Vladimir Putin: How are things going? How did the session end?

Vyacheslav Volodin: On the whole, very well.

With your permission I would like to report to you on some matters. You set some very important goals at the last congress of the United Russia party.

You have said that the party should be more open if it is to take effective decisions. Most importantly, it must promote energetic, decent and competent people to all the levels of government and positions.

At the same time you have said that the party should get rid of those who discredit it by their behaviour and those who have joined the party in order to further their own ends.

A certain amount of work has been done recently. That work was conducted among the grassroots of the party. Discussions of key issues have been held at the party's clubs. We can already say that we are ready to propose some amendments to the Charter by the time of the Congress. I would like to report to you what has been done during this time.

Vladimir Putin: Go ahead. But you know, we should not go to extremes. We should not allow our work to acquire features of a "drive". We cannot constantly sprinkle our heads with ashes and flagellate ourselves. It should be a systematic, permanent serious work aimed mainly at the end result. This is what we have to bear in mind in formulating tasks.

Vyacheslav Volodin: This has been your constant reminder so we are making sure that there should be no "drives". We, too, are afraid lest this process assume the character of a "drive". We are anxious about it. But you are warning us stressing that we should aim for the final result. So, we are proceeding on that basis.

Vladimir Putin: All right, let us now discuss it in more detail.