Transcript:

Vladimir Putin: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our meeting today. We will discuss one of Russia’s perennial problems – roads. We will speak mostly about federal roads because local roads, access roads to residential buildings and so on – even though we have recently started working to improve them and are helping the regions – are above all the responsibility of the regional and municipal authorities. However, today, I repeat, we will speak mostly about federal roads. We will also touch upon the most complicated and acute part of this problem – rural roads.

I will start with Chita. You know that last year I drove along the Chita-Khabarovsk road. Of course, I did not cover 11,000 kilometres as participants will do in the continuing national car rally. They will drive a distance of 11,000 kilometres from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad. Their goal is to inspect the country’s roads, compile rankings and make evaluations. I think that this should be interesting and instructive for the Avtodor state road-building company, as well as for governors and regional leaders, who should be interested in knowing what people think about roads.

Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who is responsible for communications, transport and road-building, as well as the transport and communications ministers, are taking part in our meeting today.

I’d like to start with Chita where a group of car owners have arrived from Vladivostok. Colleagues, you have inspected the state of that road and I’d like to hear your opinion now.

When I drove on that road last year, the builders were still completing parts of it, while other sections already needed repairs, as the road’s construction began long ago. Drivers complained about inadequate communication services along the route.

Thus, the Communications Ministry was issued the respective instructions and promised to ensure proper communication services along the road by year's end. There should also be proper infrastructure for drivers, including cafes, comfortable motels, medical and safety services, road signs and markings, and so on and so forth.

So I have a question for you, colleagues, especially since I see that there are some people in Chita whom I met during the events organised by the Popular Front. I also met with drivers in Pskov who organised an online movement. They then started personally dealing with drivers from other regions, and ultimately involved local governments in their efforts. So, their initiative has grown into an interesting and useful joint project.

Colleagues, I’d like you to share your opinions about the Chita-Khabarovsk road which, as far as I know, you have driven along.

Please, who will be the first to share their impressions?

Alexander Vasilyev: I will begin. My name is Alexander Vasilyev, leader of the Ruined Roads citizens’ movement. As a mater of fact, I was the one who roused people to go on this drive. We were especially interested to see what the condition of the road from Khabarovsk to Chita is like today, a year after you drove down that road. We have covered a considerable distance and we are keeping a record of everything. For example, we drive a certain distance and make a note: a petrol station here, a bad stretch of road there. Gradually we translated this information into figures. On the whole, the road from Khabarovsk to Chita is in a satisfactory condition, one can see that it is being looked after. About 80% of the surface meets all the standards, but there are stretches that are still under construction, as well as stretches of dirt road which make for difficult driving. You may have noticed a year ago that there are swells on the new surface in some places. As for amenities, we made a note where there is cell phone coverage and where there isn’t. In the Trans-Baikal Territory there is no mobile phone coverage across 50% of the road. We see that towers are being built, but so far they are useless. Perhaps they will be useful later.

We have also come across situations… We passed the villages of Mogocha, Magdagachi and Tygda, and we decided to look into the condition of the local hospitals. In general, information about the location of first aid points along the road is rather scant. This may be because there simply aren’t many of these points. There were, I think, six or eight signposts pointing to these centres on the stretch of the road from Khabarovsk to Blagoveshchensk. There were a bit more signs further on, from Blagoveshchensk to Chita. We saw the hospital in Tygda – the road there is in a very poor condition, there are stretches where you can drive fast, but then the road gets worse and potholes start appearing. In Tygda itself, there is practically no road, there are no signposts, we had a difficult time just finding the place. If it had been nighttime we would never have found the hospital.

Vladimir Putin: What region is that in?

Alexander Vasilyev: Tygda is in the Amur Region. Starting from Magdagachi, the road is also quite bad. It's clear that there are some kind of plans to build it, but it is dirt road for now, and you can’t drive quickly on it. As for the traffic police (the GIBDD), over a stretch of 500 kilometres we did not see a single traffic cop with a speed gun (this was in the Amur Region, there were more of them in the Trans-Baikal Territory). In all, between Khabarovsk and the Trans-Baikal Territory we passed about six posts – in other words, on a stretch of about 1500 km there were very few traffic police. People drive at very high speeds because the road quality has improved, and this is very dangerous.

