominations from public organisations, company representatives, and individuals to be included in the lists of primary nominees. We propose that for this year specifically, a two-week period be provided for nominations after the approval of our provision. If the provision is approved today, then this procedure (the nomination of candidates) could take until July 1.

We have 600 candidates currently on the list (the total number of seats), in accordance with the law. Naturally, at the first stage, we cannot limit the number of people willing to be nominated for the primary. But each regional organisation should understand its capabilities in terms of the number of sites for which the vote can be held and the number of candidates –  10, 20, 30. This should be determined by the regional coordinating council.

When all the nominations have been received, the regional coordinating council sends them to the federal coordinating council, where they will also be thoroughly examined. Taking into account which regional groups we will include (by law, there should be at least 70), we should have an idea how the district election committees will be organised and send the final lists of primary nominees to the appropriate regional organisations.

The provision also stipulates that in addition to the candidates nominated at the regional level, the bureau of the party’s supreme council and the presidium of the party’s general council can also nominate candidates for the regional level. This is how the list of primary nominees will be composed.

The federal coordinating council will take approximately 20 days to review and send the nominations to the regional council. That will be around July 20. Ten days will be provided for organising the primary vote in a specific region, so that the vote can start on August 1. What can these ten days be used for?

It is important to choose sites that can accommodate the largest number of people so that the candidates can meet with as many people as possible who would wish to participate in the vote. We propose to include in the provision a special quota for those involved in discussing the nominations, or for representatives, as we propose calling them in the provision.

We propose the following composition of the representatives: 50% from the United Russia party, nominated by the respective regional and local political councils, and the remaining 50% nominated by public organisations that will be equally represented in the regional coordinating council. If there are 20 organisations, then each will have a quota of 1/20 of the number that can be nominated.

The voting will be by secret ballot. Voters can vote for more than one candidate. They can also vote for the entire list or strike a person (or several people) off the list.

The electoral board, also formed by the regional coordinating council of the Russian Popular Front, will count the ballots. The results will be registered according to protocols to be sent to our federal coordinating council, where they will be finalised.

Based on these protocols, we will nominate candidates for those 600 positions that need to be approved at the party congress. Under the current charter, these candidates must be nominated by the party chairman, that is you, Mr Putin. They should be submitted to the bureau of the party’s supreme council, which, together with the presidium of the party’s general council, will submit the list for the consideration of the congress. I believe this will allow for the widest possible consideration of all candidates (and there will be several thousand of them, I think) and select the 600 most able future deputies.

Vladimir Putin: It seems like we have quite a bit of work ahead of us. I said earlier that we should hold the Congress in early September. I suggest September 3-4. The dates fall on Saturday and Sunday, the weekend. What do you think?

Boris Gryzlov: Yes, that would be a good time. There should be a decree setting the election date by then – that’s the only condition. It should be issued before September 4.

Vladimir Putin: And when are the State Duma elections?

Boris Gryzlov: They are scheduled for December 4, but they have yet to be officially set. By law, they are scheduled for December 4, but the date must be set by a presidential decree. If the decree is issued before September 1, then we can hold the Congress on the proposed dates.

Vladimir Putin: Our president always abides by the law, so there should be no doubt about this. If the law says December 4, then...

Boris Gryzlov: The elections are scheduled for December 4, but there must be a decree beforehand.

Vladimir Putin: Exactly, so we can hold the Congress on September 3-4.

Mikhail Shmakov: To avoid any misunderstanding, perhaps we should move the dates by a week and hold the Congress on September 10-11? We can, of course, do it earlier, but if the decree is issued on September 4, the Congress will not be legitimate. We will be ready to hold the Congress immediately after the decree is issued.

Vladimir Putin: I am not really sure what this has to do with the Congress.

Boris Gryzlov: We need to approve the party election list at the Congress.

Vladimir Putin: And why can’t we approve the list slightly before or after the decree?

Boris Gryzlov: We need to approve it when the elections are officially announced.

Vladimir Putin: Well, in my opinion, this is merely a technical issue.

Remark: Our rivals may challenge it, Mr Putin.

Remark: The Congress must be held after the decree.

Vladimir Putin: I see. We can move it then, if there is no decree beforehand. I am sure all our colleagues will understand. But let’s tentatively aim at September 3-4.

Remark: Mr Putin, we discussed the possible dates at the working meeting yesterday. The regional coordinating councils will be very busy during the timeframe between August 1 and September 10.

Vladimir Putin: Well, let them finish a bit earlier. We have set this schedule ourselves, and this is just our tentative plan.

Please, any questions for Mr Gryzlov on the preliminary voting procedure?

Mikhail Shmakov: If I may. This is not a question, but rather a proposal. We believe it needs to be clarified, as the headquarters works on a regular basis.

First, this has not yet been fully determined... Some members of United Russia are simultaneously active members of the trade unions. There have been suggestions that party members should be nominated exclusively by party organisations and non-members exclusively by public organisations. Thus, trade union activists who are also members of the party do not enjoy equal rights with non-members nominated by public organisations. I believe that we should not impose such a strict distinction here. I don’t see any problem if they are nominated simultaneously by the party and by a public organisation. If the two sides happen come together, this is only a good thing. Regarding quotas for candidates running in primaries on public organisation ballots, 50% is fair, I’d say, with the other 50% reserved for party nominees. But I believe we should take into account the relative strength of public organisations for any given region, in constituencies where primaries are going to be held. Some organisations consist of just 15-30 members while the membership of others may total a million. In my view, it would be wrong, therefore, to impose the same quotas on all the regions. Rather, we should use a case-by-case approach, setting quotas based on the numerical strength and the credibility of each organisation involved. This is a technical issue, which I don't think should be too complicated to resolve. That is all I have to say concerning the primaries.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Gryzlov, would you like to comment?

Boris Gryzlov: On the question of nomination quotas, Mr Shmakov said there are organisations with as few as 15 affiliated members. More often than not, such organisations aren’t represented in regional coordination councils. According to our statute, however, the quotas should apply only to those sitting on regional coordinating boards.

Concerning whether or not party members may be nominated by a public organisation, we made it clear in the statute that the final decision rests with regional coordination councils.

It would seem that a public organisation should be more interested in nominating a non-member. But if any of them decides to nominate a party affiliate, I personally would welcome this. There is no ban on such practices.

Mikhail Shmakov: But there is, Mr Gryzlov.

The Public Chamber’s first lineup took a similar approach to regional elections. They suggested that public organisations interested in running should be represented in primaries in equal measure. 

In Kamchatka, there is a trade union league with 300,000 members. There is also a society of mountain climbers, with 25 members. Yet, the quotas are the same regardless.

One could make up for underrepresentation by making noise, of course. Or else by making a difference. In my opinion, this question warrants more thought.

Vladimir Putin: I agree, we should return to this situation for further analysis.

Vyacheslav Lysakov (coordination council chairman of the Freedom of Choice interregional organisation of motorists): Mr Putin, "Pskov’s Ruined Roads" would be sure to drop out under these circumstances.

