Transcript:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues. Let’s discuss the resettlement of those living in dilapidated housing. I’m referring to the township I visited and the nearby localities and residential blocks. I will not describe what I saw there because you’ve seen it for yourselves, and I have described it before. Let’s talk instead about the practical steps to resolve the problem, which has been growing in scale for years. We won’t discuss its growth either; what we must do is decide on a scheduled plan of action.

The Russian government made a decision on this issue yesterday. We have allocated 2 billion roubles to resettle the emergency cases. I know that the regional government is also working on this issue. Let’s talk about our practical plan and the schedule. Please, Mr Yurevich (Mikhail Yurevich, Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region).

Mikhail Yurevich: Good afternoon, Mr Putin.

In pursuance of your instructions following the visit, we have established a resettlement headquarters. It operates out of the same room where you held the meeting. The headquarters works practically around the clock because the people are in an elevated mood state, and this has caused an agitation. There is a map on the wall divided into zones, with the tentative date for resettlement set for each building. They are working with people, including with those who will be resettled immediately. The plan of resettling people from the risk area has been completed and agreed with the Ministry of Regional Development.

The plan will be implemented in five stages. In the first stage, we will relocate people from the seven most hazardous buildings with a total of 75 flats – which stand at the edge of an open pit mine. In the second stage, we will deal with the remaining 18 most dilapidated and hazardous buildings, and from two of them people will be relocated as soon as by the end of the month. Simultaneously, we will be monitoring the buildings in the pocket of super-high strain accumulation, which stands 400 metres from the open pit. This will allow us to determine more clearly the extent of relocation in the third stage. Then there’ll be the fourth stage, which means working with a large area of detached houses in the town of Roza, but this fourth stage will be concurrent with all the other stages. I mean, we will be gradually relocating people away from the edge of the open pit, moving further and further away as time passes.

What have we completed so far? We have resettled people from six buildings, or 63 flats, two buildings have been demolished, and the residents of one building are being relocated as we speak; we expect to complete their resettlement today or tomorrow. In all, we will relocate people from seven buildings, or 75 flats. We have disconnected and demolished two buildings and plan to disconnect and demolish the other five buildings later, by February 15 – because the gas network weaves through these buildings in a strange pattern. Alright, so, we will lay a new distribution system there, disconnect the buildings completely, demolish the seven buildings by February 15, and relocate people from another two buildings by the end of March.

The decision has also been made to start building two blocks of flats in Korkino and four in Kopeisk. We are relocating people to Kopeisk, the Chelyabinsk suburbs, Korkino, and nearby towns. We even have outfitted flats that are ready to move in to with quality interior finish.

Why are people moving so willingly? Because we are offering them good flats where they can move in immediately. We, the region’s government, presented kitchen furniture to the first group who moved to Kopeisk. There is a minor problem, though, because many owners rented out their flats, and now flat owners receive new housing while their tenants have nowhere to go – they just need more time to find new housing. But we are resolving these problems on the go. Then, some of the premises are commercial property – we will resolve this issue as well. And then there are squatters, in cases where the previous owners moved out long ago and their flats have been taken over by squatters. We are legalising their status and issuing them new flats. We certainly consider people’s social status, and I can assure you that all of them are socially normal: big families, small children. All of them will be given new flats.

Vladimir Putin: This is good.

Mikhail Yurevich: Working jointly with the Emergencies Ministry, we are using the Struna portable system to conduct emergency analysis of buildings. This will allow us to define the resettlement parameters more precisely. We are working with everyone on the list, and people are grateful for the decision you have made and for the quick and resolute action that is being taken to implement it. They are very grateful to you, Mr Putin. That brings my report to an end.

Vladimir Putin: I hope you will continue to work as effectively. I have a question for the minister regarding the chart. Do you agree with it? Have your experts worked on it? And can you confirm everything that has been said here?

Viktor Basargin: Mr Putin, the Regional Development Ministry has a representative in the headquarters in the Chelyabinsk Region. We have completed the inspection of all buildings jointly with the municipal and regional authorities. We have already identified the stages mentioned by the previous speaker and we have approved them. As many as 393 residents of 25 hazardous buildings will be relocated soon to Novosinyovo outside of Chelyabinsk, Kopeysk and Korkino. Together with the Chelyabinsk Region authorities we have identified two construction sites for future apartment buildings which include Kopeysk and Korkino. We are ready to start building other facilities as well, so the entire programme has been agreed.