What else? Cafes and filling stations. There are filling stations, we even measured the quality of fuel at the ones where we stopped.

I can say that fuel prices are very high there, six roubles higher than in the European part of Russia. As for cafes… There are some decent ones (we are rating them), but there are also some I would advise people to avoid.  Those are the problems.

Vladimir Putin: I see. You said that not the whole road has a hard surface, which is surprising to me. How can this be? When I drove there, there was a hard surface everywhere. Are there still stretches of dirt road or are they simply repairing old stretches?

Alexander Vasilyev: Apparently they are doing repairs. There were more sections like this in the Jewish Autonomous Area, on the boundary between this area and the Amur Region. There are places without any surface which are undergoing repairs, there are road machines that are laying asphalt in some places. But we made a note of this so as to check up on the situation there later on. We hope to be able to visit these places next year to see what has been done.

Vladimir Putin: We will do just that. For my part, I will take another look and I'd like you to do the same. As for communications, I would like to hear from Communications Minister Shchegolev. How would you assess the situation there? Did you hear what your colleagues have said?

Igor Shchegolev: Yes, this conforms perfectly with our own assessment. Upon receiving your instructions we did not waste a single week. We spent the whole winter season getting all the necessary approvals, all the sections, all the frequencies, working on projects and resolving financial issues. We began this work as soon as the weather allowed. This is not only about delivering and installing towers, but about providing power supply, and we're talking about tens of kilometers. A hundred kilometres of technological lanes need to be built. At present 70 km of such lanes have been built, and the towers are being installed. Naturally, they will start operating when the work is completed and the power supply is installed. We will meet the deadline that you set, communications will definitely be in place in the 4th quarter.

Furthermore, we have achieved yet another result: we have formed a new development model that provides communication services for complex facilities. We pooled the efforts of the state and market participants, who have agreed for the first time to build a joint infrastructure – that is, they will not invest in parallel infrastructures (which is what happens now), but rather, will use a single infrastructure. In other words, we have split the cost with them 50-50: they pay for the towers and base stations and the state pays for the energy supply.

We believe this will enable us to provide communications not only along the road, but also for hundreds of communities in the adjacent areas. So we will meet your deadlines. Of course, we would be glad to receive information from the participants in the rally in order to compare their data with ours. We regularly send our frequency specialists to the highway to conduct checks, and we have the situation under control. Communications will begin operating in the 4^th quarter.

Vladimir Putin: Good.  Now I would like to get the Transport Minister on the line. Mr Levitin, we're talking about the sections of road that our colleagues have driven down, where they said there is no hard surface. What are these sections?

Igor Levitin: The Amur highway is 2165 km long, of which 485 km are made up of sections that were built forty years ago. After you drove along that road, the decision was made to repair these 400 km. I think the stretches that our colleagues saw are precisely the ones we are repairing – the roads that had been built earlier. This year repair is under way on the 107^th kilometer, and within three years we will have fixed all 485 km.

Vladimir Putin: Good. The deadlines are set for the end of 2011, 2012 and 2013, yes?

Igor Levitin: Yes, these 485 km are in the schedule up to 2013, and we will bring the old roads up to the same condition as the 700 km of new road.

Vladimir Putin: Good. Sergei Ivanov, please.

Sergei Ivanov: A few words about this road. I went there three times while it was being built and you and I were there together last year.

Concerning communications. After you gave your instructions we held two special meetings of the government transport and communications commission devoted to that road. The plan to modernise over 400 km of the road the minister just mentioned is being carried out.

The second question was about communications. We decided that mobile communications must be available all along the 2000 km route by October 1. At present, as the minister said, we are installing towers. We still have one month, and we expect to finish the work within a month. We are keeping a close eye on it, and we are well aware that there can be no infrastructure and no security without modern communications. Regarding the approach roads. Tygda has been mentioned here. That is a regional road, like some other roads adjacent to the main highway. I will make a note of it and the transport minister and I will discuss it with the Amur Region, the Trans-Baikal Territory, to make sure that these roads are put in the proper condition as a matter of priority.