Vladimir Putin: I didn’t say we should renounce the original proposal. I said we should think it through.

Remark: Regarding the nomination of party members. There are 450 seats available to party members, so please leave 150 seats for unaffiliated candidates.

Mikhail Shmakov: The idea is to allow all coordination council members get onto electoral colleges. Some alternative techniques may be used to achieve that. For instance, we could utilise a different format for participation in regional coordination conferences. But our aim is to ensure access to everyone.

As I said, [public] organisations vary in strength. I respect "Pskov’s Ruined Roads", the Russian Motorists Association, and so on, but we need to move ahead with our plan, to ensure that our activities produce the desired effect.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: Mr Putin, I have a proposal. We could put the issue up for a vote in our coordination council. Mr Shmakov may hold to his opinion if a majority votes in favour of the proposed format. Incidentally, we placed our signatures under his yesterday.

Mikhail Shmakov:  I said that our representative had adopted it in principle. We are now discussing particular features. I personally mentioned two such features, which, in my view, merit a second glance.

Boris Gryzlov: That seems to be a valid argument. It was for good reason that Mr Shmakov wondered whether trade unions are entitled to nominate party members for primaries. They are, yes. Which means that those of your representatives who are affiliated with United Russia may well make it into the electoral college. Members active on both regional and local political councils will be able to enter on party quotas, adding to the weight of your organisation.

Alexander Shokhin: Mr Shmakov, it’s up to you to decide which is the best way to manage nominations. High-ranking members could run on a party ballot, while party members that are less active can run on a public organisation ticket. All related decisions should be region-specific, though.

Mr Putin, if I may: I’ve been wondering how Moscow electors will be chosen. What will be the basic criteria? The number of provincial branches? Or something else?

Boris Gryzlov: I mentioned in my comments that regional coordination councils should find venues that are spacious enough for holding primaries. Of course, voting will extend beyond the boundaries of any one city.  Fifteen to twenty cities and towns should be involved, and the largest of the local venues should be able to seat 400-500 electors, perhaps up to 1,000.

Alexander Shokhin: No, no, I’m talking about the electors of the regional coordination council.

Boris Gryzlov: Exactly. They will be acting precisely in this capacity.

Alexander Shokhin: Given 50-50 ratio, what will we take as the basis for this? The capacity of each specific venue?

Boris Gryzlov: Exactly. Electors will be put forward in each of the regional primaries.

Alexander Shokhin: My second question is whether electors will be chosen by election?

Remark: They may be.

Alexander Shokhin: Or if each of the regional coordination councils will decide independently?

Boris Gryzlov: There’s no provision banning that kind of practice, so any regional coordination council is free to put forward its own electors.

Remark: May I, Mr Putin? Mr Gryzlov, I would like to get back briefly to what Mr Shmakov just said, because my organisation is also familiar with these issues. I have many renowned and emblematic people. They are party members. This is what we have to show for ten years of party work. I believe these things should be delegated to party members. Let them put forward their people, party members or not, and things will become clear during the primaries. Many fail to understand that going through primaries is not as easy as it looks. Many people think too much of themselves. I believe we should start the process and let them go through it, and then we’ll see how things turn out. If they make it and become party members, so be it. If not, we have enough people. It’s already very crowded.

Vladimir Putin: That’s fair. Fair and honest. No matter what job they are doing, they should prove their qualifications with real work before they can claim their place on the list.  

Nikolai Fyodorov: Still, Mr Putin, getting back to the criteria issue. We are not talking about a competition for the right to be part of something important, but rather about a competition of skills and capabilities. This is what matters. 

Vladimir Putin: That’s true, but Mr Shmakov also has a point. The organisation is big, and slogging through all these…

Alexander Shokhin: Mr Putin, the federal coordination council has decided right from the outset that we are all equal regardless of the numbers. We have held a discussion and we should promote this principle in the future. If we set out to define quotas now, then we’ll only finish by next elections.

Vladimir Putin: I agree. All other colleagues realise the difficulties involved in the Trilateral Commission work that combines the union and business interests. Please, go ahead Mr Plotnikov.

Vladimir Plotnikov (Chairperson of the Russian Association of Farm Holdings and Agricultural Cooperatives (AKKOR)): I think it is very important to establish such rules governing our relations. Thanks God, the primaries will have 50% of the United Russia members, because the party is interested in electing the best people. The party is interested in high percentages and in credibility. I believe that United Russia will serve as a guarantee, and this will attract active members from all organisations. It is very important that the party of interested people make up the backbone of this effort, because these people will actually do the voting. I am all for the idea that Mr Gryzlov has just mentioned entitling every participant of the primaries to vote for everyone. They can either vote or refrain from voting. The primaries will equalise everyone, everyone will vote. The party is interested in getting the best people on board. People will support the most active ones during the elections. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Yes. Anyone else? Please, Mr Borisov.

Sergei Borisov: Mr Putin, I would like to share, if I may, the atmosphere that set in after our recent coordination council meeting. We have really done a great deal of work. Initially, it was difficult to provide guidance to all our representatives across Russia, but we managed to do so, and three quarters of our regional branches have already become members of the coordination councils, although things weren’t always easy.

We have run into some team-building issues, although we never had any disagreements over content. Good thing that Mr Volodin provided feedback during the conference calls. However, certain regions fell out of the process. Perhaps we should revise the approaches to establishing regional coordination councils under certain circumstances.

For instance, not a single national public organisation made it to the regional coordination council in Omsk. They used a local approach there. We don’t understand why this happened. In Kemerovo, we filed an application for our leader on time, but they refused to accept it, saying we were late and they had enough of their own people. In Yekaterinburg, the public opinion leader was eager to get onto the coordination council. True, he has always belonged to the Communist Party, but they would not accept him, they stonewalled him and ignored his willingness to become a member.

I think that we should not only provide our regions with an opportunity to form ranks, but also take a step further and look at what’s inside. We want to able to see a leader, a real one, who may have been in the opposition previously, but may leave the opposition in the future.

Vladimir Putin: There has been over 20 million members of the Communist Party. Shall we exclude them all? That makes no sense, of course. We should look deeper at the person or organisation and base our conclusions on real facts rather that formal considerations. I fully agree. Let’s look into it, get back to it later and makes the necessary corrections.

Let’s continue. Please, Ms Ivanova.

Valentina Ivanovа (Chairman of the Russian Teachers’ Assembly): Mr Putin, first of all I would like to thank you for attending our congress. Your speech gave rise to a lot of initiatives in the sphere of education. We are prepared to work, and have said so, and we are now members of the coordination councils. We teachers had just one apprehension, which is primaries.  We have been considering these issues over the past three days and approved them yesterday.  There will be many teachers and educators among the authorised electors who will step up to the plate.  That’s my first point. Second, the congress has shown that our teachers can speak convincingly. Despite certain fears that some, including Mr Shmakov, may have, our people, from school principal to union leader, will provide arguments and actual work results to disprove them.

