Transcript of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Today we are summarising the results of our primary elections. Earlier, at United Russia regional conferences, we spoke about the need to develop institutions of inner party democracy and to encourage fresh talent to come into power, bringing along some new and meaningful ideas.

It was with this objective in mind that we formed the National Popular Front. 

The institution of primary elections [in Russia] is only in its formative stages, and there are sure to be certain kinks to smooth out. Of course, we need to work to streamline the process and we will certainly do so. But in general, and I think you will agree with me, this has been a positive experience that has produced good results. I will dwell on this today. The most important thing is that inner party competition brings out talented people and original ideas.

And indeed, we have been able to open up new possibilities for Russian civil society to form a national agenda, and I consider this to be extremely important.

I’d like in particular to highlight the following points. The number of candidates running in this year’s primaries is three times higher than in 2007. More than 60% of these candidates ran independently or as nominees of public organisations. Some 220,000 electors were present to assess them and their programmes. Half of the electors represent public organisations.

The primary elections served as kind of exam, requiring serving MPs to come before the public and talk about their parliamentary work. And the people in the audience could then make their decisions based on whether certain lawmakers had reported to their constituencies, and how effective they had been in addressing problems that face them or their relatives, their neighbours and friends. I believe this is a highly important development.

Another important point is that the primaries brought out fresh talent. There was a good showing from more than 250 United Russia members in this year’s primaries, who had never before taken part in State Duma elections. Now they’ve got an opportunity not only to get on the shortlist of 600, but also a real chance of getting into the lower house of parliament.

Nearly a quarter of those who finished in the top ten of their respective constituencies are also newcomers to the world of big parliamentary politics. They were either nominated by public organisations or ran independently.

At one of our earlier meetings, we said that at least 150 unaffiliated candidates nominated by the Popular Front would be put on the United Russia ticket. 

In assessing this year’s primaries’ results, I wish we had set that upper limit even higher, because there proved to be so many truly interesting people among those independent and non-party candidates.

Our election ticket will be finalised at a United Russia congress in late September, but we will be posting this list for public discussion one month in advance. It’s important that voters be in a position to make an informed decision when the election takes place in December.

As I said earlier, the primaries contributed to the advancement of bright new personalities and fresh, meaningful ideas. With this in mind, I’d like to ask our colleagues from our party who are currently sitting in the State Duma to consider (along with members of other parties as well) the possibility of making primaries a standard practice for all political parties, and introducing the appropriate amendments to the existing laws. Mr Gryzlov, please discuss this with your colleagues in parliament. It seems to me that this would be interesting and exciting, and that it could stimulate political life in this country.

Now on to regional elections. It would be sensible, in my view, to hold primaries not only in advance of State Duma elections, but also during the run-up to regional and municipal elections. This is always easier [in smaller communities] where people know one another. But this practice would also have some merit in large cities, with a population of more than one million.

Incidentally, newly elected legislatures will now delegate their representatives to the Federation Council, or parliament’s upper house. Elections in 27 regions of the Russian Federation will be held in autumn, and the elected deputies will delegate their representatives to the Federation Council. And it would be sensible to recommend those who have made a good showing in the primaries.

This year’s primaries demonstrated the effectiveness of the mechanisms of the Popular Front. But of course, our ambitions are not limited to elections. Our primary goal is to maintain open discussion and suggest solutions to some key problems related to the development of the nation.

Using the platform of the Popular Front, we have already considered some defining issues, including healthcare and education reform, social policies, budget priorities, counter-extremism measures, and the strengthening of civil and inter-ethnic harmony. This work can and must be continued.

I’d like to thank all of my party colleagues who took part in the primaries. We need to ensure that all those who showed up stay engaged in the process. In this regard, I suggest that we form a personnel pool from those who performed best in the primaries. Unfortunately, we do not conduct any systemic work on human resources as of yet. But we should, as this is one of the major sources from which to replenish representative and executive bodies on every level.

Let’s get to work. I’ll now give the floor over to Mr Gryzlov.

Boris Gryzlov: Thank you. Let me recall that voting in the primaries started on July 21. Initially, we planned that this stage would take two weeks, but given the large number of candidates who have put themselves forward to stand in the primaries – 4,700 people – we have extended the primaries to a month, and today we are in a position to draw some conclusions. Regions have completed the paperwork, and have drawn up lists of their “top ten” candidates, that is those who have taken leading positions.

I believe that the decision to hold the primary elections has definitely been justified, and not only because of the large number of participants and the number of people who have been nominated by public organisations (60%). Importantly, another 300 people were self-nominated, which means it involved a great many people and generated significant interest. We are in a position to say that during the month of July 21 – August 21, results in United Russia’s primaries were, perhaps, the main topic of political coverage by the mainstream media. This is the case, and it is true not only for mainstream media in the regions, but also for federal networks.

There were a total of 896 venues provided for hosting these primaries. This means a huge number of meetings, and 220,000 electors at these 896 venues voted for those individuals who, in their opinion, are really able to make things better and stand as a candidate for the State Duma.

Of course, the party and the Russian Popular Front have gained a great deal of experience through these primaries. Obviously, there were both positive and negative moments, there were conflicts, there were incidents of deliberate provocation – that all happened. This once again shows that these primaries are not artificial, but real competition, the real development of democracy within the party and its real strengthening thanks to the mechanisms of the Popular Front. This is the conclusion we should draw. We saw a lot of new faces: professionals from different areas, representatives of different professions and social groups. I believe that the deputies we choose from among these candidates will be more efficient and that we will be able to improve the overall efficiency of the State Duma as an institution. The top segment from across the regions – 830 people – includes 320 Popular Front representatives, 149 of whom are not members of any party. There are another 46 non-party self-nominated candidates in these lists of the “top ten”. We understand that we have definitely reached the target set of 150 independent candidates that could potentially get onto the List of 600, or maybe more, because we have a choice, and this number really can be increased.

I would like to say that we discovered some of the winners, that is, those who made it into the top segment, even earlier, when holding inter-regional conferences in federal districts that we called mini conferences.

Four people took the leading positions. In the Orel Region, it was Natalia Afonina, director of the Kovany Stil trading house. In the Sverdlovsk Region, it was Alexander Petrov, executive director of the Ural pharmaceutical cluster. In the Kurgan Region, it was Alexander Iltyakov, director of the Veles meat processing plant. And in the Nenets Autonomous Area, it was Grigory Ledkov, chairman of the Tazovsky agricultural production cooperative. Of the public organisations that are represented on the federal coordination council, 219 representatives made it into this top segment. I would like to mention the organisations that made the biggest contribution. They are the Union of Russian Women (with 36 people in the top segment), the Federation of Independent Trade Unions (33), the All-Russian Teachers’ Congress (24), United Russia’s Young Guard (16) and Delovaya Rossiya (16). They are leaders in terms of the number of representatives that made it through to these regional lists of the top сandidates, into that list of 830 people.