There are other issues that we have not yet mentioned. First, not all people who are scheduled for relocation are prepared to abandon their backyard vegetable gardens. Therefore, along with the municipal and regional authorities, we are working on allocating to them either a land plot on which to build a house with a contiguous backyard area, or, if they agree to relocate to an apartment building, we are working on providing them with a separate land plot that can be used for gardening.

We have also mentioned building demolition. We should set up a schedule for tearing down all structurally deficient buildings, because they are a source of increasing danger of spontaneous collapse. We went to see these houses, Mr Putin. In addition to damage caused shifts in the earth's surface and by quarry operations, these houses are really quite old and rickety to begin with. They haven’t seen any repairs for 70 years already, and they are dangerous simply by virtue of the fact that they are very old. We will see to it that all such buildings are promptly torn down.

The third issue has to do with the Chelyabinsk Coal Company. We want it to conduct research on the quarry and see how its walls can be reinforced. We would also like to form an objective opinion concerning the size of the area that would be subject to evacuation. Our goal is to ensure that all people are relocated beyond the 1,000-metre zone, because we don’t want people to have to relocate twice. These issues are being addressed, and the Chelyabinsk Region’s municipal authorities are working swiftly.

Vladimir Putin: Good.

Viktor Basargin: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Mr Shoigu, we need to make sure that all residential houses in the dangerous area are monitored on an ongoing basis.

Sergei Shoigu: Mr Putin, we have deployed a seismological lab in this area as per your instructions in order to monitor the seismic stability of the buildings and facilities in this area. We have used this same lab in Turkey, Greece and other countries, including Russia. Therefore, the data is absolutely reliable as we know from many years of experience with this lab. We are conducting this work along with the Chelyabinsk Region specialists and authorities, and we will continue doing so during the spring. The work is well-organised, and all buildings that are located in this area will be surveyed in the near future.

Vladimir Putin: Good. The minister of regional development has already mentioned the Chelyabinsk Coal Company. It is not in the best shape and it is barely breaking even. It operates at 70% of its capacity. I have asked the Ministry of Energy and the generating companies to look into expanding their orders for coal. Mr Shmatko, what’s the result?

Sergei Shmatko: Mr Putin, during your working visit on February 4 you instructed us to look for ways to boost sales of coal produced at the Korkino Mine. The problem with this coal is that it has a heightened ash content. Even though several plants in the region have been designed to use coal from this mine, these plants now have other suppliers of coal. Allow me to report, Mr Putin, that additional agreements have been signed between the Chelyabinsk Coal Company and the OGK-3 company, which is part of the Inter RAO Group, as well as between the Chelyabinsk Coal Company and the Fortum company. These agreements guarantee purchases of at least one million tonnes of coal over the next five years, 500,000 tonnes by each company. As a matter of fact, this is as much as Mr Strukov was asking for when we discussed ways to stabilise the financial situation. We believe that having a fixed amount guaranteed for five years is the right solution to his problems. What this means, Mr Putin, is that over 1,000 miners will keep their jobs, and the Chelyabinsk Coal Company has bought some time to develop a plan for stabilising the situation at the mine. Therefore, your instructions have been fulfilled.

Vladimir Putin: I can see that the company executives are there in the studio. Do you have any comments?

Konstantin Strukov: Mr Putin, first of all, let me express our enormous gratitude to you for helping us sort out this complicated situation. Miners are enthusiastic about the prospect that their jobs will remain intact over the next five years, and they know that this is thanks to the instructions that you gave to the ministers. These five-year agreements give us a certain stability and certain prospects for the future. First and foremost, it will help us to create safe occupational and household conditions for miners and other urban residents.

It’s good that people didn’t just lose their jobs overnight. We’ll have five years to reinforce the walls, put out fires and make the entire area a safe place. This will help us preserve the town. We’ve been waiting for this kind of decision for the past ten years or so. Thank you very much. We will be up to the challenge.

All the instructions that you have given to the ministers have been acted upon. For our part, we have carried out all instructions as well. We will now proceed to the environmental cleanup.