We were pleased to hear the initiatives put forward during the congress, specifically the one about the income tax in rural schools and increasing the amount of grants paid to…

Vladimir Putin: Young teachers?

Valentina Ivanovа: Yes, young teachers. We can see that the effort to improve education is becoming a large-scale people’s school project. So, we have the people’s budget, the people’s programme and the people’s school that people care about and respect and that businesses and all other institutions support. Only this kind of combined effort will make our schools open and vibrant institutions capable of fulfilling their social mission. The teacher’s status will also change once the school attains the status of a people’s school. Therefore, we appreciate your participation in the congress. We now realise that school is a …

Remark: … popular front.

Vladimir Putin: Let the deputies decide how to call it, since they represent the country’s  supreme power. Right.  Please, Mr Moiseyev, you have the floor.

Mikhail Moiseyev (Chairman of the Council of the National Public Organisation of Veterans of the Russian Armed Forces): Mr Putin, when the Popular Front was initiated on May 6, everyone saw this great idea of establishing the Russian Popular Front as a major political event but was still a bit wary about it. This is a big event for me, too, and we get together to discuss it every Wednesday. Let me say that today we are not just witnessing the processes that are underway in Russia, but we have been living in the thick of the events since we began to discuss the declaration and then moved on to work directly with the people. When the veterans got together for the first time to discuss the declaration, they voiced the whole gamut of opinions, including doubts and questions about who we were going to fight using this front. We worked with people and they began to understand things. We got feedback from the regions regarding the declaration. Then we asked them to draft a programme, a people’s programme. The veterans see themselves as something more than mere recipients of pensions and social or medical benefits. We have great proposals coming from them regarding defence law, and we will include them in the people’s programme. This law is not just about social welfare, it’s about the security of the Russian nation. We are not just setting the pace today, we actually see ourselves participating in these events. What matters to us is not to be left behind the living processes when we will set ourselves to identify the public opinion leader. We have put forward the names of the public opinion leaders.

How do we present such a leader in the Russian regions, so that he can truly carry on the ideas underlying the Russian Popular Front?  Such a leader will represent the regional programme and tackle other tasks he has been charged with.

As far as institutions go… Yesterday, we discussed in great detail the remarkable provision about the procedure governing the preliminary popular vote inside the party. Certainly, these institutions should be in place by the time the election begins. Today, our laws preclude using institutions in military units, we cannot use officers clubs and encounter other restrictions. There is a large veterans’ meeting going on in Moscow now attended by 450 people. I am sitting here and I worry because my deputy is making a report instead of me. I will share our conversation from today with my people as soon as I get there. This is a living example of our ideology – instantly sharing ideas with the masses. And they tell me we can’t use the institutions. Where do we discuss them then? At someone’s home? I believe we should have a legal right to get together in a place where no one will ever be able to tell us to go away.

We are willing to organise people and get them to work, but we don’t have a place to do so.

Vladimir Putin: This is a technical issue, and we will solve it.

Remark: Mr Putin, this is a legal question, and we won’t be able physically to have the Duma deputies amend the legislation in a matter of a few weeks. But then, we have a multiparty system. Our competitors will notice this violation of the law. More than that, they will harp on it in their campaign. This concerns major companies as well. At any rate, we should use trade unions as go-betweens, or we will be subject to a direct legal ban.

We established our own Popular Front Coordination Council today. You were absolutely right to say that major production teams must be involved. We might make major local union leaders members of the council for direct contacts with the headquarters. I think we should make an arrangement with the HQ. I had no intention to raise the issue here at all. Despite all that, I think we should come to an agreement with the HQ or we will come under harsh criticism. It’s like with wrestlers – our opponents let us pass just to trip us up on tentative violations. So we must make sure there aren’t any.

Vladimir Putin: We will not violate anything. Why should we?

Remark: That’s right, we won’t.

Vladimir Putin: Of course not.

Mikhail Moiseyev: Mr Putin, I went to St Petersburg on November 7. We are advised to work in the regions. This is reasonable – we should mix with people, or we will have no information. It is hard to be criticised from all sides, often undeservedly, but we should get immune to it in the tug-of-war that’s on. I had my first meeting at the Veterans House, which Ms Matvienko (St Petersburg governor) built for us. We began to decide there when to gather veterans from all other organisations at the Officer House. I said I would not talk elections and all that – I would speak only about the Popular Front. Some people said it would be political propaganda, etc, etc, but I answered that it concerned quite different things.

There is another problem. Only one of the military and law enforcement veteran organisations has made it to the federal Coordination Council. Ivan Shilov (chairman of the national council of police and Interior troops veterans), Gennady Zgersky (chairman of the international union of border troops veterans), Alexander Golubev (chairman of the council of Foreign Intelligence Service veterans) and another five leaders of security agencies veterans are on the sidelines. We all gathered then and discussed the matter, established a committee to support the front, and circulated a document in the regions on its behalf. Our electorate flocks around regional public reception offices, so we make nominations together.

Vladimir Putin: So, Mr Moiseyev, you have found an excellent option despite all the problems. As for specific localities, we should comply with the law even when there are problems – and we will inevitably have some. We will help you in every particular instance.

Mikhail Moiseyev: After all, we are working for the same national cause.

Vladimir Putin: But we should comply with the law, come what may. That’s what we will proceed from as we look for opportunities to implement our plans and organise our job. We will certainly find such opportunities. I don’t think we will have insurmountable obstacles though problems are inevitable.

Ms Lakhova has the floor.

Yekaterina Lakhova (chairperson of the Russian Women’s Union national nongovernment organisation): Mr Putin, you were right to say that step-by-step assistance matters most now. All organisations, including ours, are meeting at various levels even now, and when you meet with people you can’t start off talking about the Popular Front. We talk about their life and all local and regional problems they have, and only then steer the conversation to the front. That’s why we are uniting.

I don’t think everyone has realised now, especially in local governments, that the front is not nine days’ wonder. It will last five years at least. It has appeared because it is shouldering responsibility for the national programme we are adopting. Now, you are setting other executive authorities an example of how to work with public organisations.

There is a great variety of NGOs. Opora Russia and Business Russia address some problems, representatives of the engineering industry others, and women still others. Every social group that sets up an organisation advances issues of local, regional or federal government, which demand precise classification. Regrettably, the authorities occasionally don’t see that we should meet with every organisation separately to see to the heart of their problems, which we can gradually solve.

Vladimir Putin: Ms Lakhova, I assure you that no one misunderstands the situation but some of our colleagues don’t want to listen to us. That’s the crux of the matter. So what we need is consistent and persistent work – certainly within legal limits because we cannot position ourselves as superior, and use our opportunities in violation of the law. What we need is equal conditions for all parties.

Yekaterina Lakhova: Mr Putin, it’s not just that they are not accustomed to working with the electorate to address current practical issues; they find it too troublesome.