Of course, we did not just find new politicians, new professionals who can help make the State Duma more efficient. We also demonstrated how open we are, because the current results in these primaries were published within 24 hours. That was one condition set out formally in our Guidelines. Everyone watched how it all played out, who got a leading position, whose popularity was on the wane, when primaries were underway in other parts of the region. Everyone really followed this closely and, interacting with electors, candidates were able to demonstrate their importance, their abilities or, on the contrary, their inability to resolve some issues, for example when answering pressing questions put by the electorate. The fact that these primaries give us the opportunity to observe the candidates closely is, I believe, the main goal of the vote. All parties active on the Russian political arena should adopt this procedure, and necessary amendments should be made to the legislation… It would mean amendments to three laws, the law On Political Parties, the law On the Election of State Duma Deputies and the law On Basic Guarantees of People’s Electoral Rights and the Right to Referendums. These are actually minor amendments, which we could adopt, but it is perhaps important that the procedure for the primaries should be determined by party charters, not imposed on them by law.

Nevertheless, primaries should be made mandatory for all parties. Then we will see these real candidates. Of course, the parties will be able to appraise each other, as was the case during United Russia’s primaries, when some representatives from other parties even tried to stage acts of provocation during the vote. Naturally, our party will similarly be able to see other parties’ primaries, and that would be useful, as it would be a barrier to those who should not get to our country’s legislative bodies.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the 27 regions that will hold elections to their legislatures have a total of 1,210 mandates, and we could right now continue holding primaries at the regional level when preparing for elections to the State Duma at the regional level. Here we truly have a huge potential, a huge reserve pool. In fact, we have an understanding as to who could now reinvigorate the Legislative Assembly at the next election. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much. Mr Neverov, please go ahead.

Sergei Neverov (acting secretary of the Presidium of the General Council of the United Russia party): Thank you, Mr Putin. The issue of new faces has already been mentioned, and I would like to say that any process today that implies true reform stumbles upon very real resistance. We encountered this resistance: there were even attempts to discredit it. We were quite tough in dealing with it. A conflict commission was set up that immediately went out to the regions; we even dismissed people engaged in it. Nevertheless, this process is now underway and has already yielded a fairly large number of new faces (as you and Mr Gryzlov have said). Remarkably, these are people from very different sectors of society, but they are all professionals in their areas.

I would like to mention several names. Yekaterina Lakhova did fairly well. Alexander Bogomaz made it to the top three. He grows potatoes and today is actually responsible for 3% of the country’s total potato output. We need 30 such people, and the country will be fed, it will have enough potato. Turning to other territories, Mr Roshal’s association nominated several people to run in the primaries, and quite successfully: we believe it participated actively in all events. Natalia Aksyonova, leader of the public organisation Do Good for Children, also made it. Yes, there were moments of dispute, we went there, she came here. It is important that active people like this should be involved in these processes, and, of course, we uncovered such situations at an early stage. Sergei Dorofeyev, chief doctor at polyclinic No. 1 in Novosibirsk, also stood in the primaries and, representing the medical community, was very active in going to all the events and throughout the whole primaries process.

As for the great many workers who participated in these events, Alexander Kamensky did very well in Rostov. He is a true gent of noble mining stock, a man with a higher education, who, after working as a company deputy CEO for some time, went to work as a foreman. He put together a team that has accompanied him from coalmine to coalmine for 22 years; it is a team of shaft miners. He came third in the Rostov Region, where competition is very tough both among State Duma deputies and social activists. Valery Trapeznikov, a lathe operator and trade union activist, was nominated by trade unions in Perm and made it through to the top five. And we hope that he will go on to be included in the list and have a chance of making it through to the State Duma. In the Saratov Region, Lyudmila Bokova, a history teacher, was very active and got a decent result. In other words, a lot of wonderful new faces have emerged – people who proved serious competition for incumbent State Duma deputies. And I believe that the list that will be created with the participation of the Russian Popular Front and the federal coordination council will indeed be a popular list, a list of people’s deputies that will adequately represent public organisations and carry out the tasks you have outlined for them. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr Lysakov, please go ahead.

Vyacheslav Lysakov (Chairman of the coordination council for the inter-regional public organisation of motorists Freedom of Choice): Thank you. I was elected from the Moscow Region, and I would like to share my personal impressions. We did not encounter any acts of provocation; blunders and confusion abounded in the initial phase, but that was dealt with fairly quickly. First, we have headquarters. We have an HQ chief who rules with an iron fist to ensure your ideas are put into practice. I can confirm it. That is the first thing. He has assistants: Svetlana Orlova (member of the Presidium of the General Council of the United Russia party, deputy chair of the Federation Council), Sergei Neverov (acting secretary of the Presidium of the General Council of the United Russia party), and Mikhail Babich (commission chairman of the Presidium of the General Council of United Russia for work with public appeals, deputy chairman of the State Duma Defence Committee). The headquarters work around the clock. My colleagues will confirm that the confusion, blunders and mistakes that transpired were dealt with quickly. Obviously, regional elites resisted, as we all saw, because, unfortunately, some areas of Russia are still swamp-like, figuratively speaking. But the political construct you proposed is working and new faces have indeed emerged.

I believe that primaries, or the public preliminary vote, is kind of a public X-ray; that is, people get to see what individuals say, what they are like, what potential they have. Everything is there for all to see. The people won’t be hoodwinked, so I believe that the points and places people won were won fairly. There might have been some careerists who wanted to run in the primaries simply in order to advance their careers. But I believe they were rejected because, I repeat, X-rays do not make mistakes.

And it would be appropriate, Mr Putin, to introduce this process for regional elections. I support this, because people need this kind of interaction. Unfortunately, it turns out that some deputies, no offence meant, had nothing to say. The majority were fairly efficient, but those who are resentful now… It turns out that some have never been to their regions or have visited just a couple of times. I won’t name names, but everyone sees this. So their complaints are ungrounded.

Indeed, there is a role for the party personnel reserve. Our organisation – we took a moderate and realistic approach – nominating me and two others. My colleague, head of the Freedom of Choice’s regional division Alexander Kholodov, was quite successful, making it to the Leningrad Region top ten. A regional leader from Sakhalinsk, Viktor Malenkov, was another dark horse – he did very well. He did not initially intend to participate, but since he is a responsible individual and member of the regional coordination council, he decided to run. And people supported him. He is a faculty dean, a Candidate of Science, a distinguished teacher, and a motorist – which is what he is mainly known as. He is involved in genuine work with the local administration and the road police, he resolves problems that drivers encounter, and he has made it to the top three. Unfortunately, Sakhalin has only one seat in the State Duma, but he was not aiming for a seat in the State Duma anyway. He will definitely prove very valuable for the local legislature. I think my colleagues will support me, and next year we will nominate him for the legislature, where he will reinvigorate the Russian Popular Front and United Russia.

Finally, I believe that the Popular Front and the federal coordination council have proved themselves tools capable of resolving burning social issues. On August 3, 2011, under the auspices of the Russian Popular Front, we held Russia’s first conference of taxi drivers. Thank you, Mr Putin, for your welcome message, for paying attention to it. In fact, we took the first step towards shaping an industry that had existed for 20 years without any attention from any structures, government or non-profit. As conference chairman, I want to report back that it decided to set up a non-profit organisation to represent the interests of the professional community at all levels. We are establishing a working group to improve Federal Law No.69 that comes into force on September 1.