As for traffic police stations, there are indeed too few of them. The interior minister spoke about this at a commission meeting, relevant instructions have been issued, and they have promised to increase the number of traffic police posts along the road by January 1, especially in places where there is a not a single such station for 500 kilometres. I think this is in the Trans-Baikal Territory or the Amur Region. I am not sure, but if it is in the Amur Region, we will work with the region’s authorities via the Interior Ministry, as this is its direct function and duty.

And then there is the question of fuel prices. This issue is not directly connected to transport, but a six-rouble increase in fuel prices is really tough. This brings to mind a problem you are familiar with, Mr Putin, the problem of jet fuel. It is also a problem in the Far East. Prices of motor and jet fuel are considerably higher there than in the European part of the country, which hinders the transport business. Maybe Igor Sechin and I will get together to think about what can be done towards this end, to eliminate the disparity between fuel prices among the country’s regions.

Vladimir Putin: We’ll speak about prices separately. This disparity is usually a result of the actions of monopolies, which is also true of the Far East. As for the problems that may concern several ministries, departments and levels of government simultaneously – I am referring to the regional and municipal authorities – I ask you to draft instructions on the results of today’s meeting so that all participants in the process could see their tasks clearly and so that there is proper oversight of the efforts to fulfil them.

I’d like to speak with Chita again and to ask drivers what they think of Russian-made cars. I know that you are driving such cars now. Which models are these, and what is your opinion of them?

Alexander Vasilyev: We are driving five models, three of them made by AvtoVAZ – two Lada Priora cars and one Lada Kalina. The other two models, SsangYong, are assembled at the Sollers plant in Vladivostok. The cars perform well for the most part and hardly need any attention from us. We are accompanied by technical maintenance specialists from these companies. You know that driving on a good road is easy; we have no complaints. Of course, we are annoyed by factory defects in some cars, but they are not serious. Not a single car has broken down or refused to turn on. Not to speak too soon, of course, as there is still a long way to go, but we are sure we will make it.

Vladimir Putin: So you have no serious complaints about the cars?

Alexander Vasilyev: No, though there are some minor bugs.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, I can understand that.

Alexander Vasilyev: Like a faulty door handle or something like that…

Vladimir Putin: I see. Good, I’m very pleased.

Friends, colleagues, today you will participate in a kind of conference call that includes different parts of Russia, and you will have an opportunity to see how the situation with regard to federal highways differs across various parts of Russia. We started with the Far East and we will gradually move westward to East Siberia, Siberia, the Volga Region, northwestern Russia, and the south. In addition to information concerning a major overhaul of the Chita-Khabarovsk highway, we will look into the status of the detours near Novosibirsk and Nalchik, the bridge overpass across the Vyatka River in the town of Mamadysh, Tatarstan and the renovation of the St Petersburg – Sortavala road in northwestern Russia near the border with Finland. We also plan to connect with the Volgograd Region. I see that our colleagues there are already connected. I would like to say a few words about this project separately.

The construction and renovation of rural roads is underway here. Establishing transport links between small towns and villages has always been a challenge in Russia. There is a lot of work to be done, and the quality of roads is very poor to begin with. These roads have always been the responsibility of regional authorities. This year, we have decided to support regions with their commitments, and have budgeted substantial funds to co-financing the construction of hard-surface local roads from 2011 – 2013. Five billion roubles have been released for this purpose in 2011. I would like to emphasise that support of this kind for road construction in the regions represents a part of the measures that will allow us to nearly double the length of modern high-quality roads within the next ten years.

I would like to return to the Far East and ask Mr Ten to say a few words about his company's progress on road construction.