Vladimir Putin: And many ruling bodies are not accustomed to working directly with the public. We must acknowledge this. They have to be dragged out. Go ahead, Mr Lysakov.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: Thank you, Mr Putin. I suppose that the public is mainly interested in practical matters, however important organisational issues might be.

Should we perhaps give each speaker two minutes? What do you think? You are chairing, so it’s up to you.

Vladimir Putin: All right.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: I would like to say a few words about our main problems – the Pskov initiative, to be precise. It is reasonable, and car owners begin following our example. Even in Sakhalin they have got going what Nikolai Fyodorov described as people’s inspection at the headquarters meeting yesterday. Possibly, it would be good to revive the term. Popular Front, People’s Inspection – the terms sound perfectly normal.

Vladimir Putin: This inspection should not be bureaucratised as in the Soviet time. This matters most.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: Of course not, because the Soviet inspection was in the hands of the Communist Party regime, while now it will start at the grassroots. Here is a practical proposal, for Popular Front members – that is, NGOs – to take part in road commissioning in the regions. I think it would be worthwhile to include NGOs in the list of authorities as projects, especially roads, are commissioned. That was my first idea.

I want to dwell briefly on three problems, and ask you for comments. Let us begin with the transport tax. We all see that you have not forgotten this topic. You spoke on it when you met with Vitaly Yefimov (chairman of the Russian Transport Workers’ Union corporate organisation) and his colleagues. You said then: “Let us tell the ministries to make calculations.” That was exactly what you said.

Vladimir Putin: I can give you the details straight away. As I said last time, the initial idea was to abolish the transport tax but increase excise duties. Regional governors persuaded us not to do so. We reduced excise duties but left the transport tax intact because its revenues go to regional budgets. On the whole, we agreed to increase excise duties gradually and abolish the tax eventually – it all depends on the amounts and deadlines.

Remark: From 2012.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: Mr Putin, there’s a problem here (the devil is in the details, as you know). So I propose to employ not only Finance Ministry experts but also people from our institute as excise rates are recalculated to compensate for lost budget revenues. Mr Fyodorov will invite independent experts.

Vladimir Putin: All right.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: I make this proposal because, to be honest, I think the Finance Ministry is not being entirely open about this, and excise rates are not as high as you were informed.

Vladimir Putin: I want to make it clear from the start that I agree with the idea, I am interested in it and I need objective information.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: Fine, thank you. The second problem, also in brief, concerns fuel price hikes, which upset people and put them on their guard. Protest is brewing in many regions, and motorists are planning rallies. I know how much the Federal Antimonopoly Service is doing to monitor the situation and advance practical and legislative initiatives. I am Igor Artemyev’s public adviser, and I know that he has the problem under personal supervision.

It is an extremely complicated matter due to the collusion of vertically integrated corporations, inadequate petroleum processing, outdated technology and, all too often, exchange dealers’ schemes to sell huge amounts of fuel to branches and affiliates in an instant. There are many other reasons, too. So there are plenty of problems. But the main issue is that prices grow very rapidly. They have come close to 30 roubles [a litre] even before new excise rates have been introduced. Even now, our fuel market prices exceed the norm by 20% according to the Antimonopoly Service’s official statistics. There is a world of difference between 30 and 24 roubles.

So I have a proposal to make. We represent the car people here – I speak on car owners’ behalf, while Mr Yefimov, a regional activist from Pskov, represents the auto industry. We are ready to establish a group of people’s inspections within the Popular Front’s Coordination Council. At any rate, please supervise the issue as prime minister and Coordination Council chairman. This is a critical social issue, especially in the pre-election year.

Vladimir Putin: Pre-election year or not, the matter revolves round social justice. Those who are trying to get too deep into people’s pockets should be taught a good lesson. The situation requires an objective analysis in connection with the introduction of new high-octane petrol and the assessment of petrol production and market sales.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: Don’t forget exports.

Vladimir Putin: …And how much we export, and how much crude oil we need to produce high-octane petrol. That’s a critical factor, please note it. I grant your proposal most active support. More than that, I will order the Energy Ministry and the whole government, particularly my deputy in charge of this sector, to promote your work and assist you.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: Thank you, Mr Putin. I have another request. I stress that the Antimonopoly Service is working hard on resolving the problem, so should we extend its rights?

Vladimir Putin: We should first assess these rights…

Remark: We could transform law enforcement agencies.

Vladimir Putin: We should see first what boils down to extended rights. Let them say what they need to organise the job.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: They are drawing amendments to the third package just now, and I think they will give them due legal substantiation.

Vladimir Putin: We have recently extended the Service’s rights, not that we should stop at that. We should only see what it boils down to. The Antimonopoly Service is a strong agency already, so we should look closely at what they want.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: Good, thank you. Now, the last issue I want to raise, also in brief, concerns garages. It involves a great many people, Mr Putin being no exception. Let me explain. I went to St Petersburg and visited your community liaison offices in the city and the region around. I have seen private garages pulled down en masse in Moscow and St Petersburg, so it’s a problem we all share. Worse than that, no one is entitled to compensations except the people whose garages are on the construction site of the West Speed Highway in St Petersburg. Regrettably, they intend to demolish your father’s garage. The decision has been suspended as many older people remember your father as a very good man.

Vladimir Putin: I keep a trailer there! I should…

Vyacheslav Lysakov: The trailer is there. I didn’t mention it on purpose – I didn’t know how you would react. But the trailer is intact, I reassure you.

Vladimir Putin: I used to take potatoes home from my garden by that trailer.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: I understand. It’s a memento.

Vladimir Putin: Why just a memento? It’s worth some money.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: Garages to be demolished belong to veterans, retired military, persons with limited abilities and others. I repeat, they are not entitled to material compensations. No one has ever received any either in Moscow or in St Petersburg. I propose to freeze the demolition decision for two or three years, and establish conciliation commissions, possibly, under regional councils.

Vladimir Putin: Listen, I must see it with my own eyes – I don’t know what is happening there. If they are building a highway there…

Vyacheslav Lysakov: No, it’s just businesspeople buying up land.

Vladimir Putin: I must take a look. If they are buying land to resell it at a profit during highway construction, we must stop it immediately. But we should take stock of the situation first. I don’t know the problem yet.

Vyacheslav Lysakov: Good. Is my proposal to establish conciliation commissions under regional coordination councils accepted?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, it is. But why are we doing it?

Vyacheslav Lysakov: Approved! So it’s over and done with. Now, for my last point. No, colleagues, it isn’t exactly the last. I am only making the conclusion that what matters to the Popular Front is not just the long-term programme but also a real improvement of living standards now through the urgent measures we are discussing. We will attract the people this way. If we only make plans for five years ahead, they will be just abstract ideas. We should do practical things now – before December, March and so on. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Gutenyov, go ahead, please.