In conclusion, I would like to say that all delegates, all honorary guests of the conference received a participant certificate. Since you sent us a welcome address, we made a certificate saying that you were an honorary guest of the conference. Unfortunately, the protocol service withdrew it, so I cannot give it to you personally, though, of course, it would be a pleasure. If you keep it on you, Mr Putin, you will be able to get free rides in taxis all across Russia.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much. Mr Roshal, please go ahead. Now I’ll hop in a taxi for free, and perhaps Mr Roshal will tell us how to get medicine for free.

Leonid Roshal (president of the National Medical Chamber non-profit partnership): Mr Putin, when you get in a taxi, would you take me along with you for free?

Vladimir Putin: Sure, okay.

Leonid Roshal: I’d like to say a few good words about the headquarters – the guys have done a great job, but I don’t envy them – I saw how quickly they had to work.

May I mention another burning issue first? It is indirectly related to what we are discussing, or perhaps it is directly related after all. Two weeks ago the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development held a meeting for the heads of regional healthcare departments and deputy governors on social issues, and suddenly brought up the question of resuscitating the Russian Medical Society, without any prior notice or agenda, inviting everyone to join its ranks. I think this is a crude administrative decision against the National Medical Chamber (NMC), and simply a stab in the back.

Allow me to say with all responsibility that during the almost 15 years of this society's existence, it has accomplished nothing for Russia. It saddens me that they have managed to persuade Academician Yevgeny Chazov, who now depends on them and whom I respect, to head this society. When I offered Chazov the position of NMC president on behalf of the medical community he refused, saying he didn’t need this. But this time he is doing their bidding. We are not afraid of other organisations because the majority of the country’s medical workers support us. But they don't use methods like this!

The NMC includes 60 organisations nationwide, both regional and local. We bring together about 200,000 medical workers: practitioners, heads of institutions and eminent healthcare workers. Incidentally, many chief specialists of the ministry are also our members, and they have now started to fear for their future – if they work with us, will they be left there or not? If events follow this course, the NMS may cease to exist.

Mr Putin, I am simply asking you to intervene in this situation. They are already meeting tomorrow in the North Caucasus Federal District, where one of Russia’s first medical chambers operates, which was established even before the NMC. During this time we set up the Siberian Medical Chamber and united the region. We are now working in the Volga Region. Can you imagine what would happen in Russia if we pursue this course? Frankly, I think this is simply revenge for our position of principle, and I want to be direct about this. We are not against other organisations, but as a result there are many ministers, heads of healthcare departments and deputy governors that are afraid to deal with us. I feel this. Esteemed NMC members are being subjected to direct pressure. We are asking you to please defend NMC members in order to prevent them from being harassed and dismissed from their jobs. Now I’ll turn to the idea of the Popular Front and the primaries. What a fantastic idea!

Vladimir Putin: Mr Roshal, as for the first part of your statement, please be assured that if there are complaints that some of your colleagues are being discriminated against for taking part in a public organisation…

Leonid Roshal: Okay.

Vladimir Putin: It goes without saying that we will… I promise, you have my word that as you requested, I will step in and we will not abandon anyone. As for other possible associations, it is impossible to ban them, but if it was a stillborn child, it will remain as such. It is impossible to establish an efficient public organisation through an administrative decision, so it's better not to concern yourself with this. This is the first time I have heard about this problem but I will find out what is going on.

Leonid Roshal: I’m simply against any administrative response.

Vladimir Putin: Sure.

Leonid Roshal: Any advisory bodies are welcome… There's no question that we may argue, establish different organisations – but imposing them through administrative measures like this…

Vladimir Putin: It's possible that administrative measures might not be so bad when they produce something useful. But the point is to protect those who work for you, to make sure nobody prohibits or harasses them. I promise you that I will deal with this.

Leonid Roshal: Yes, thank you. Now, about the Popular Front and the primaries. This is a fantastic idea! I think it's true that not everybody was ready to see this implemented. Nothing human is alien to anyone – this is very true. They were truly fighting, in earnest, as if they were fighting for life or death. I participated in the primaries and saw this all myself.

There were also many things that should not have been there, but the spirit remained intact. The main idea is absolutely correct. What mattered to me was not who would pass and who wouldn't (I was a passive onlooker in this sense), but what their programmes were. These programmes are a treasury of ideas that need to be generalised. Do we regret joining the front? No, we don’t. This is the only way that we could have started influencing real politics. I’d like to emphasise that we are not criticising or rushing around with posters – rather, we are influencing politics, and this is very important for us.

There are certainly members of the medical community who fail to understand this step, but their number is decreasing all the time. All those who took part in the primaries are ambitious people. About 40% of medical workers, or even more, were not party members. Without a doubt, all of them form a reserve of the front. We received their contact information, and have already started working with them. In all, about ten medical workers (two of those that we nominated are not United Russia members) will run for seats in the Duma.

We have stopped the adoption of the half-baked law. The NMC was the only organisation to work on drafting it the entire summer, and it continues to work on the front’s medical programme. We sent the draft and questions for discussion by the front to more than 2,000 medical workers through the Internet, and held meetings of medical activists in Kazan, Yaroslavl, Novosibirsk, Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod (about 400 medical workers gathered in Nizhny Novgorod) to discuss the medical part of the draft proramme and the draft law. Today I’m flying to Pskov. We have started discussion on the NMC site and in the Live Journal, and are using all methods at our disposal. We have agreed with Duma leaders to hold four expert round-table debates together, with two urgent issues up for discussion at each, and are planning to complete this work by late September.

I have brought with me 357 pages of comments on this project from medical practitioners and our rural colleagues from the Far East to Kaliningrad.  We are now working through these comments together. We believe that the front’s programme must include concrete and ambitious tasks that are understandable for everyone including, for instance, Aunt Masha, a cloakroom attendant who came from her village to earn money in Moscow. She must be able to understand what this programme will offer her and what it is all about.

Our healthcare system needs to be worthy of our people. For instance, we could plan to improve people's attitude towards the healthcare system by double in five years, bringing their ratio at least up to 60% or 70%. You know that the average is currently 30%. This is certainly an ambitious goal. Will the people understand this? Of course they will.

Can this goal be achieved? Of course it can, but we need to work hard with regard to personnel as well as many other issues.

I've dragged out my speech a bit, but I’d like to repeat that the NMC is prepared to continue working within the front to improve healthcare in Russia. We must make sure that the entire medical community understands how useful it is to participate in the front. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you, Mr Roshal. Please, Mr Prokopenko, go ahead.

Timur Prokopenko (chairman of the Coordinating Council of the national public organisation United Russia Young Guards): Thank you, Mr Putin. There's no doubt that young people have placed a lot of hope on the primaries, and in this respect the front has not only breathed new life into the political system, it has also given them an opportunity. Before the main primaries, we had conducted a youth campaign to identify public leaders – the youth primaries. Along with the Young Guards, many other public youth organisations took part in it as well.

