Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Shmakov, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions has been very active in the trilateral commission “Government-unions-employers” (the Russian Trilateral Commission on the Regulation of Social and Labour Relations). In this connection, I am very much pleased that you have given your full support to the Russian Popular Front and are very active there too. It is also highly important to draft the policy documents which will be taken as a basis for the executive agencies policy after the State Duma elections. Therefore, I would like to discuss these issues today.

How do you think we should organise this work further down the road? What priorities do you see, given that you work with the government in the trilateral commission? Trade unions, obviously, focus on wages, safety and social protection issues – in summary, the issues that greatly affect all Russians.

Mikhail Shmakov: They certainly do, and that is the reason we are most actively involved in the drafting of the Popular Front’s programme. We are working in close contact with Mr Fyodorov’s think tank (Nikolai Fyodorov heads the Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies). All of the programme’s clauses are equally important, but we focus above all on section three, Social Justice on the  Way to a Society of Equal Opportunities. This section includes clauses on an effective labour market and fair compensation for each employee’s work. We believe that labour is underestimated in Russia. We have mentioned this problem many times at the trilateral commission. Although this is usually a disputable issue, I believe the programme should include measures to correct the current inconsistencies as the economy develops. Despite any global crises, we believe that our combined efforts can prevent meltdowns and other negative phenomena in Russia that occur in more vulnerable countries.

This section also deals with social partnership, which also needs development. The problem of retirement pensions is still out there, and the size of corporate social contributions is still widely debated: whether it should be 30% or 34%, and how the social funds should compensate for the shortfall of income if corporate contributions are lowered.

Here we have some differences with other agencies that help write this programme. But I think that we will be able to reach a compromise by the time it is approved at United Russia’s congress and, more importantly, by the time it is implemented after the elections as the government’s policy.

The taxation problems are clear. From our perspective, the system is a little “lopsided” and needs to be balanced, because it often happens that people with moderate income have to pay their taxes in full while people with high and stable incomes have a relatively smaller tax burden. This issue calls for a broad discussion and for wise decisions. Therefore, we believe there is a healthy discussion going on and I am certain that the programme will be ready as planned, that is about two weeks from now.

Vladimir Putin: It is important that we produce a complete document that will clearly and unambiguously outline the goals we set for ourselves. It needs to be a tool that will take us to those goals by the shortest possible way. And they must be attainable.

Mikhail Shmakov: Absolutely. We do not have our heads in the clouds, to include any populist policies in it. The goals should be challenging but certainly attainable. While drafting our own version of section three, we certainly didn’t want it to be in conflict with other sections, or vice versa. We need a balanced programme.