Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Khristenko, I would like to begin our meeting by conferring upon you the Stolypin Medal, our government award for your long, productive work for the Government of the Russian Federation. Thank you very much for what you have done.

Viktor Khristenko: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: I also would like to congratulate you on your new appointment. Here you are.

Viktor Khristenko: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: I hope that as an international official you will work hard to promote the integration processes. You have pursued this professionally for years, and your work is very important. Like no one else, you know that the Customs Union, the Common Economic Space, and prospectively the Eurasian Union as well, are the first serious and real steps towards integration in the post-soviet space. Our economies need this and we expect a tangible reward.

We can see what’s happening in neighbouring countries that are facing certain problems. I hope that you and your colleagues in this supranational body, as well as all of us will take into consideration our EU neighbours’ achievements and mistakes. I hope that we will do our best to avoid the mistakes and will call on the best of our own long years of experience and that of our partners, friends and neighbours from the EU and other integration unions for the benefit of our economies.

We know well that neighbouring nations combining their efforts to achieve their common development goals is a world-wide trend.

We have developed a fairly good legal structure. The first steps are being taken to create the applicable administrative tools. I would like to wish you success. I know you to be a good professional, and I hope that you will be able to launch effective teamwork with your colleagues from Belarus and Kazakhstan, and of course, with the Government of the Russian Federation.

I also hope that your successor – I ask you (addressing Denis Manturov) to act as a minister – will do his best to manage all the main projects administered by your ministry. We have entered a period of complicated and stormy political developments. That said, the government must not lose control of the economy and must go on with regulating and supporting businesses. Your ministry is pursuing a lot of projects that require system-wide and constant oversight.

I hope, Mr Khristenko, that you will hand down to your successor the necessary wherewithal, even though Mr Manturov is well aware of what your ministry has to address. Nothing of value should be lost in connection with this personnel change.

Viktor Khristenko: Thank you, Mr Putin, for your kind appraisal of my work. The longest and most productive period in my career was working in cooperation with you. This was the best time in my life, and it gave me a lot of precious experience. What I learned while working for the government as a member of your team is my most valuable professional asset. I am grateful for that.

The board that I now head has held its first meeting. All of its members have arrived and have gotten down to work. As I understand it, we are still at the organisational stage, but the Commission’s tasks are very serious indeed and need prompt attention. In fact, we are creating a new type of management structure that can make its own decisions at the interstate level.

This is a very responsible and interesting job. The three countries’ governments and businesses are interested, too, as are other countries that have not yet joined the threesome but are keen on integration and partnership. I think that a number of new directions – expanding our cooperation with ASEAN and the EU, for example – will be pursued with the participation of the new entities and the Eurasian Economic Commission.

We will preserve a high level of communication with the governments of the three countries and will do our best to have three evolve into five. (After all it was five countries that delegated three of them to the Customs Union as its vanguard and a driving force behind the effort to organise a Common Economic Space.) They will be catching up with us and expanding the scale of integration.

I have a complete rapport with the team at the Ministry of Industry and Trade and with Mr Manturov personally. I am sure, therefore, that nothing will be forgotten or lost. On the contrary, his young age and energy will only contribute more drive.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Manturov…

Denis Manturov: We will maintain continuity and keep the positive dynamics that we have achieved. We will carry on the projects that the Ministry of Industry is managing today and do whatever we can to promote further progress.

Thank you for your trust.