There are 151 victors. This undertaking lasted two months, and they organised it themselves and took part in the primaries. All this was possible because our organisation had become a member of the Coordinating Council and the number of young participants increased to 285 people. Of course, it was difficult to compete with the current political leaders, but these ambitious young people did not give in. In many regions (I have even received calls from our activists) they themselves increased the quantity of venues for speeches.

Mr Gryzlov just said that 16 people from the Young Guards have made it into the top ten – in all there are 40 people from public youth organisations, and 12 have even made it into the top five. We could not have dreamed for results like this. Until 2007 there existed a quota system. Without a doubt, all of these people will now take part in elections to legislative assemblies in 27 regions. They have received good training, and have passed through fire and water. For example, our activist, a student, has even won the popular elections in the Jewish Autonomous Region. To our surprise, he emerged as a leader in the public opinion.

I’d also like to say that over the course of five weeks, our activists colleced ideas and proposals for the popular programme. In all, 50,000 activists took part in this work, primarily our volunteers. We polled a little over one million people in the streets and other busy areas. This is a fairly large sample. We divided all issues into categories according to scale – regional and federal ones.

Perhaps people are talking about well-known facts, but that was what became the acid test and motivation to regulate local budget priorities. At one of the last meetings, reporters approached me (I took part in the primaries in the Saratov Region) and asked, “What is changing in your region? You are speaking at one meeting after another – we see the emotions, the pitch of the fight, and so on… “I replied that the important thing, surprisingly, was that the practical programmes begin right away. At my first two meetings I said – and this idea was accepted by the youth organisations in the Saratov Region – that a small department cannot shape the youth policy in a region with a population of one million, where 600,000 young people live. A committee on youth affairs was quickly organised. The authorities had heard my appeal, although no one approached me and no one got in touch with me. Nevertheless it happened. That no doubt is our small victory, and there were many similar victories.

As I said, it was our volunteers who gathered material for the People’s Programme. Mr Putin, you had a meeting last week with public organisations concerned with disabled people. But this is one of the main themes and missions of our organisation too. In the middle of September, we are to sign an agreement with Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu to establish a liaison system in the regions to be in contact with the Ministry and update it. We have already trained 100 people in emergency work in Noginsk and perhaps they will opt for this noble profession in the future. Considering that important socio-political and sports events are beginning next year (APEC summit, Kazan, Olympics in Sochi and World Cup), it is necessary to mobilise the entire volunteer movement. By the time you leave, we will have put our ideas and some immediate measures on paper. In effect, these volunteers do not ask for something, they just do it because they have the heart to engage in good work. But may I pass to you these proposals and a small report?

Vladimir Putin: Thank you, Mr Prokopenko. You represent youth movements and the fact that you have already influenced the decisions by administrative bodies is good, but we should realize that if a small department has been turned into a committee, it is not a very big victory.

Timur Prokopenko: Surely.

Vladimir Putin: I do not doubt they will make it into a super-committee and add another couple of thousands people to its staff. It is important that this administrative decision improve the quality of work. That people who join it are really concerned with youth policy, will make budget-level decisions to construct sports centres, stadiums, youth clubs, develop the volunteer movement, work with veterans, and so forth – this is what we should press for. And, incidentally, at the regional legislative level, at the Duma level and within the Russian Popular Front, we can and must oversee these changes in detail. After all, that is the purpose of this organisation. And I ask you not to be satisfied that a new and larger administrative body has been established, but to look into what is going on there.

Timur Prokopenko: We have consulted the youth movements and gathered their opinions. There is a targeted youth programme until 2015. We have already submitted these ideas to the new committee on youth affairs.

Vladimir Putin: Fine.

Timur Prokopenko: They include a park in Balakovo, a lot of other projects, City Day …  

Vladimir Putin: It is good we understand each other. Who would like to speak next, please?

Valentina Ivanova (chairperson of the All-Russian Teachers’ Assembly, a public organisation): Mr Putin, I would like to say a few words about how the All-Russian Teachers’ Assembly participated in the primaries. A total of 605 people representing all levels of education took part, including 445 heads of secondary, vocational and other schools – a huge contingent. In post-Soviet Russia we are seeing for the first time the massive involvement of teachers in the decision-making process in representative bodies of authority, and such a demand for their participation. It was a good lesson for them when they introduced their organisation and projects, and occasionally heard parents and primary voters say far from kind words about them.

I think this format turned out to be highly useful for all heads of educational institutions. We are glad that 24 people have joined the top ten and are candidates for election to the State Duma. Something like 150 people have been nominated for the personnel pool – as you mentioned. We are grateful for that and expect that those who have made their mark will work actively on the education committees of the regions and in local government

Mr Putin, during the primaries and while drafting the Front’s Programme we received 126,000 proposals from teachers and school heads.

Vladimir Putin: On school issues?

Valentina Ivanova: Yes, on school issues. The activity is tremendous, society is waking up. What’s more, the proposals deal mainly with what to do, not who is to blame. As you say, “finding decision-making mechanisms” has been the most valuable thing achieved.

We have worked out the Front’s School project and handed it over to Nikolai Fedorov. That was the first thing. The second thing I want to emphasise is that if we put together all the suggestions made, the most pressing and urgent issue will be rural schools. At our congress on May 31, you said it was necessary to preserve as many schools as possible, introduce distance learning, pool resources, optimise managerial personnel, keeping it where there are students, and so on. It seems to me that in implementing your guidelines, we should also review the child to staff ratio. Currently, it is 15 children to one teacher. We ask you to make it 10 to one. You, of course, know that we have 7, 6 and fewer children per teacher sometimes. We realise that in this case it will be difficult to preserve the schools or the distance learning. But if the ratio is brought to 10 to 1, it will keep a large number of rural schools functioning and solve the problem of the so-called efficient and non-efficient expenses for rural schools.

Speakers at our congress raised this subject as well. You supported us. Actually, this is an indicator that serves to assess the activity of the region. That is to say, by changing the ratio, we will solve the assessment problem while now it often occurs that a school is closed to give an administration a better mark for its efficiency, and this is done more quickly and more simply than in other matters.

The last proposal from the All-Russian Teachers’ Assembly focuses on the need to develop a new model for rural schooling. To begin with, a school must not be a basket case. Second, a rural school should be a socio-cultural and educational centre for the local community. If any premises at these facilities fall vacant, they should be given over to welfare services, a passport office, a village library, a club or the like. This is the first approach. There is also a second approach … The Penza and Novgorod regions report some interesting experience with rural schools being converted to training and production facilities under Law No. 83. I also want to add that during this period (six to eight weeks), although teachers were on holiday, we drafted a law on education (the teachers were surprisingly active). On July 15, it was posted on the website for discussion.

We want to stress, Mr Putin, that your directive to bring teachers’ wages to the average pay level in the country’s economy has been implemented in all education sectors, and this is very important. The catchword then was “Do it for the teachers.” And what about pre-school, supplementary and other education? The federal law now has everything in place, and this makes us feel good. Currently, the regions have concluded an agreement on higher wages and on the modernisation programmes published during the primaries. We discussed them. The All-Russian Teachers’ Assembly is prepared to open a hot line on pay in September and October to see how all this, your directive and your initiatives, are being implemented.