Sergei Ten (General Director of the Trud company): Good afternoon, Mr Putin, colleagues. Mr Putin, exactly one year ago you visited a highway in the Trans-Baikal Territory. You instructed local authorities to overhaul 140 km of roadway in this territory. We got to work. The Ministry of Transport allocated funding, and my company is set to complete a six-kilometre section of the road by October 15. We hope to be able to continue our work here in the future, and to participate in tenders. The workers are ready, the quarries have been developed, and the equipment is in place. In other words, we are prepared to carry out all tasks assigned to us, with the Federal Road Agency as our client. That’s all I have to say, Mr Putin. I am ready for your questions.

Vladimir Putin: Is everything going well with financing?

Sergei Ten: Yes Mr Putin, everything is fine.

Vladimir Putin: Is the financing consistent? There are no interruptions?

Sergei Ten: No interruptions, everything is in order.

Vladimir Putin: I wish you success.

Sergei Ten: Thank you, Mr Putin.

Vladimir Putin: You have always built high-quality roads. I hope this time will be no exception.

Sergei Ten: We’ll do our best. We won't let you down.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.

Let’s move slightly west to Novosibirsk, and to the construction of the M-53 highway Baikal that encircles Novosibirsk. Please go ahead, Mr Koshkin.

Albert Koshkin: (General Director of the Sibmost company): Good afternoon, Mr Putin. We are at the construction site of the northern bypass around Novosibirsk, which is part of the federal highway Baikal connecting Chelyabinsk and Chita. This portion of the road is 76.5 km long. There are 26 bridges and crossovers across this highway, including the 924-metre long bridge across the Ob River. As you may recall, you attended its opening in October 2008.

Today, we are working on the last commissioning and start-up facility, and the entire bypass road is in the completion phase. The term of delivery according to the contract is in October 2011. We had certain delays due to the weather, but we are on schedule. It is hard to overestimate the importance of this construction, because city traffic will be relieved of the additional pressure of transit traffic, and drivers will be able to save about two hours in transit transport. Residents of Novosibirsk and the Novosibirsk region will spend less time sitting in city traffic and less time driving to their summer cottages. For businesses, this is a very favourable opportunity to invest in roadside infrastructure facilities, and it also means new jobs. Speaking of road workers, we have created about 1,500 jobs, and are using all road-building companies of the Novosibirsk Region at full capacity.

The situation is quite normal today. I hear a lot of words of thanks addressed to the road builders, and I would like to forward these expressions of gratitude along to you, Mr Putin – primarily on behalf of the road workers, for financing this construction even during the most difficult years of the crisis, and for doing so ahead of schedule. Most importantly, the road infrastructure was fully preserved, and we are set to complete this work in the near future. A serious amount of construction equipment is becoming available, and we hope that it will be needed and useful at some other federal facility.

I can say with confidence that your instructions regarding construction of the northern detour around Novosibirsk (instructions that were issued specifically by you) are about to be fulfilled. On behalf of Sibmost and all employees engaged in this construction, I would like to invite you to the opening of this portion of the road to through traffic. It will be a big celebration, and we would be happy to see you among the participants. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Indeed, building bypass roads around such major cities as Novosibirsk is a very complicated task, but a very important one. These traffic arrangements improve pedestrian safety, improve the environment, help preserve city roads since heavy-duty vehicles will not use them, and provide other economic benefits. It is important to finish on time, Mr Koshkin. You said that weather was forcing adjustments, but your deadline is in October.

Albert Koshkin: No, we are taking all the necessary measures and guarantee that the project will be completed and transit will begin. I have not told you yet that the road surface we use, cement concrete, has performed well, including in Siberia. Its cost is a bit higher than asphalt concrete, but it is twice as durable. I think that Russia needs more roads surfaced with cement concrete. We believe that it is justified.

Vladimir Putin: Very well. I hope that everything planned will be done on time and properly. Good luck and thank you.

Let’s have a look at what is happening with the M-7 (Volga) highway. The bridge across the Vyatka. Tatarstan, please.

Vladimir Vlasov (CEO of Mostotrest): Mr Putin, I would like to report the completion of construction and reconstruction for the first stage of the bridge across the Vyatka river. This is a bridge on the Moscow-Kazan-Ufa route.