Vladimir Gutenyov (first vice president and executive manager of the Russian Machine Builders’ Union national employers’ association): Thank you, Mr Putin. The majority of my colleagues demanded equal opportunities for all participants. I agree with them because it is not small or large organisations that should be competing with each other (I represent a large organisation, for that matter) but ideas born not in the crowd but in a good brain. So people and ideas, not organisations, should compete. In this connection, I would like to support my colleague who said that it is important for us to set up a certain procedure, apart from formulating far-reaching ideas to be incorporated in the people’s programme. Perhaps Mr Fyodorov could blueprint an agency that would address burning issues.

Here is an example to show what I mean. You once visited Saturn, a large industrial plant in Yaroslavl, and solved their problems. Now, its employees have another predicament. When they go on sick or maternity leave, they receive miserly compensations because such payments are calculated on the basis of average wages for the two previous years. As you know, many companies worked part time in those years in the engineering and other industries. If we fix these problems in programme documents, two years will elapse from the start of the crisis. So we would like to have a procedure for more rapid response to people’s expectations.

Vladimir Putin: I said at the beginning that we had launched public discussion of the budget already. These are all budget indices. We should analyse them closely: they are reflected in our efforts and the Russian Popular Front’s work. Mr Kudrin has spoken already, and Finance Ministry experts will analyse it section by section, as I said. That’s where such things should be discussed.

Vladimir Gutenyov: The support we feel when we communicate with the people, their trust and hope, also imply responsibility. We should be aware of the responsibility and meet the demands that reach us already.

Vladimir Putin: Absolutely right. I would like to add something. We often talk about brilliant people, large as life, who are ready to come up with ideas. We also discuss problems. I would like to specify that by “brilliant people, large as life” I don’t mean those who speak the loudest or make showy invectives against their superiors. Superiors occasionally deserve invectives, but that is not what matters most. What’s truly important is to understand problems and propose effective ways of addressing them. What you have told us now is a real problem. We should see how to approach its solution, and what it would cost. What we need is an expert appraisal based on people’s interests. We have no priority greater than that. But our approach must be serious. We will tackle it during the discussion we will have on the budget and other matters.

Remark: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Shokhin has the floor.

Alexander Shokhin: I think that Mr Lysakov has set the right tune. It would be right to give each speaker two minutes so that everyone can raise at least one problem.

Vladimir Putin: Everyone who wishes to speak.

Alexander Shokhin: Yes, Mr Putin, I would like to use this opportunity to let you know about the opinion of the Chamber of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs on one vital issue – insurance fees. A final decision on them will be taken within a few days, as far as I know. The government will choose one of the two options.

We are working on the option that will be easy to administer, on the one hand, and for the emphasis to be on alternative sources compensating for lost revenues – not by reshuffling taxes when some are reduced while others increased. We think that a more active privatisation policy is possible and can be implemented within two years or so – particularly, to reduce the state stock from 50 plus one shares to 25 shares, the blocking share in Russia’s largest companies.

Such policy would come as a generous source of revenues to the National Welfare Fund, the pension system and so on. We propose to fix this interim pattern for two years and to conduct a radical reform of the pension and insurance systems, particularly within the limits of the Popular Front programme. If we do so, we can introduce a permanent arrangement based on the best possible performance of all social funds as early as 2014.

Vladimir Putin: For the first time in many years we encounter a deficit of the social welfare fund, from which temporary disability benefits are paid.

Alexander Shokhin: To prevent this, we propose not merely to channel privatisation revenues to the federal treasury but to spend them on the replenishment of the National Welfare Fund. Following the Norwegian pattern, we should merge it with the Pension Fund. That would give us grounds to cut on government expenditures. You know that there are reserves for it. We can do without a deficit now on this ground, next to shift to the optimum performance of the pension and other systems starting from 2014.

In this connection, we propose not to make medium-sized companies an exception as we reduce taxes to 30% for all businesses and to 20% for small companies. That way would be simpler for management. Possibly, our colleague Boris Titov (chairman of the Business Russia national public organisation) will not approve but we think that large and small businesses should be in the same boat on this issue. It will enable us to settle 20% rates for all small businesses, not only those qualified as socially oriented and manufacturing. That is why we would like the Coordination Council and, above all, the government to determine its position here and now. Mr Putin, we would like you to instruct the relevant agencies to address this matter as soon as possible.

Vladimir Putin: They are working on it.

Alexander Shokhin: But still, they keep talking about options: either we accept this or that.

Mikhail Shmakov: Mr Putin, may I put forward a counterargument? I have the greatest respect for Mr Shokhin but we know what he wrote in the documents he has given you now. This is an acute problem, so let us discuss it openly at the Russian Trilateral Commission. Everyone has their own opinion – the trade unions, the Pension Fund, the Social Insurance Fund, and the business community. That was what the Trilateral Commission was set up for. If we are to draw on Norway’s experience, we should first entirely nationalise the oil and gas industry because it is state property in Norway. Only then can we shift to the system proposed just now, because whenever we try to borrow solutions from other economies, we fail miserably.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Titov (chairman of the Business Russia national public organisation) has the floor.

Boris Titov: I would also like to speak about social insurance payments. As we see it, we represent businesses that can’t be qualified as big or small, or dealing with raw materials – these are processing businesses. Certainly, we are affected more than the others by the change introduced on January 1. I agree with Mr Shokhin and Mr Shmakov on some points – namely, that all these problems should be discussed. We can only regret that the government and its economic agencies are discussing them at their meetings without our participation.

Our opinion is that social insurance payments should be equal for all. We are not satisfied with any kind of scales because everyone should pay at the same rates. Otherwise, no small businessperson would want to develop his or her company into a medium-sized one, and no medium-sized company would have ambitions to join big business. We would put up obstacles to progress and take away any incentives to development.

It is another matter that major companies should be entitled to a special position. They are in a preferential position now (you know about those 463,000 roubles), they can afford big wages, especially oil and other raw material mammoths.

Vladimir Putin: We could extend the scale.

Boris Titov: We should either extend it or abolish it altogether.

Vladimir Putin: It would be possible to add an element to complement it.

Mikhail Shmakov: That would be downright limitation.

Boris Titov: But we have a proposal. You mentioned nonlinear approaches…

Vladimir Putin: That’s absolutely impossible, Mr Shmakov.

Alexander Shokhin: What’s a scale? It also implies limitations of payment liabilities…

Boris Titov:  So, Mr Shokhin, the problem could be settled by additional measures.

Vladimir Putin: If we remove all limits, we will have to form pension rights proceeding from sums with which the state will never be able to afford to pay pensions. I don’t mean the present generation, you and me. We will undermine the entire national pension system for decades ahead. There is no country that can afford such pensions. All this means that we must take another approach to the solution: where very large salaries are concerned, pension rights should proceed from a particular sum. Those who save up for their old age will do so of their own free will.

And there is another system: we could introduce it now, and everything will seem all right but it will collapse into dust ten years from now. That is why I regard it all as a matter for calculation so as to see the amount of payments. When we have a better idea, we will immediately see that this is sheer wishful thinking. That is why we must approach this matter with the greatest responsibility toward the entire nation and all its citizens.