And last but not least: apparently, the federal law should be expanded to include a provision on the participation of the public in public organisations, in the unified state examinations, and in the assessment procedure so that we – observers, appeal commissions and so on, and the SPO – can work together with employers… This component is partly missing, but your initiatives have been translated into law at all levels and that is an important point. Your amendment has been most effective. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Good. Thank you. Regarding school modernisation and higher salaries for teachers, most regions are to reach the country’s average pay level in the economy by September 1, but not all. There are a number of regions that are promising to do this on January 1, 2012.

Valentina Ivanova: You are a real bulldozer, if you’ll forgive my expression.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, we need to continue this work.

Valentina Ivanova: Will it apply to the rural schools on September 1?

Vladimir Putin: We’ll give it some thought.

Valentina Ivanova: If the ratio is cut back to 10, it will be a grand gift on September 1, the start of the academic year. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: We’ll see. Many thanks for the proposal. Now, colleagues, anybody else wishing to speak? Mr Shmakov (addressing Mikhail Shmakov).

Mikhail Shmakov (chairman of the Russian Federation of Independent Trade Unions):  Mr Putin, colleagues. The past primaries were indeed a big and massive political campaign. And they were well organised. Of course, such a big campaign can suffer from some irregularities, which must be kept in mind for the future. But the proposal to expand or continue the primaries when preparing for elections to the local legislatures is quite justified and if we say that this – a preliminary inner-party ballot – will be included in a law for all parties, we shall no doubt have to take all this experience into account. There were no doubt a number of irregularities and some remarks need to be made, but I think we will work with the headquarters to remedy things that can be remedied and that have been revealed What is impossible to do will be kept in mind for the future so that these campaigns can be conducted in a more organised way and raise fewer questions. As for me, I think Boris was quite right when he said in his speech that this campaign by the Russian Popular Front to hold preliminary elections has involved all political information media over the past two months. This, I believe, has been a very important step in preparation for the elections to be held in December.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you, Mr Shmakov (turning to Mikhail Moiseyev). If you please, Mr Moiseyev.

Mikhail Moiseyev (Chairman of the Council of the National Public Organisation of Russian Armed Forces Veterans): Mr Putin, I remember our meeting in May when you set before members of the Federal Coordination Council the objective of going to the regions, launching the work there and bringing the aims and objectives of the Russian Popular Front to everybody’s attention. Three months appear to have passed as one day and now we’ve had the primaries.

Taking part in the primaries in the Khabarovsk Territory, each of us, chatting among ourselves, not only learned a thing or two, but, using a military term we underwent (what I say to myself) a young soldier’s course of studies. Yes, three months of a young soldier’s course of studies. We encountered such objectives and such problems that if we had not met with people and had not listened to them, we would never have imagined them. As it was, we heard State Duma members and administrations of territories and regions, we saw the tasks they set, which of them were fulfilled and what prospects were outlined in the programmes we are working on.

As we went from meeting to meeting, we also passed through this learning experience. Appearing in public and saying when you were born, baptised or served in the army no longer interests anyone. What is important is your message to the region. I will tell you that as soon as you begin talking (not a lot can be said in five minutes), something new appears: new figures and new voices because the result is announced at once in the evening. At night you do not sleep – you begin to think about what to say at the next meeting so that everybody understands you and you do not depart from the regional policy set forth in this part of the Russian Federation.

Of course, this was not just a school for us. We saw people, especially young people. How wonderful they are! Concerning the Khabarovsk Territory, I can say that in Komsomolsk, Nikolayev-on-Amur, Sovgavan, Khabarovsk itself and its suburbs there is now a new force and, speaking with it, we openly say that they are Russia’s future. They are our helpers, our future, a really huge piece of our opponents’ reserve. At the same time, I would like to say that the process of holding such meetings should, of course, be improved because we ourselves took part in it … Besides, our organisations participated in overseeing practical aid to the regions. It was somewhat difficult. And, of course, there were the preparations. I have already decided for myself that next time, if this happens again, I will go about organising this huge, meticulous work differently. This time, frankly speaking, we put to use the vast experience of our Popular Front headquarters. We held conference calls or communicated through other means each Wednesday to discuss the goals that we had not achieved, and this was reflected in our results.

We are already considering how we will launch our People’s Programme. We have a month left, till September 25, to complete the discussion of the People’s Programme. Prior to that, we will participate in regional conferences, a congress on September 23 and 24, and as veterans of law-enforcement, we are already evaluating it… We believe that we have gained some experience and emerged following the primaries ready to carry out other, more complicated and more important tasks that the Russian Popular Front and you can assign to us.

And, most importantly, the people that have not made it into the top tens… I have a message for all of them: dealers have already emerged that are trying to reach a certain part of the electorate. But I believe that we, members of the Russian Popular Front, a united, battle-hardened team…

Vyacheslav Lysakov: The enemy won’t get through, Mr Moiseyev!

Mikhail Moiseyev: No, it won’t.

Vladimir Putin: We do not have enemies, we have opponents; let's try not to break up society. We have opponents who have their own ideas. But what Mr Moiseyev said is, of course, interesting. Indeed, I have also heard that representatives of other parties and unions are trying to win over to their side the people who have passed our preliminary vote. This means that we are actually on the right track. Ms Lakhova, please.

Yekaterina Lakhova (chair of the Russian public organisation Union of Russian Women): Mr Putin, you were absolutely right when you mentioned competition. Twenty years of a multi-party system in a market economy also amounts to competition. I believe that the primaries of the Russian Popular Front represent a new technology that is preparing us very well for the election campaign.

Mr Gryzlov cited the figure, 60% of public organisations. I represent the Union of Russian Women. Mr Gryzlov said we were the first, in the sense that there was a high amount of activity on the part of women. A total of 1,100 women took part in the primaries, 22% of whom made it into top tens. When it came to my organisation, I sometimes even had to force them to run. It was crucial that we demonstrate our potential and the strength of our organisation. We talked about our programme, which we submitted as a proposal for the People’s Programme. We talked about the people’s budget and about the proposals we expect to be adopted.

But the most important thing for our organisation is, of course, to further pursue the policy that we launched together with you in 2006. This should be easy to understand by providing an example using figures: maternity capital used to consist of 250,000 roubles, while next year it will exceed 400,000 roubles. This is an impressive figure. Or another example: unemployed women have never received a childcare allowance, but now they do. Or say a guy is drafted into military service, but if he has a family, a child that he is leaving behind, he receives 8,000 roubles a month. In other words, by providing specific figures, people understand that it is very important for us to continue family policy as part of the social policy. We need to raise the status of the family, and the work we have been doing in the regions is crucial for us.