Vladimir Putin: Good. I’d like to thank you for the the way you've approached these problems, for your attitude towards people and for your participation in addressing social issues. I’m aware that it comes at a cost to the company. Alongside the federal and regional budgets, which allocate 2 billion roubles each, the company allocates about 1 billion as well. We will do our best to support you in this and other areas. Let’s work together on improving things for those who work for the company and those who live close to the mine.

Mr Yurevich, I hope that everything we have agreed upon today will undoubtedly be implemented. The person sitting next to you is the municipal head, if I'm not mistaken. I can see that you are participating actively in this work. Please join your efforts with the heads of corresponding ministries and departments of the Russian government and move forward in implementing the plan item by item. When will the Finance Ministry transfer the funds?

Anton Siluanov: Mr Putin, I have something to say on this matter. We issued an executive order yesterday, as you have mentioned already. This order sets forth a certain mechanism, a procedure, whereby lists must be developed and submitted to the Ministry of Regional Development, which, it its turn, should make these lists available to us. Once we have them, we will be able to transfer 2 billion roubles to regional budgets. That’s why I asked at the meeting in Chelyabinsk to speed up drafting the list of people scheduled for relocation in the first place.

Vladimir Putin: When will these lists become available to us? As far as I understand, there are few formalities involved in making lists of people living in unsafe buildings. You just need to go ahead and make a list. You and I saw one such building together, and the situation is clear there. When are we going to have the lists, Mr Yurevich?

Mikhail Yurevich: Complete lists will be prepared by March 1. The thing is, all records were on paper, and we are now creating an electronic version of them. We can provide these lists in parts, but we plan to have them in electronic form by March 1.

Vladimir Putin: All right, but please make sure that this doesn’t affect the relocation process.

Mikhail Yurevich: No, no. The process is already underway.

Vladimir Putin: And don’t wait for the money to come. Clearly, the funds have been allocated.

Mikhail Yurevich: We are not waiting.

Vladimir Putin: Agreed.

Mikhail Yurevich: Our work is fully underway.

Vladimir Putin: Good. Good luck to you. Thank you.

We have one more issue to discuss, concerning Udmurtia. Please bring on Izhevsk.

Good afternoon, Mr Volkov. What’s going on there?

Alexander Volkov (Head of Udmurtia): Good afternoon, Mr Putin.

Vladimir Putin: How are things going? Why haven’t you rebuilt the houses? The government has transferred 2 billion roubles for this purpose. They have carried out inspections following the explosions at the military warehouses and allocated funds for this. Where are the results?

Alexander Volkov: Good afternoon again, Mr Putin. Indeed, there are certain issues that haven’t been resolved yet. Out of 3,500 damaged buildings that we have been repairing, people live in comfortable conditions in six. They were offered to move but some of them have small households and may have grievances, of course…

People live in 147 buildings… By winter we had restored all utilities – the destroyed boiler-room and electricity supplies. Now in winter we have 15 people out of 16,000 in the damaged zone that still do not have normal housing conditions. People live in 147 buildings that are still under repair. We will complete the works by March 1.

The problem is that with the onset of the cold weather… Private houses are rather old (in one village they are 50 to 70 years old). They don’t have foundations and cold temperatures create problems… As of today, before the arrival of Mr Shoigu and Mr Basargin, we received about 1,100 repeat applications. During two days more than 800 people came to our headquarters with repeat requests for inspection in the buildings that we’ve already left.

I’m sure the situation is not dramatic and we are in control of it. The arrival of Mr Shoigu and Mr Basargin on your instructions has toned us up as well. We will complete all work before March apart from these remaining six buildings that we are doing from scratch. Our headquarters receives people from 9 a.m. Today, 30 groups are checking up buildings on repeat applications because we don’t want to aggravate our relations with people. Also, there are always some people who want to exploit the difficulties and get more in addition to repairs.

I must say we had to classify another 363 buildings as hazardous in addition to 3,500. Even after the repairs we had to evacuate three social facilities, including a kindergarten, and a children’s art centre, because panels had sagged and we decided to move the children out, just in case. We will have to build them anew. To sum up, we will fulfill all tasks.

