Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Good to see you again. How is housing construction going?

Boris Gromov: Good.

Vladimir Putin: How much housing are you building now as compared with last year?

Boris Gromov: It’s about the same each year. Last year, we built 7.7 million square metres. This year, it will be about the same number. We built 8 million square metres in 2009. The numbers are always within this range.

Vladimir Putin: Very good progress.

Boris Gromov: Yes, I know. Of that figure, slightly over 40% is comprised of low-rise buildings. Last year, 46% of completed housing was low-rise.

Vladimir Putin: That’s above the average in Russia. You are making good progress.

Boris Gromov: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: I can see that you are building housing for both civilians and service personnel.

Boris Gromov: We are building a lot for the Defence Ministry (shows papers).

Vladimir Putin: I know. We looked at this project together with the minister of defence.

Boris Gromov: We participate actively in this work. Mr Putin, I would like to report to you on our cooperation…

Vladimir Putin: With Moscow?

Boris Gromov: With Moscow.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Sobyanin showed me.

Boris Gromov: We have allocated additional plots for them in six municipal districts. In all, that makes 21 rural municipal districts and 5 urban districts, including Gorky-10, Rublyovo-Arkhangelskoye (the tentative location for the future financial centre), and Skolkovo. The total area is 144,000 hectares, in comparison with the 107,000 on which Moscow currently sits. In other words, this area is larger than the current area of Moscow.

We believe that this is a very promising area. All these areas are subject to development under the master plan for developing the Moscow Region. The development density is low in this area; the population density is lower than anywhere outside Moscow. The environmental conditions are very good. However, we will need to build roads, traffic interchanges, and much more.

Vladimir Putin: You need to do this in conjunction with Mr Sobyanin.

Boris Gromov: Yes. We see each other every day. We saw each other just yesterday because there are many issues to discuss. The borders were marked tentatively. We will follow existing rural administrative divisions, so as not to cause additional problems. We will also consider the neighbouring municipal entities. We don’t want some areas to be well-developed and others to look unkempt. We want all of them to look good, so we will invest in them and include funds from Moscow.

Vladimir Putin: Great. There are many formal issues that need attention. I hope you and Mr Sobyanin will tackle them properly.

Boris Gromov: I am confident that we will. We need time, but we’ll do all it takes. There are many issues, indeed.

Vladimir Putin: Good. How are things in the economy and social services?

Boris Gromov: We have recovered from the crisis, and all our numbers are back to pre-crisis levels or above. Last year, we had a budget surplus for the first time since the beginning of the crisis, and, this year, we will have a surplus, too. The budget is larger than last year – it’s the best we’ve seen since the beginning of the crisis.

Vladimir Putin: Since before the crisis, right?

Boris Gromov: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: In other words, the economy is up, too?

Boris Gromov: Yes. The economy is doing fine, especially the manufacturing industry. The construction industry is almost back on its feet. Retail… well, you can always tell how people are doing when you see how they shop.

Vladimir Putin: Right.

Boris Gromov: People have started buying expensive goods…

Vladimir Putin: Durable goods?

Boris Gromov: Yes, durable goods in large quantities.

Vladimir Putin: That’s a good sign of recovery.

Mr Gromov, let me pose my traditional question: Have you approved the healthcare programme?

Boris Gromov: Yes. We have.

Vladimir Putin: Have you begun the actual work?

Boris Gromov: We have approved the programme, allocated the funds, identified facilities across our healthcare system, and started working.

Vladimir Putin: What about education?

Boris Gromov: As for the development of school education, I don’t want to brag, but we have always been a leader among other Russian regions. We invested our own funds and received federal funding as well.

Vladimir Putin: Have you signed off on the paperwork with the Ministry of Education?

Boris Gromov: Yes, we have. We have looked into everything.

Vladimir Putin: Facility by facility?

Boris Gromov: Yes, we went through each school and preschool institution. As for preschool institutions, I can…

Vladimir Putin: Wait a second. Let’s finish with schools. What are your teachers getting paid?

Boris Gromov: The average teacher’s salary will be 27,000 roubles [a month] beginning September 1.

Vladimir Putin: What’s the regional average?

Boris Gromov: It’s 27,000.

Vladimir Putin: In other words, you met the goal?

Boris Gromov: We will fulfil your instructions.

Vladimir Putin: Excellent.

Boris Gromov: We will have everything in place by September 1: the funds have been allocated, the calculations have been made, and everyone has been duly notified.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. You had something to say about preschool institutions.

Boris Gromov: We are facing problems with them. On the one hand, it’s good that the birth rate is up; on the other hand, we don’t have enough room. Last year, we commissioned additional kindergarten facilities to accommodate 8,000 children; this year, we will commission facilities for another 14,000 and for 12,500 next year.

Vladimir Putin: In other words, you are increasing the capacity?

Boris Gromov: Certainly. We are building it up.

Vladimir Putin: Very good. What your needs?

Boris Gromov: Today, we need to accommodate 82,000 children.

Vladimir Putin: When do you plan to complete the work at this pace?

Boris Gromov: We will increase the pace now that we are able to do so.

Vladimir Putin: You should take care of this. Another sensitive topic is rural roads.

Boris Gromov: We didn’t do much about rural roads over the past two or two and a half years because of the crisis. However, we resumed work this year and allocated an additional 2.5 billion roubles to build and repair rural roads. That’s in addition to the funds that had been allocated under the United Russia programme for courtyard access roads. These funds cover only major cities; they have nothing to do with rural roads. We allocated additional funds in order to…

Vladimir Putin: They are going to form road funds soon. Please focus on rural roads while you are at it.

Boris Gromov: Of course.