It's a pity, of course, that there have been various incidents. Mr Moiseyev has talked about buying people over… There are people who are resentful, and cannot stomach this competition. For example, there is a Cossack hetman, Zima, in the Bryansk region (I was truly surprised, because Cossacks are not usually inclined to betrayal). He is a member of our party, he joined the faction, and then he took offense, and that was it… What I mean is that he felt that he was starting to lose, and immediately the Right Cause appeared and people began to talk – first one person, then another, and so on… I think that those who drowned, who failed, were not refused. It is possible that they could have made it, if they had wanted. I see that Klintsevich made Fetisov appear on all platforms, all 12 of them. I was simply curious. And I said to the girls from the Young Guard, "Why do you keep saying, 'I want to go into politics, I want to go into politics?' You're better off saying that you want to get married, to have a good husband and healthy children. You should be talking about a healthy way of life, that’s your programme, you brought that to me and we discussed it.” You see, there are various issues, and both Mr Gryzlov and Mr Neverov have spoken about new people. For example, Natalya Afonina, whom you spoke with in the Central district, was nominated by the Union…

Sergei Neverov: She is from Kovany Stil.

Yekaterina Lakhova: Yes, from Kovany Stil. She was strongly supported by female activists, she is very well received, and, you understand, she is also involved in the dialogue. Or Ivenskikh, a schoolmaster from the Perm territory, is also a non-party member. We see that of those we nominated, 19 active, non-party people made it into top tens. But when talking about equal rights and equal opportunities… We kept arguing with Mr Shmakov when the declaration was being adopted… We are now analysing data from regions. Take the Caucasus, for example: in the primaries, the overall nomination in the Caucasus is 7%; in the Ural district, unexpectedly, it is 12%; in the Far Eastern district, it is 14%; and in the Central district, 30% of women were nominated; in the Republics of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Udmurtia and Chuvashia, the figure is low, 9-10%. So of course, we have drawn conclusions about how we should proceed, about what self criticism is necessary and what reserves we still have left. And most importantly, we should move ahead with the People’s Programme that we will have to implement. Thank you for mobilising us to do this.

Sergei Neverov: There are many young people in the Caucasus.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Yes, great. I have met with them, there are good guys there.

Speaking of maternity or family capital: we have promised to index it, and that is what we are doing. We should not forget that in the past, there was no family capital at all.

Yekaterina Lakhova: Mr Putin, I'd like to say that honestly, there are a lot of proposals regarding maternity capital. There are requests that it should not only be provided for the second child… There are families that seem to be ready to raise one, two, three, up to five children. If we provide [maternity capital] not only for the second and third children, but also for the fourth and the fifth, we would improve our demography much more quickly, because not every family can realistically be motivated to have a second or a third child. This should be considered. And these proposals exist as well.

Vladimir Putin: But then we will just be stimulating the birth rate in those regions where it is already high.

Yekaterina Lakhova: We know that, it has also been analysed.

Vladimir Putin: This should be very carefully considered at the expert level.

Yekaterina Lakhova: Yes, we have analysed that as well.

Vladimir Putin: This doesn’t mean that we shouldn't help families that have three or more children, but the means of this support is another question. It should be discussed separately.

Yekaterina Lakhova: Perhaps, we should adopt a law concerning families with many children, after all.

Vladimir Putin: We will definitely think more about this. Mr Titov, please.

Boris Titov (chairman of the Russian public organisation Delovaya Rossiya): Thank you very much, Mr Putin. We have also found the process of the primaries to be very useful and interesting, but also very complicated. It was not easy, even though competition is nothing new for business. But in the political sector, when you have to talk to people directly… You know, business is always conducted in an office, but here, on open platforms, in an open dialogue… honestly, many people did not make it to the end of the primaries. We had over 80 people at the beginning. Mr Gryzlov said that 16 is a good result for us. Sixteen people have made it and we believe that they will be included in the List of 600. We hope that five to eight may become State Duma deputies.

This is very important for us, not just because we will have increased representation in the legislative power (we need to get our laws through, and of course, we are primarily oriented towards the development of the market economy in the country). It was also very important for us to find leaders among ourselves. You know, business really is conducted in offices, but this process naturally and easily reveals leaders who can put themselves in a management role. Your proposal to support them is very important, because not all of them will make it to the State Duma. So if their results are taken into account when electing the Federation Council… And the personnel reserve is very important. We have identified them, and regional governors can consider them when searching for candidates for various positions. This is very important for us, of course, because there's a reason people participated in the primaries, they felt that they were important people both in their regions and in the country in general.

Another important point for us was that we honed the economic perspectives of our programme, because we approached the primaries with a single programme. We worked within Delovaya Rossiya at first, conducted several brain-storming sessions and formulated single theses that all members of Delovaya Rossiya brought to the primaries. Of course, the main thesis, something that we have already discussed here at the coordination council, is new industrialisation, and the creation of new highly productive jobs. I should say that overall, we had a very positive response from the population, not only from those who work at enterprises, but also from their employers, because this is in fact a uniting idea, one that is of interest to everyone. We are engaged in an active dialogue with Fyodorov’s Institute (Nikolai Fyodorov, director of the Institute of Socio-economic and Political Studies) and can already say that these theses are finding support and are becoming almost key ones.

But we have not stopped here: we are continuing to work, and are now working on a road map, as we call it. There is further development in this direction – now it's not only a matter of “what,” but also “how” and “where” these new jobs should be created. And we will submit these proposals to you, Mr Putin, and to the Institute.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the task of holding primaries is very difficult. So we should give credit to the excellent work of the headquarters, although we actively took part in this work both in the regions and in Moscow. You have said that other parties should also hold primaries… I am afraid they will not have the nerve, and many will not have sufficient organisational resources, but it will be a test for them. I think it is right for people to elect their candidates in a preliminary vote. The result, of course, is that those who pass are real parties, they are truly supported by voters and have a true, serious organisational structure.

Thank you. And there is just one more economic question that concerns us: we discussed it last time, at the headquarters, but I don’t think there has been a decision regarding insurance social payments. You know that we, Delovaya Rossiya, conduct a monthly survey of the attitudes of entrepreneurs. To be honest, their attitude is quite negative: there is very little that is positive in their attitudes, except for one month. July was not very good again, but June was quite good, and then suddenly, an increase… because a discussion once again began on the unified social tax, as we still call it, and a decision was almost reached. So we need a decision, Mr Putin.

Vladimir Putin: It is ready and we will formulate it in the near future. As for this attitude, I mean the attitude of businesses, it is reflected in tax payments. I should say that tax payments are growing, and this is an objective indicator of whether the decisions that are adopted work or not. In general, they do. Nevertheless, we are not rejecting the earlier proposals – they are almost ready. We discussed this recently with Mr Medvedev and came to agreement. So we will do this now, in the near future – there is nothing to further elaborate on, it just needs to be formulated. Please, Mr Plotnikov.

Vladimir Plotnikov (President of the Association of Russian Farm Enterprises and Agricultural Cooperatives): Thank you.

Mr Putin, colleagues. Primaries have shown that they are about something really good and very real. Initially, we had preliminary voting on the party platform, and then we had primaries. This was active work that involved a lot of discussions and proved that we were right in our decision to set up the Popular Front. Those public executives and people from outside the party who joined us on this platform were the ones who generated those lively and exciting discussions. Certainly, the entire society followed those discussions. We in Volgograd were proud that the initiative to create the Popular Front was born and made public by Mr Putin on our land, and all speakers noted this fact.