Low-income people make up a greater part of our population. The state has to guarantee smooth pensioning for their sake. Those who want to form their own rights can do it easily even with the acting legislation. However, we are forming the future State Duma for people to discuss such matters professionally and accurately, and approach them in a balanced way.

Boris Titov: Excuse me, Mr Putin, may I finish my thought on the other subject? You are absolutely correct. We have proposed such a nonlinear, as you said, approach to the standardised social tax, because if we tweak the format just a little we will be able to solve these issues. What do you think if we just submit our proposals to the Finance Ministry and the Economic Development Ministry and then take them for discussion by the coordination council?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, but do so faster please. Mr Shokhin has submitted his already. Can you do it today?

Boris Titov: Yes, today. I don’t have them with me now, but we will do so today.

Vladimir Putin: Today by close of business will be fine.

Boris Titov: Mr Putin, may I comment on the earlier remark about the people’s inspection? Indeed, there were many good positive things in the Soviet Union.  However, I believe we should be looking in the future. We even discuss our five-year plans from the standpoint of the coordination council and our strategic programme. We also think that we should refrain from using the terms of the past and use instead the language of the future and its professional and effective terms. We shouldn’t talk about how things used to be in the past, even if someone feels it rubs him or her the right way.

Vladimir Putin: What do you propose?

Boris Titov: We have already come up with some ideas and people are actively discussing them. We say that our major goal is to create 25 million highly productive jobs. You also spoke about it yesterday at the International Labour Organisation.

I suggest that we move already to specific documents of our front and coordination council. The declaration has been drafted almost in full. We understand that Mr Fyodorov is engaged in serious work on the programme, but we need to release the declaration, too. If we decide today that we do need new highly productive jobs for Russia’s new innovative economy, then (here comes our specific proposal) we should mention it in the declaration and everyone will be able to see it. It’s a very unifying idea.

Vladimir Putin: I agree, Mr Titov. Please, Mr Roshal.

Leonid Roshal (president of non-profit partnership National Medical Chamber): Mr Putin, friends, let me first thank you for letting me be here today with you.  I will do my best to make the Popular Front a success. I have a feeling that we shouldn’t drag anyone into the Popular Front against their will. Quality trumps the quantity in this particular case. And we also need to make sure there’s no administrative pressure: there are all kinds of rumours about people being summoned and ordered to join its ranks.

I believe it is very important to show as soon as possible what the Popular Front can do for the people today.  To be sure, today’s discussion has already turned into the discussion of the Popular Front’s programme. People took advantage of your presence and pushed their own agendas, which is fine.

The ideology is very important, because United Russia’s authority is slipping and that’s the reason for establishing the Popular Front. We need to show that this isn’t the case. We also need everyone to know that Putin isn’t establishing the Popular Front in order to take care of his own business. The way I see the Popular Font is that it will provide an expanded framework to adopt new approaches that will be clear and beneficial to the Russian people. That way we’ll hit the bull’s eye.

Most importantly (here I speak about my area of business), we must do in a way that the Russian people feel good about the Russian healthcare system. As simple as that. There must be some concrete issues that we must be addressing right now. I have already discussed with Mr Gryzlov the need to bring to a stop the craziness around the second reading the law On Health Care. That’s an absolute must. I have written 30 pages of comments about the first three articles. We don’t even have the techniques that we could use to incorporate the existing comments.

Let me give you an example. I went to a central Russian region. The local people are concerned with the distribution of authority between the regional and municipal officials. They have delegated all municipal powers up to the regional level. Today, the head of a municipal entity is not responsible for healthcare at all, and just re-directs everybody to the higher authority.

I travel across Russia and I’m interested in what people think about it. The people think correctly: that’s the wrong way of doing it. I asked a local executive to write a proposal. He called me back a few days later and said that the proposal was ready, and the only question was if he should sign it. I didn’t understand what he was asking. Eventually, I received his proposal in my email. I can show it to you. That’s a message sent from some kind of a plant manufacturing agricultural equipment, something not even related to healthcare. You see, everybody is afraid. They are not against the Russian Constitution or United Russia. These are people who have a different opinion, and they are afraid to say it out loud. I don’t know what makes them scared. We should open up the discussion, so that people won’t be afraid to voice their opinions.

Vladimir Putin: This is exactly the reason for our building such a framework.

Leonid Roshal: That’s exactly what I’m going to talk about, there are many question marks there. There is a sense that quality and equality are no longer the principles of the Russian healthcare system. Today the Duma deputies who are handling this issue have their eyes on the upcoming elections. They take their cue from the Health Ministry because they are afraid to antagonise it. We are all human and we understand that one may or may not become a deputy and then one would need to find another job… I even have a sneaking idea to postpone the discussion not until autumn (that has certainly to be done) but to postpone it until after the elections.

Take, for example, the ambulance service. The issue of the ambulance service has not been discussed with any organisations that are responsible for this service, with either the Chief Ambulance Doctors’ Association or other associations. I would like to ask, why? I took part in the Folk Medicine Congress and they have a paragraph devoted to the issue. I asked them: Were you consulted on the issue? No, they were not. Three or four roundtables – serious and thoroughly prepared – will need to be held. Boris Gryzlov was not present at the Duma hearings on the law, but the meeting was a disgrace. Ahead of the hearings there was a meeting of the Public Chamber where six people spoke. It looked like they were dragged into the Duma hearings and all of them spoke again. Are there no other people? And they all were saying the same things. None of the representatives from the regions present who had some critical remarks and serious proposals to make were given the floor. I had been told that I would be given the floor. I had asked for five minutes, and they said, OK, we’ll let you speak for ten minutes. I sat like a fool throughout the session with a heap of papers this big (300 pages of remarks) but they never gave me the floor. No one was given the floor.

Vladimir Putin: You are speaking here, which is perhaps even more important, and nobody is setting any time limits for you.

Leonid Roshal: Yes, I understand. I am speaking about the format. Thank you, Mr Putin, I am speaking about the format. If we make such a decision I think most medical professionals who care about what is going on will be grateful. After all, we must learn from our mistakes. Why are we in such a hurry? Why are we rushing? 

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. The point I would like to make is there is absolutely no need to rush things, as you put it, to pass this law. The only snag may be that this modernisation programme may be somehow tied in with the law. But I don’t think it is critical. Secondly, as regards the transfer of medical institutions from municipal to regional jurisdiction. There is only one reason for that: the majority of these municipal entities (and they vary greatly: some municipalities have a million people and some are just small communities, but they are still considered to be a municipality and are responsible for all the healthcare institutions), have no financial basis for maintaining them, while the regions are not obliged to do it under the law.

