Events

 
 
 

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin meets with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin

 
 
 

The officials discussed key performance indicators for the Moscow city in 2011, primarily in healthcare, education and housing construction. In addition, the mayor sought the prime minister’s view on what to build in place of the Rossiya Hotel, which was torn down several years ago. The prime minister suggested discussing this issue on site.

Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Sobyanin, I have reviewed the key performance indicators for Moscow for 2011: everything’s in the black, as usual in Moscow. However, certain things require additional discussion. We have looked into healthcare improvements together. As we both are aware, there are many major federal centres in Moscow that are a source of pride not only for Moscow but for the entire nation. Still, ordinary Muscovites face multiple problems associated with the provision of healthcare services. You have been at the First City Hospital, haven’t you?

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes, I have.

Vladimir Putin: You shared your plans with me back then. As far as I understand, things are not moving as fast as we’d like.

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes, of course. The year 2011 was used to get the project ready: we were involved in design engineering, drafting documents, auctions and biddings. Still, we managed to commission six new major facilities last year; 150 facilities underwent major repairs and another 2,000 were renovated. Thirty pieces of heavy-duty equipment, including CAT scanners, were installed and are fully operational now. Most of the equipment has been or will be put under contract within the next month. Still, the bulk of investment in healthcare will be made in 2012.

Vladimir Putin: Last year, we had 23 billion roubles budgeted for Moscow under the mandatory medical insurance fund. Have you received these funds?

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes, we have. We’ve added some as well.

Vladimir Putin: Almost 50 billion roubles in all.

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes, correct. A portion of these funds hasn’t been put under contract, but it will be disbursed this year. This is why I’d like to ask you, Mr Putin, to hold a joint meeting with the Ministry of Healthcare on the practical implementation of this programme in 2012, because we plan to make a lot of investments this year and get significant results.

Vladimir Putin: But we have it divided into two almost equal parts.

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: Over 23 billion in 2011 and 24 billion in 2012.

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes, but a portion of this money will carry over into 2012, because contracts have been signed.

Vladimir Putin: Have you paid under these contracts?

Sergei Sobyanin: We have signed contracts, but we’ll pay for them once the equipment is delivered and set up. We need to make sure that we have bought high-quality equipment. In general, we need to go over the entire 2012 programme together with the government. If you have time, we can get together and discuss it…

Vladimir Putin: What’s going on at the First City Hospital?

Sergei Sobyanin: Major repairs are underway in the building that you have visited. At first, we wanted to make some minor repairs, but once we started we realised that…

Vladimir Putin: Everything is old.

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes, we need to do more thorough work on it. We decided to redo everything, even previously done minor repairs, because it makes no sense… There’s no proper ventilation, no air conditioning, no modern utilities…

Vladimir Putin: When was the last time they did any repair work there?

Sergei Sobyanin: About 30 years ago, I think.

Vladimir Putin: We’ve agreed that you will choose primarily facilities that service ordinary Muscovites. I’m referring to district outpatient clinics and hospitals.

Sergei Sobyanin: Of course. We have commissioned four large outpatient clinics, or rather diagnosis centres, this year. Two more are about to be commissioned. Certainly we give priority to renovating outpatient clinics and hospitals. These are not premium hospitals. These hospitals service ordinary Muscovites.

Vladimir Putin: What about schools and teachers’ salaries? As far as I can tell from the documents, teachers’ salaries are close to the average for Moscow’s economy?

Sergei Sobyanin: Mr Putin, you chaired a meeting in Moscow one year ago. As you may recall, teachers complained that more than half of Moscow’s schools were getting half of the funding received by elite schools. We have eliminated this disparity. As you may recall, there were fears that we’d do it by cutting the number of schools that are financed as best standard facilities. Of course, we didn’t do this; we have instead raised lower standards – 60,000 roubles per person – to 120,000 roubles. This made it possible to level out the education situation in Moscow.

At some schools, salaries went up by 40%. The average increase was 20% across the city, and we have even exceeded the average salary in the economy. The average salary was 43,000 in Moscow as of late 2011, but in the sphere of education it was about 51,000 to 52,000 roubles per month in November. I believe that we will keep teachers’ salaries above the average in Moscow.

Vladimir Putin: You know what I noticed? The commissioning of housing somewhat decreased in 2011…

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes, they covered this extensively in the media. That’s because we limited construction in downtown Moscow. In fact, this didn’t happen. We increased the housing commissioning by 18%. In 2010, we commissioned 1.7 million square metres, and in 2011, 2.03 million square metres.

Vladimir Putin: Then my information is inaccurate. I have 1.2 million square metres of commissioned housing…

Sergei Sobyanin: No, that’s inaccurate.

Vladimir Putin: Ten percent below last year’s level.

Sergei Sobyanin: No, that’s a mistake.

Vladimir Putin: A mistake?

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes. We commissioned 2.036 million square metres last year and 1.7 million square metres in 2010. That’s an 18% increase in commercial and budgetary housing.

Vladimir Putin: All right, let’s re-check the figures.

Sergei Sobyanin: We will, of course.

Vladimir Putin: Good. Do you have any questions?

Sergei Sobyanin: I’d like to run an issue by you. Remember the Rossiya Hotel? There were court proceedings associated with it and other discussions about what should be built instead.

Vladimir Putin: When was it torn down?

Sergei Sobyanin: About three years ago. Nothing much has happened since then. There are various proposals on what to build in this spot. I’d like to show you a couple of projects.

Vladimir Putin: Is a parliamentary centre one of them?

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes. This is a historical view, the way it looked previously. There’s a nice panoramic view where you can see the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod. That’s how it was before. We have two projects now. The first one is about building a business centre combined with a hotel, office space and apartments. That’s slightly under 400,000 square metres. The second project is a parliamentary centre, which is an even bigger project for over 400,000 square metres.

Vladimir Putin: How much is here?

Sergei Sobyanin: About 370,000-380,000 square metres.

Vladimir Putin: That’s about the same.

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes, correct. Of course, this will be a huge additional load on downtown Moscow and traffic. The view of the Kremlin will no longer be available.  Therefore, I’d like to hear your opinion about this project, since this is a downtown area. The issue is about a parliamentary centre, and land that has always been a contentious issue.

Vladimir Putin: This is a very convenient location for a parliamentary centre: right across from the Kremlin. I have a suggestion. Since we are going to the Government Presidium meeting anyway, let drive by this spot, walk around and get back to this issue later.

Sergei Sobyanin: All right, Mr Putin.

Адрес страницы в сети интернет: http://archive.government.ru/eng/docs/17820/