Here are the parameters of this project. The planned length of the entire crossing is 8.8 km, of which 8 km consists of access roads, a two-tier junction and the beautiful bridge you see now, which is 640 metres long. It has already been painted, prepared; it looks good and is ready to receive transit.

As for the amount of work performed, we have reclaimed 0.5 million cubic metres of land, used 10,000 cubic metres of mass concrete and 4,200 tonnes of steel for span structures. We believe that the most important thing is that the duration of the bridge construction has been reduced by four months; this gives us a good start for the next such project. The work was carried out by the joint-stock company Mostotrest, based in Moscow, together with the joint-stock company Volgomost, based in Saratov.

Characteristics of the construction: We are, of course, used to such big projects, but still the engineering and geological conditions here are very difficult, and in order to base the bridge on very firm ground, we had to put bored piles at a depth of 38 metres, and to make an additional enlargement at the bottom, but we made a very good and reliable base.

Something that is of interest for engineers and other construction experts is the assembly of the span of the bridge. The entire unit was assembled on shore, stage by stage. And these 4,200 tonnes were moved from the shore to the riverbed. The riverbed did not have a single intermediate bearer. It is a very good engineering solution, and it should always be used. We have finished checking and testing the bridge and confirmed all of its planned characteristics, and the structure is ready to receive transit.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Vlasov, your deadline was…

Vladimir Vlasov: It is December 31.

Vladimir Putin: And you have finished ahead of schedule?

Vladimir Vlasov: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: Well, first of all I want to thank you and to congratulate you, and I hope that the quality will meet modern standards and it will not shake in the wind, unlike in some other places.

Vladimir Vlasov: No, of course, not. The situation has changed: there are a lot of supervisors, everyone has inspected it. Sometimes there are fewer workers than inspectors, so everything is going to be fine.

Vladimir Putin: The most important thing is to inspect everything correctly. Thank you very much. I congratulate you and wish all the best to you and your team.

Nalchik, please. The bypass road around Nalchik. Anatoly Chabunin, please.

Anatoly Chabunin (Head of the Federal Road Agency): Good afternoon, Mr Putin. We are at the bypass road around the city of Nalchik. The project was started in 1993, and its first stage, 4.3 km, was commissioned in 1999. The next stage, 7 km, was ready in 2006. So it took twelve years to build a little less than half of the road. The remaining 15 km was built in three years, in 2008-2011. Tomorrow is the opening ceremony. The bypass is 27 km long and has 12 artificial constructions with a total length of over 1 km. Another remarkable thing about this project is that it is included in the list of instructions you announced last year at United Russia’s congress in the North Caucasus. It is first among your instructions on building bypasses around cities in the North Caucasus. We are also working on a bypass around Beslan and designing a bypass around Gudermes.

Vladimir Putin: How do the regions’ leaders assess your work?

Anatoly Chabunin: As to the quality of work, it is very good. It can be seen here how our bridge and road builders worked, so all members of the acceptance committee gave it high marks. Tomorrow we hope to hear the assessment of the region’s administration during the opening of the road.

Vladimir Putin: How many people worked there approximately?

Anatoly Chabunin: About 2,000 people all together.

Vladimir Putin: And what is the average wage?

Anatoly Chabunin: The average wage since construction began has been around 7,000 roubles per month.

Vladimir Putin: And what is the average wage now?

Anatoly Chabunin: 18,000 roubles per month.

Vladimir Putin: 18,000, I see. Thank you. Mr Makiyev, please.

Gaioz Makiyev (head of the federal company North Caucasian Motor Roads Administration): Good afternoon, Mr Putin. We are all standing at Mr Chabunin’s section. Tomorrow we are commissioning it, and Mr Levitin will take part in this. It is very beautiful. Like the road in Kislovodsk, this one is also of federal importance, and it is very beautiful. We are also building a bypass around Beslan. We are beginning construction (and will hold a tender) of a bypass around Gudermes. The tender is about to start, we will post the information on the website and schedule a date, so we will find a general contractor and start building this year. We are also working on all the bypasses you mentioned and Mr Chabunin has spoken about, and we will continue working on them.