The main thrust of the draft law is to make it incumbent upon the regions to deal with these healthcare institutions. There is probably no need to do that in large municipalities, they should not be absolved of that responsibility, so I agree with you that there should be no haste. But we must adopt legislation that would ensure a maximum engagement of all the levels of government with healthcare institutions. Wherever possible, where there is a good financial basis and sufficient budget funds, let them work on their own: they must bear the responsibility. Where it is obvious that the municipalities are not properly financed and nobody knows when funds will be available… Are there representatives from that sector? Unfortunately not, but I think we should include the municipal level, for example, the rural communities, in the Coordinating Council. We are now thinking of ways to provide them with their own sources of funding. But we don’t know when that will happen. In the meantime the healthcare system there is crumbling. This is what prompted the decision. But I agree with you that the decision must be balanced, we must look at the substance of the matter. In making that decision we must be guided by common sense and a commitment to improving the local healthcare system; we must make sure that nothing is destroyed where the system functions smoothly. That is for sure. We will look into this matter.  

Leonid Roshal: I have to say that the heads of municipal entities should not be relieved of all responsibility, we must strike a balance.

Vladimir Putin: I agree with you. We must look at the issue carefully.

Leonid Roshal: The chief doctor comes to the head of the municipal healthcare system and says: I have such and such a problem and that problem, only to be told to take it to a higher authority situated 200 km away. That is not right.

Vladimir Putin: I fully agree. We should take another hard look at it.

Leonid Roshal: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: So, there should be no rush, I quite agree. Mr Gryzlov, look into the matter and I will remind the Ministry of Healthcare.

Mikhail Shmakov: May I?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, of course.

Mikhail Shmakov: I would like to go back to the work of the Coordinating Council and it will partly be a follow-up to the issue raised by Leonid Roshal. You have rightly said in your opening remarks that we need to have a broad public discussion in order to prepare a people’s budget, a people’s programme and so on. I think next time we discuss the budget (and I think we will discuss it again and again) it shouldn’t be the way it was the last time: Mr Kudrin made a speech and then ten minutes were given for discussion. One could only ask a few questions, but there was no discussion. Not everything Mr Kudrin had to say was right in terms of the people’s budget, and unfortunately it may turn out to be an anti-people’s budget. We would not want it to be like that and that is why the discussion must be more thorough.

Vladimir Putin: So, we are well into the next issue on the agenda of our meeting, the discussion of the programme. Many speakers touched upon very sensitive and important areas concerning education, healthcare and roads. I would ask Nikolai Fyodorov to wrap up that discussion, that part of it.

Nikolai Fyodorov: Thank you. The Institute has been working for three weeks, and it has something to report. We have asked all the members of the Coordinating Council to present their ideas, their programme goals and tasks. Along with the proposals that express their dreams and that are in the plans of these non-government groups and movements, we asked them to name the experts they trust and value. Most of them have submitted such materials and the plans for the coming five-year period.

Colleagues, what they have presented today can be called a “zero reading”, the “zero stage” in assessing what the members of the Coordinating Council want. But we will finalise these proposals together with you. You will finalise them without us, but we, the Institute, will discuss them with the Russian regions. Because the proposals that had been voiced contain what they have wanted and dreamed about and what they had promised their representatives up until today. But in the new conditions, since the creation of the Popular Front, new opportunities are appearing. Together with the Popular Front, equipped with this integrated programme and by communicating with our constituencies, I think we will be able to address the questions raised by Leonid Roshal. You, Mr Rosnal, for your part and the Institute for its part will work both together and separately. Thus we will identify all the most sensitive issues, the key problems that face us today. In this way we will make sure that the programme is not simply called a people’s programme, but is relevant and addresses the most acute current issues.

I would like to urge you all again, speaking about your problems, to start from scratch, as they say in Russia, and we will proceed from the Constitution. Go back to the Constitution again and again…. 

Vladimir Putin: We are also part of Russia. Don’t keep us out of it.

Nikolai Fyodorov: I am aiming my remarks at the people who have reproached me for bringing back Soviet-era terminology… You see, at a meeting with the media I permitted myself to say once that under the Constitution the State Duma is now elected for a period of five years. And I told the media people, don’t forget about the Constitution. Under the Constitution the State Duma is the legislative body and the State Duma must supply an ideology and law-making priorities for the coming five-year period.

Vladimir Putin: In terms of strategic planning some countries with developed market economies, which I don’t have to name, adopt five- and seven-year development programmes. This is a far cry from what we had in the Soviet planned economy, they simply give the benchmarks and give a rough idea of the instruments that will be used to achieve these goals and benchmarks, so there’s nothing special about that. But of course it immediately attracts our attention.

Nikolai Fyodorov: We should not pay too much attention to that, the important thing is to go ahead. And while we are at it, you were absolutely right when you said that very often in the course of conferences, assemblies and staff meetings, people express interest in who are the members of the Coordinating Council, whether we like it or not, because the Popular Front is a new idea, a new institution. You have said, Mr Putin, that the general public is joining in, and our Duma party is becoming something more than a single party. It is truly a popular front and in that sense we can say that people’s monitoring of how the political leaders keep their promises has been reinforced.

I think one should not be afraid to talk about that openly. For me it is an issue that is practical, scientific and political as far as our Institute is concerned. I would suggest that we do not quibble over words, but move forward to achieve better results in elections and in addressing the eternal problem of alienation of the government from the people, in which the Popular Front can be instrumental.

Vladimir Putin: When will the main parameters of the programme be ready for discussion before being approved on September 3-4, as we have agreed? What do you think?

Nikolai Fyodorov: According to the schedule that we discussed at our headquarters yesterday the first reading of the people’s programme will be ready by the end of July after we have discussed it with the Russian regions and the primary cells, etc.

Vladimir Putin: That’s good. Any remarks?

Sergei Katyrin (President of the Russian Chamber of Trade and Industry): I would like to comment briefly on Nikolai Fyodorov’s remarks. I took part in the budget discussion yesterday along with some other colleagues. I thought it was a very interesting discussion. I think the Minister has managed to answer many populist questions, but many interesting and useful ideas were also voiced, all our 83 regional headquarters took part and we heard them asking questions and making proposals on how…

Vladimir Putin: Was it in a video conference format?

Sergey Katyrin: Yes, the regions took part in addition to the 70 people who were present in the room. There were many interesting ideas. Nikolai Fyodorov also took part in the discussion and he said many useful things. I think we should work out a mechanism that would record all the ideas aired in the course of such discussions so that they are not lost and are eventually reflected in the programme. Having said that, I am sure there will be more discussions of the version that is being prepared by July 1. We are to have five or seven budget hearings and some other meetings, including at the regional level. I think a mechanism must be put in place to enable us to select the most interesting ideas and promptly relay them to the institution so that the programme should take them into account, at least its first version. Later additions will be made to the programme as it is discussed.

Vladimir Putin: Any more considerations? Timur Prokopenko, please.  

Timur Prokopenko (Chairman of the Coordinating Council of the All-Russian Non-Governmental Organisation The Young Guard of United Russia): Thank you. Young people will undoubtedly contribute to the general programme, but I would like to say a few things today. Starting from next week the Young Guard will take to the streets to garner ideas and accumulate them.