As far as farmers go, they were active as never before. Agriculture has always been plagued by many problems. Initially, the speakers would just point out these problems, but afterwards, when leaders of the primaries were identified, these proposals were put forward as instructions to the leaders. It is very important to have feedback. You are absolutely right that this is how civil society is formed: each person should have a sense that he or she is important and that authorities at all levels are acting on the proposals advanced by them. I believe that this mechanism needs to be refined, but overall it’s a very important and positive thing that we did together. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much. Please Mr Andriyanov go ahead.

Andrei Andriyanov (President of the Council of the Students' Union of Lomonosov Moscow State University): I also participated in the primaries in Moscow and won. Today, I would like to talk about our work in the Popular Front. In just a few months of its existence, the front was joined by 13 nationwide and 182 regional student and youth organisations. This is a substantial force. Back when we started working on the People’s Programme and began collecting students’ proposals for the People’s Programme, we were surprised to see how serious and important these proposals were. We even took them to the Ministry of Education, and they didn’t believe us; they said that these proposals must have been written by academics for us and we just submitted them, when, in fact, these proposals were drafted by students. In order to preserve these riches, we established an open platform within the Popular Front – the Youth Club – with the support of major Russian student organisations. We also invited all other organisations to participate. A week from now, we will sign for the first time ever a collective agreement between these organisations that are part of the Popular Front’s Youth Club and the Ministry of Education and Science. I would like to thank Minister Fursenko, who actively supports us in our work on the front’s platform. We met with him three times, and certain proposals are now being worked on. The Popular Front has helped us prevent the eviction of a Moscow higher education institution, and students can now return to classes. The ministry has set up a unit that keeps in touch with us. We are glad that our voice has been heard. The minister probably works with students more closely than rectors of some of our higher education institutions.

Mr Putin, I’d like to mention a very interesting idea that we had come up with at a youth club. We plan to hold an All-Russian Student Forum this November. We also plan to invite the ministry to join us and thus expand this forum, so that it becomes an All-Russian Student Congress. The large scale of this congress will activate social mechanisms to help students, which they need so much, but  which have become slightly rusty. These mechanisms will help ordinary students become successful leaders.

Such all-Russian forums are traditional events. This is the fourth one. The previous three were held on the initiative of the Ministry of Education and Science, in other words, they were initiated from above. This one was made possible by youth organisations, which will secure broad participation of students in this forum regardless of their political and other views, beliefs, or ethnic background, and raise all important issues. We are now in the process of choosing the venue for this forum. Since Russia’s modernisation is a very important issue now, we want to hold it at a major higher education institution that trains engineers and is located in Russia’s industrial heart, the Urals.

And of course, Mr Putin, we would like to invite you to attend our forum. You have already met with farmers, doctors, and teachers, and now you have no excuse for not coming to our forum.  We hope that you will not hurt the students’ feeling and will accept our invitation. We will decide on the venue soon and will send you an invitation. We hope to see you there.  Your presence as the leader of the Popular Front is very important to us. We will be expecting you. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much for the invitation. I am really pleased that so many youth organisations have become active participants in the work of the Popular Front. Frankly, I didn’t expect the young people to respond in such an active manner. This is truly amazing, and it’s very good for young people and the entire society.

I also wanted to respond to what Mr Titov said. I believe that the business community should be particularly interested in such preliminary voting, because people will see what businessmen look like and learn more about them, not just from the media that speak about their billions, but what businessmen think about and their plans to develop the economy and social sphere. Business people will also find it important to speak to someone else in addition to their subordinates in their offices and hear what people think about them and what they expect from them. This is extremely important and useful. Please go ahead.

Vladimir Gutenev (First Deputy Chairman and Executive Director of the Russian Engineering Union): Thank you, Mr Putin. The Russian Engineering Union actively participates in the Popular Front, and I believe that all organisations, including our union, feel that we gained substantial benefits from participating in the Popular Front and the primaries. At least, I can feel that the union has undergone drastic changes and became part of the political system rather than just an industrial entity.

Russia is a big country; therefore, the range of issues is also vast, especially during the initial phase. There were a number of regional party executives who thought it was some kind of a giveaway game and they knew better ways of doing it. So, in the beginning there were problems with registering participants in the primaries, putting forward candidates and putting representatives from our organisation on vote counting committees.  However, the efficient work of our headquarters helped resolve most of these problems.  Certain issues remain, but they are few, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Nevertheless, I would like to agree with what Mr Roshal had said. It was ironic that I was the only person to speak about industrial policy during the initial round of primaries (back then it wasn’t popular), and, during the final round of primaries, a person representing preschool education spoke a lot about the need to expand our industrial policy and state defence contracts in order to generate resources in our social state. It was very comforting to hear this, because it meant a certain conversion of ideologies. I think there’s a large reserve here. I think we should, on the one hand, analyse our shortcomings in order to overcome them and, on the other hand, look for available reserves. I believe that the People’s Programme, whose draft was submitted to the headquarters long ago, is a substantial reserve. In particular, its economic section is very strong. Perhaps, so far this has been a reserve regiment on our front, and it will be promoted more vigorously during the next stage, but I think that if we could use this reasoning on a wider scale during primaries, we would get a much better response from voters. Perhaps we could use it in the future, but it’s good experience in any case. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Please go ahead.

Vitaly Yefimov (President of the Union of Russian Transport Companies): I will omit the part about primaries and their strengths. I eagerly participated in this innovative project. Now, when I analyse as a professional manager the establishment of such a large system that became functional in Russia within such a short period of time, I can say that the party became part of the system. This is very important for all of us. Second, if we have a party that is taking shape now, we should realise that it can solve many issues. All the more so, since it is led by very professional and highly effective people in the headquarters. Therefore, perhaps we should take this vast experience of making managerial decisions and building systems into consideration and use it to solve other major issues, such as modernising industry, transport and agriculture.

I understand that other issues also need our attention, but this is the basic system, and if the headquarters continues to operate as it does now, then we will be able to solve these major problems. These are major problems, indeed, and they call for important managerial decisions.

Second, I would like to support everyone, primarily you, in saying that the process has indeed revealed a number of colleagues whom we hadn’t heard of before, and that we have new people who are ready to use their knowledge and expertise at another level. This is very important, and I don’t want us to lose them, because we will now be busy with the elections and after the elections with organisational matters. Perhaps we need some kind of a regulation, so as to include these people in the talent pool? Most importantly, we need to establish a system for their training and professional practice. I studied these issues abroad, and we also had such a system in the Soviet Union. It’s fine if we just have them in our talent pool, but putting them through additional training is much better.

One more request, Mr Putin. It would be good if you recommended to the ministers to include these people in their talent pool and establish a similar system for their professional training. It is particularly important for the ministries. To put it mildly, the level of professionalism at the ministries is very low now. It would be nice if we could improve it the same way we are now improving this major federal system at your initiative. I would like to inform you that people in the transport industry are working on the same numerous problems that we had discussed with you. Certainly, things don’t always go smoothly. The problems were complicated, and there are people who don’t understand them. If things become really tough, then we will ask Mr Volodin or even you to help us.