Vladimir Putin: What about the cost? What do you have? Metres, kilometres? Average?

Gaioz Makiyev: In the economic jurisdiction of our federal road there is 2,330 m. This year, we have built 18 km and are commissioning it. In Beslan, the road is 12 km long, and in Gudermes, it will be about 39 km. This year we will also commission a road with a flyover in the Stavropol Territory: there we have two flyovers and 3 km of road; these are the Cherkesskaya and Nevinnomysskaya interchanges. The road leading to the Stavropol Territory will also be commissioned. We will commission it sometime in October. We are going to time the opening of the new road to coincide with the Road Workers’ Day in early October. This year we are commissioning about thirty kilometres of roads.  

Vladimir Putin: What is the cost?

Anatoly Chabunin: Mr Putin, the road is 27 kilometres long, the total cost for the whole period of construction is 3.1 billion roubles, or a little more than 100 million roubles per kilometre, including 12 structures built on the road.

Vladimir Putin: So what is your opinion? Is that a normal cost?

Gaioz Makiyev: The cost is not higher than our forecast: 3.5 billion for 27 kilometres.

Vladimir Putin: Was their a change in the cost as compared to the initial prices?

Gaioz Makiyev: The first part of the road cost 15 million roubles; the second one cost 73 million roubles, but then the cost rose over the year years and 18 kilometres of the last section of the road cost 1 billion 773 million roubles. That makes the total cost 23 billion 144 million roubles.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Okay, now, St Petersburg-Sortavala road. Mr Kostyuk, if you please.

Andrei Kostyuk (Head of the Northwest Federal Highway Administration): Good afternoon, Mr Putin. In November 2008, the St Petersburg–Priozersk–Sortavala–Petrozavodsk highway was included in the list of federal general-use roads. On the map you can see the route from St Petersburg to Petrozavodsk. The total length of the road is 453 kilometres, which includes 152 kilometres in the Leningrad Region and 304 kilometres in the Republic of Karelia.

The federal targeted programme for the development of the transport system calls for the reconstruction of 161 kilometres of the road by 2015. At the moment, the St Petersburg Ring Road-Skotnoye section, which is nine kilometres long, has been completed and commissioned. We are now rebuilding – perhaps it’s better to say building – the section that leads to the Magistralnaya highway. The general contractor, VAD, is working without delays. The first stage will be ready for use in October of the this year, while at the same time we are building the following section of the road – the highway from the turnoff to Agalatovo in the direction of Kerro, which is ten kilometres long. It will be commissioned in 2012. Behind me you can see the current state of the construction site – the first stage of the road, which is 5.5 kilometres long, is close to completion, 98% of the work has been done and we are now working on infrastructure. The tentative opening of this section of the road is scheduled for October. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: It looks decent. The main thing now is to ensure the quality of the road.

Andrei Kostyuk: Our general contractor, VAD, is famous in the northwest of the country for its high-quality work. It also performs work in the Kaliningrad and Leningrad regions. So I believe we shouldn’t doubt the quality. I take full responsibility for it.

Vladimir Putin: The estimated date for the opening of this part of the road is October 2011, isn’t it?

Andrei Kostyuk: Yes, it is.

Vladimir Putin: There won’t be any problems with meeting the deadline, will there?

Andrei Kostyuk: No, there won’t. We will complete the work in time.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Thank you, Mr Kostyuk. Let's now move on to rural roads. Head of Volgograd Regional Administration Anatoly Brovko, if you please.                                          

Anatoly Brovko: Good afternoon, Mr Putin and colleagues. First, I would like to say that administration of the Volgograd Region has drastically changed its approach towards financing road construction over the past 18 months. This year, we have allocated three times the regular amount from the regional budget. In figures, that’s 3.5 billion roubles. In 2012, we plan to set up a road fund with the revenue twice as large as this year, or about 7 billion roubles.  I would say the same about the Federal Road Agency and the Transport Ministry. Thanks to Mr Levitin we managed to increase financing of major repairs at our three federal highways, namely the Volgograd-Moscow highway, the Rostov highway and the Syzran highway. The financing of these highways was increased by 150%; therefore, we have significantly increased the financing to  fight the second-largest Russian problem that you had mentioned.