The day after your conference in Pskov… I was there myself and they certainly have some quality roads there. And I would like to take this opportunity to tell Alexander Vasilyev: If you are in favour, use the vehicle of the Young Guard.

Mr Putin, when you set the task of reducing fuel prices we kept the situation under control, we took pictures of every petrol station and monitored prices over a week and staged pickets in front of the head company building. We can also address this situation with the help of bloggers and through social networks in all the regions because our organisation has branches in all the regions. I would like to share our observations over the past week or two since we started our activities. I have worked at your public reception office and in the Saratov Region, for example, the head of the Scout (Iskatel) organisation, Galina Garibyan (the head of the Saratov Regional Union of scout units Iskatel) came up to me and said: “ A memorable date associated with the Great Patriotic War is approaching. You know that in Hungary under the law if a grave is not tended for 20 years the local authorities can do whatever they like with that place. Parking lots are appearing in the places where our soldiers are buried. To prevent this from happening (and it happened in one town where there were more than 100 World War II graves) we will organise a volunteer group and set the place in order.” So the authorities are lending an ear to young people. Perhaps these are local situations and problems but they are important for the local residents.

The town of Shakhty in the Rostov Region. Young people organised a campaign to reopen the motoball pitch. This year on Coalminers’ Day in August the pitch will be reopened because funding has been provided. We have also agreed with Nikolai Fyodorov that young people will contribute their vision to the overall programme, we will discuss it as part of our activities at the Popular Front camp in Lipetsk, where a lot of young people will gather.

What are our current concerns? As surveys reveal they include alcoholism and drug addiction (there is a broad public discussion of that topic underway thanks to Boris Gryzlov). Mortgages are also a problem. You know that the regional coordinating council met in St Petersburg last week, and the Young Guard is on the council. We have shared some experience from the former Soviet republics: young people who have just graduated from university and whose chances of getting a good job and taking out a mortgage are slim) pay 10,000-12,000 roubles every month for more than 25 years to become owners of the flat. Mr Tyulpanov (Vadim Tyulpanov is the speaker of the St Petersburg Legislature) has issued an order for the Committee to prepare its vision of the corresponding relevant law. If this approach works and is extended to other regions, that would be a great triumph.

I was recently asked how young people get into politics. A young man from the Kursk Region, he is 23 years old, came to our headquarters recently. He said: I took part in military action in South Ossetia in 2008. I would like to join the Popular Front and I would like to be in politics. Of course we instantly admitted him.  It wouldn’t have been possible but for the Popular Front initiative. As it is, we were able to do it. Another situation that worries young people is the “social lift”. The so-called Popular Front youth primaries are due to end on June 25. We’ve had a very good turnout. We are surprised: 1,807 people are contending seats at the federal and regional levels. Of course we want to use these activists within our organisation. And my final remark. The declaration on the Popular Front encouraged young people to raise various issues and bring various situations to the attention of the authorities. We see that the authorities are forthcoming. Thank you.    

Remark: Young people took very active part at the first stage when the declaration was discussed. It was important that everybody heard you, Mr Putin, saying that you were inviting us to join the Popular Front as equals. It strikes a chord with people. On the face of it, it is no big deal, but one could see the response everywhere. When the farmers discussed the idea, one was aware that they have great trust and respect for you. It is important to preserve the openness and feedback. It was mentioned several times today that Mr Kudrin himself attended the discussion of the people’s budget yesterday. This is unprecedented. People from the regions were able to put questions to him. Yes, the questions were brief, more time could have been given, but the very fact that government officials are discussing key issues with the people is of fundamental importance. I think if trust and interaction during this period are to be continued there must be a maximum of interaction with the authorities and their representatives in the regions. Then more and more people will get involved in these processes and there will be more trust and understanding. When the authorities report back and explain (“we act as we do because we have such possibilities”) people come to see the authorities in a different light. That must be the case at the next stage. That is very important. Thank you. 

Vladimir Putin: And the goal is achieved. Frants Klintsevich, please.

Frants Klintsevich: (head of the National Public Organisation the Russian Union of Afghanistan Veterans): Mr Putin, we see from the media and from the response in our organisations that the idea of the Popular Front has caught on and it is going to yield results. But it involves many organisational issues. Fortunately, the headquarters are coping and are reacting promptly. But each of us has some concrete proposal to make. I would like to draw your attention to a very serious matter. June 22 sees the 70^th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War. In the framework of the Russian Union of Afghanistan Veterans and the institute of United Russia party supporters I have prepared several events across the country which will include the screening of the film “The Brest Fortress”. Our people will travel to the Brest Fortress for a conference. It will be a major event. But I think the Coordinating Council should pay particular attention to June 22. I think you and all of us should take part and address people in the regions.

And another point. We have something to report back to people on what has been done for the Great Patriotic War veterans, and it is no mean achievement. But we still have major social problems. Against the background of problems in various areas, war veterans face serious social problems. They had another hunger strike in Dagestan, the problem was resolved yesterday. A group is coming to meet with me next week.

I think that we should take this opportunity, when speaking about the war we could tell people something about plans of social support for war veterans on behalf of our Popular Front. Perhaps, if you have an opportunity, you could meet with the Afghan veterans because they are unable to address their problems at the regional level. And they have serious problems.  

Vladimir Putin: Very well. It is indeed a big landmark, 70^th anniversary of the start of the war. A terrible tragedy, followed by a triumph for our country. It will not pass unnoticed. The anniversary will be marked at state level by the president and the government. And of course we should give the issue its due share of attention within our framework. Thank you, Mr Klintsevich, for raising this issue.

Colleagues, today we have essentially discussed three issues.

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Vladimir Putin’s closing remarks:

Ladies and gentlemen, today we were in fact addressing three issues. We planned to tackle two issues, but found ourselves working on three. They are as follows.

First, we discussed how candidates would be nominated by the United Russia lists, but from the Popular Front.  I believe that in general, we have come to an agreement. We need to look at a few more details, but generally we agree: the document is signed. So let us consider the matter settled, and get to work.

Second, without waiting for any word from Nikolai Fyodorov, we began discussing the programme and doing so quite actively, I would say we discussed certain issues very profoundly, and this deserves praise. I hope that the programme’s basic points will be ready within the timeframe indicated – by July – and relevant discussions will begin. We also agreed that the United Russia congress, during which we will compile, submit and approve all this, will be held on September 3 and 4.

Finally, the third issue we discussed concerns our current affairs. I must agree with Mr Roshal (Leonid Roshal) and his colleagues that such crucial items as policy papers and election programmes are long- or medium-term in nature. However, there are important current issues which also require attention. They make up a significant part of our work. We should not hurry while working on certain basic legislation – rather, we should take a closer look at social funds. Representatives of businesses and trade unions spoke about this, and they raised another issue – roads – a very acute issue for us that needs to be promptly addressed.

On the whole, our coordinating council is working very well. I would like to thank you and note that we will continue meeting and discussing problems in this manner. Thank you very much.