The outcome of your meeting with employees of the transport industry and members of our presidium as part of the front’s activities was discussed in many regions and at all-Russian congresses. I participated in such meetings in six regions, so huge numbers of transport people know about our decisions. These decisions form the basis for a future transport forum for which we will soon start preparing.

There is another complicated, high-profile and even painful issue, which is ensuring the technical safety at the transport system. We have set up a public commission (also upon the recommendation of the front’s headquarters), which we use to systematise existing issues. I expect we will finish this work by September 10 or 15. We could look into it in your presence at a meeting of the front, because there are many issues that need to be addressed by numerous ministries and departments. We are now drafting a state system for implementing most measures to be taken by the Ministry of Transport, but we don’t have a single coordination system yet. This is my request, if I may. Today we discussed it with Mr Ivanov and found it very effective. I believe that many sensible decisions were made, but still there are issues that might need your attention. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: This is a critical issue. We certainly shouldn’t act as a substitute for the existing official executive branch; therefore, we need to get ministries and the deputy prime minister involved. However, I realise that it is one of the critical issues today, and I can join in any minute, if need be.

Vitaly Yefimov: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Please go ahead Mr Shokhin.

Alexander Shokhin (President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs): Mr Putin, colleagues, I would like to say that the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs didn’t force anyone to participate in the primaries. We made a suggestion to our regional and industrial organisations. About 90 people volunteered on behalf of our union. A few dozen more joined during the second phase, when they extended the primaries. In actual fact, they put forward their candidacies of their own accord and represent Russia’s regions. Mr Gryzlov didn’t mention us, but I think we have at least a dozen people, maybe even no less than Delovaya Rossiya.

I would like to draw your attention to the correct choice of criterion. The coordination council has discussed at least twice the quota issue, because we have large and small organisations. The fact that we didn’t use the Soviet quota system, but instead used competition between people and their ideas, was the absolutely right thing to do, and that made it possible to identify new people.  They have generated new ideas that can be incorporated in the People’s Programme. As far as our union is concerned, we didn’t suggest any specific programmes to our candidates who participated in the primaries and were potential candidates to the United Russia’s list. We adopted this programme in April at our congress, and we reported it to you during your meeting with our union’s board. We worked very closely with Mr Fyodorov regarding the incorporation of our economic programme into the economic part of the programme promoted by United Russia and the Popular Front. I believe that the fact that Mr Gutenev found such huge reserve in this programme is primarily due to the active work that our business association had done concerning this programme.

When we begin selecting people from the short-lists that have been drafted in the regions for making the final election list, it will be very important to use criteria of compatibility with the People’s Programme and the United Russia’s programme, and also to make it a two-way process. On the one hand, we need to preclude any opposing ideas on behalf of active participants in the primaries, which is quite possible, if they come up with fairly radical ideas. On the other hand, it is very important to incorporate reasonable ideas of the participants in the primaries into the People’s Programme. Therefore, the final, pre-congress part related to the discussion of the People’s Programme should be tied in with the drafting of the final list.

In other words, it is very important that finalists hold a series of discussions in the run-up to the congress, so that they can work efficiently on the programme, and so that we can see to what extent their ideas are compatible with the core principles underlying the activities of United Russia and the Popular Front. Certainly, it is very important to keep the people who do not make it on the list. I agree with the idea that we shouldn’t send them back to regional primaries, but instead find a way to include them in short-lists during regional elections. This is a serious campaign that lasted one month, and, in addition to the business community, it involved other people as well. There’s no way they can participate in the primaries several times a year, much less several times during a six-month period; therefore, it is very important to retain them in the talent pool and the regional election pool that you mentioned. I am also talking about legislative federation councils and regional and federal executive authorities. Honestly, I don’t see anything wrong, Mr Moiseyev, if some of our finalists who don’t make it to the Duma or our list of candidates, turn up on the lists of other parties. Certainly, there’s nothing good about it, either, but if they think like us, they will be our partners in the Duma, too. That’s much better than dealing with dark horses. In a sense, our primaries represent a public framework for selecting candidates for other related (not radical, of course) parties and movements. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s not the best scenario, but we will not be able to find employment for everyone anyway, including the talent pool. Still, I wouldn’t look at it as a failure at the very least.

Regarding the business community, you know that the Right Cause is gaining momentum, and if a businessman, be it from Delovaya Rossiya or even the Union of Engineers, finds himself on the Right Cause’s list and does his best to bring its positions closer to the United Russia’s programme, I don’t think that’s bad at all. I believe it’s very important (I want to emphasise this) that the People’s Programme has proponents that enjoy the trust of the people, because they will have to conduct the election campaign. During the final selection of candidates for the election list (I am now talking about business associations that are represented in the coordination council), we should decide who is the most convincing among them from the viewpoint of promoting the ideas of the People’s Programme. Here, too, we should not be guided by quotas but by consideration of how convincing they can be in their work with the voters.

My last point has more to do with the People’s Programme. We should discuss shared interests of all those organisations present here, because there are certain disagreements with regard to the projects that were reported to you by Mr Fyodorov. However, first we need to tie up loose ends and then contact you as the leader of the People’s Front and United Russia with a balanced programme. We are now agreeing certain things on the fly with Mr Shmakov. For example, one of the versions of the document stipulates the right of the unions to represent third parties in court without a power of attorney. This right was mentioned by employers’ associations. Neither unions nor, as far as I know, the government represented by key ministers have any objections. Therefore, we need to balance certain things. This can be done relatively quickly (because it’s not that important), but if we fail to notice it, then it might be misinterpreted.

Overall, primaries are a very promising idea. Indeed, the headquarters remedied many things all along the way, including positions adopted by regional party organisations and regional coordination councils. In the future, it will help us use this know-how to make better choices of candidates and ideas and to form better lists. Even now Mr Gryzlov mentioned that for an entire month the subject of primaries was among the key ones in the public information space. By the way, the tone of discussions was positive, although some people tried to find problems and shortfalls. Only the coverage of events in Libya at times overshadowed the coverage of the preliminary popular vote.

Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, I am pleased to note that the ideas underlying the establishment of the Popular Front are being implemented. We managed to create a situation where large numbers of public organisations who joined the Popular Front got a real opportunity to send their representatives to supreme governing bodies using channels offered by United Russia. The fact that hundreds of thousands of people participated in this work confirms it better than anything else. We have done a vast amount of work, and we should use its results to the best. In this connection, like it was mentioned here before, it is very important not to lose people who hold a lot of promise and to use them during regional elections and in forming representative and executive bodies both at the regional and federal levels. We should create a talent pool and draw on it. Certainly, this is very important.

To conclude, I would like to draw your attention to the following: we need to finish work on preliminary lists for elections to the State Duma. I can only agree that the coordination council should work in its current composition to make sure that these lists are properly drawn up and submitted to the congress on September 23-24.  

There’s one more issue that I would like to bring up. Mr Gryzlov, please make sure that you and your colleagues in the State Duma, as well as other parties and factions represented in the Duma, work on amending the law on political parties, so that preliminary voting becomes routine practice in our political life. Thank you very much.