The implementation of the road project by United Russia also helped increase the amount of funds channelled into the road construction industry. I would like to particularly thank you for 761 million roubles in subsidies for repairs of driveways in Volgograd. Road construction work is gaining momentum across the Volgograd Region. For the first time in many years, the regional administration has allocated funds not only for road repairs, but also for road construction.  Last year, they built around 18 km of hard-surface motor roads connecting three villages with almost 1,500 residents. The construction cost 400 million roubles. This year, it is planned to build 16 roads totalling 48 km. These roads will connect 12 villages with 3,309 people. In all, the regional budget provides for 654 million roubles for building rural roads. We have already received 110 million from the federal budget, which is almost 90% of all funds allocated to the Southern Federal District.

We are taking part in this conference from an access road to the Malogolubinsky village off the Kletskaya–Kalach-on-Don highway. This road is 4 km long and will connect Malogolubinsky with the administrative centre Kalach-on-Don, which is very important to us, because Kalach-on-Don is a city of military glory, as well as with Volgograd, which is the region’s capital. The road is 98 km long. In order to have year-round connection between the remaining 476 villages that are not connected with hard-surface roads (population of 62,000), we need to build another 2,300 km of roads. Next year, we plan to double our road construction effort and build about 88 km of new roads. Such roads will connect 17 villages with a population of almost 6,000 people.

The Volgograd Region administration has established clear and constructive relations with all federal entities that are directly or indirectly involved in forming and supporting road construction projects. We are highly grateful to the Russian government for allocating subsidies to the regions, including the Volgograd Region, on a priority basis.

Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. How do you choose towns and villages, especially villages? What criteria do you use? What towns and villages do you target first?

Anatoly Brovko: Primarily, we look at promising towns and villages based on their population and remoteness. We look at them not only from the viewpoint of building access roads, but also gasification and provision with electrictricity. We have a plan that we are working on together with Gazprom and we have included road construction in this plan. We also look at the availability of rural schools, healthcare facilities, etc. In short, the decisive factors are population and remoteness.  

Vladimir Putin: There’s another criterion you should consider. It is the economic activity, primarily in agriculture.

Anatoly Brovko: It is certainly more of an agrarian region than industrial. The density of the population is fairly low with only 2.6 million people living on 113,000 square kilometres. It is very important to us to preserve towns and villages that were built during the Soviet times.  

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. I would like to get back to Moscow, since I have a question for [Deputy Prime Minister] Sergei Ivanov, Igor Shchyogolev and Igor Levitin, ministers of transport and communications. Colleagues, do you have anything to add to what you’ve just heard and seen?  

Sergei Ivanov: May I, Mr Putin?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, please go ahead, Mr Ivanov.

Sergei Ivanov: Thank you, Mr Putin. Colleagues, I would like to add just a few words to what has already been said. Today, we presented six major federal road construction projects, but these are certainly not all construction sites developed under federal programmes. I would like to mention another two or three key facilities that were not included in today’s conference call. First, we are conducting major repairs on the federal highway that goes from Chita further west across the Irkutsk Region to Krasnoyarsk (major construction of this federal highway is underway outside Nizhneudisnk). If the public organizations can hear us now, I would like to warn them that this stretch of the road is in worse condition than the Chita-Khabarovsk highway. We haven’t touched this section of the highway in Eastern Siberia in the past 30 years, and this is the first time that we are doing major repairs here so as to improve all roads in eastern Russia.

The second facility, and you are aware of it, Mr Putin, is the Vladivostok-Khabarovsk highway. When you met with the road builders last year, including Mr Ten, a top professional, you issued an instruction to the effect that we shouldn’t lose such major construction potential that we now have along the Chita-Khabarovsk highway (2,000 km) and use it to build other roads in the Far East. Part of this large construction team is now working to repair the Vladivostok-Khabarovsk highway, which is in serious disrepair. We need to bring it up to a level of the Chita-Khabarovsk highway at the very least, the sections of the road that have been built recently.

The third area is Yakutia, the Lena highway. I would like to make a point that you have already mentioned when you spoke with Novosibirsk. The weather is getting worse, and winter is just around the corner. We are finishing work in Yakutia, because freezing night temperatures are expected any day now.  The Ministry of Transport has been doing everything over the past twelve months to make adjustments for the weather when allocating funds for construction and major repair of the roads. If we are dealing with an Arctic region, then we need to wind up major work by September or October (in Siberia). Laying tarmac in December or January is just throwing money away. Such policies are under strict control now.

With your permission, a few words about overall financing. This year, the federal budget allocated 309 billion roubles for road construction, major repairs and maintenance of all federal highways overseen by the Ministry of Transport. How will this money be spent specifically? We plan to commission 208 km of new federal roads and 6,300 metres of bridges and tunnels before the end of 2011. That is what this money means in terms of metres and kilometres.

We have a preliminary agreement with the Finance Ministry to allocate 364 billion roubles for the same purposes in 2012. We are increasing spending on road construction.

In addition, as the governor of the Volgograd Region has already mentioned, the road fund system will become operational in 2012. Things are pretty much clear with regard to the federal road fund, but not so with the regions. I can report that so far only 12 Russian regions have decided to establish regional road funds. I want to draw your attention to this. Together with the Ministry of Transport, we will continue to work with the regions, but they must complete this work before January 1, 2012. Remember, Mr Putin, when we talked with governors, all of them unanimously asked to restore road funds. We did so, but today not all regions are ready to actually use these funds. With your permission, we will enter this instruction into the minutes of our today’s meeting.

Another important point. As you may recall, Mr Putin, we held a road construction meeting in Tver in early summer. You issued an instruction with tough deadlines regarding drafting of a new law that allows road builders to sign the so-called lifecycle contracts. The idea behind this contract is very simple: the winner of the tender for road construction or repair shall be responsible for road maintenance for the next 12 or 24 years, depending on regulations. That way, good builders can join the tender and have a clear business outlook for many years ahead. On our part, we can exert stringent control over the quality of construction. The winner is encouraged to do his best in building or repairing a road, so as not to have to spend additional funds on road maintenance. The draft law was prepared, submitted to the government and we expect to look into it soon during a government meeting, maybe even on September 6, and submit it to the State Duma.

Now, as for the costs involved in road construction. This topic is raised frequently. We see road construction prices soar unaccountably at times. In this connection, the Ministry of Transport has already introduced more objective accounting procedures regarding road construction costs, which distinguish land prices before construction and construction costs per se. That way, everybody will clearly see costs involved in building 1 km of a road or a bridge, or a tunnel. Today, too much money is spent on purchasing land and land development for further construction. Shortly, we will submit to you our proposals concerning  amendments to  the Budget Code, so as to conduct such accounting not only in the Ministry of Transport, but also in the Budget Code. That way we will be able to keep things clear and transparent. That’s all I wanted to say. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you, Mr Ivanov.

Colleagues, I will not dwell on the importance of the road industry, neither will I elaborate on its underfinancing during the past 100 years. I will not talk about the importance of roads for such a vast country as Russia. Public entities and the authorities speak about it constantly. As they say, work begun is half done. We must go on. We need to work and our work should be based on the amount of funds that we can allocate for road construction. However, we need to do it in a smart manner and in time – then people will notice changes for the better, only in this case. Mr Ivanov, please make sure that you and your colleagues draft an instruction based on our discussion today and especially on what we heard from Chita. I believe that we should take note of what our colleagues who had seen everything for themselves and told us about the way highways are being built and what they look like.

I wish success to the drivers who use Russian roads and I will be looking forward to receiving your report about roads and drivers’ comments about the roads. Then, we will assemble again in a different or extended meeting and discuss our further steps with regard to correcting our mistakes and doing a better job. Thank you all and good luck!