I’d like to thank Mr Shoigu for sending us a lab. There are flat buildings in which people also have grievances and hope to be moved. We moved 113 families out of seven hazardous buildings. They have received certificates and 112 of them have already moved into flats, and the last 113^th family will receive its certificate in the next couple of days. There were reasons for the delay – they waited for the birth of another baby to receive additional funds. Therefore, we have requested inspection for 34 residential buildings, 10 of which have already been checked. It is quite possible that we will receive proposals on resettling people from some buildings that will be classified as defective or altogether decrepit because they are rather old.

I think we can justify the spending of up to one billion roubles to the Ministry of Regional Development right now. We would like to request additional funds and can submit documents to the ministry like we did on the two billion minus 44 million roubles that we had received.     

Everything is under control. The Investigative Committee is making an inquiry but I don’t think it will find major violations. There are no grounds to accuse our builders of any abuses. We had to use about 1,000 builders from 150 construction contractors from all over the country to complete everything during summer, before the start of the heating season. I think we have managed to meet basic needs. The school that had been destroyed opened by September 1, and a kindergarten was also opened in November. The main thing is that all utilities had been up and running by the heating season. To sum up, we will finish everything and try to keep people content.

Vladimir Putin: Do you know why people are discontent, Mr Volkov? Not because something has not been finished but because they feel that they are being abandoned and cheated. There are 147 buildings and 85 infrastructure facilities and what has been repaired is falling to pieces. No wonder people have the impression they have been simply cheated. This is the whole problem. People think they have been cheated and abandoned. They feel neglected – nobody wants to deal with their problems. This is the root of all evil. I asked the minister of regional development and the emergencies minister to visit them. Now I would like to hear what they think.

Viktor Basargin: Mr Putin, the headquarters was established in Urmurtia after our visit. It includes representatives of federal executive bodies, the Emergencies Ministry and the Ministry of Regional Development. We are now studying the situation. Mr Putin, the report on restored housing is objective. According to our information, the builders have restored 3,000 dwellings, 105 social, administrative facilities and utilities, whereas the reconstruction of 470 buildings is still pending.

Vladimir Putin: How many?

Viktor Basargin: These 470 buildings are housing for the most part. As our monitoring has shown (I hope the regional authorities won’t take offense), communication with the people was poor. We have now gained experience from the construction after the fires and we believe that work with the population was not up to the mark. According to our information, people have submitted more than 2,000 complaints. The assessment of the damage was superficial. Moreover, after receiving funds for the recovery, the local and regional authorities lost control of the situation. They engaged… Mr Volkov says 150 construction contractors were involved and we believe it was not worth hiring so many contractors for the recovery efforts. They should have engaged professionals in this work.

Now we are inspecting one building after another together with representatives of the authorities. As I said, people have submitted more than 2,000 complaints, out of which 1,172 concern post-repair defects. There were also complaints about the housing and utilities services and measures are now being taken to improve them. The number of workers involved in the restoration of housing has increased practically by 60% in just three days. Earlier there were a little more than 100 workers whereas now there are 50 contractors with 270 workers. But we believe this number is very low.

Mr Putin, now I’d like to mention the proposals that should be implemented as soon as possible. First, it is necessary to receive all complaints on restoration work. Second, the regional and municipal authorities must inspect all buildings one after another and compile lists of defects for each of them. Third, they must conduct additional expertise of all facilities subject to restoration, check the quality of the work done and see whether the scale of work corresponds to budget estimates.

Once this work is done, we would like to see proposals for law-enforcement bodies in the event that they discover abuses. Second, it is necessary to determine what work should be carried out at the expense of contractors that violated the terms of agreements. More than 800 contracts have been signed and we want their implementation to be verified.

We would like to see proposals on possible additional funding. We have received some and Mr Volkov, we would like you to substantiate them. And, finally, we must clear up relations with contractors – have they received permits for this work at all? We know that there are some “plunder and flee” companies that act as mediators in these recovery efforts.

As in the Chelyabinsk Region, we suggest compiling a time schedule together with the Ministry of Regional Development for all work, broken down by facility and deadline. It is also essential to improve the operation of infrastructure facilities, recalculate utility fees and adjust the control system. And, Mr Putin, the last point – we think that all urgent work must be completed within a month. There are people who still live in substandard or hazardous housing. Other work may be completed after the cold spell has passed. 

Vladimir Putin: Mr Shoigu, do you want to add anything?

Sergei Shoigu: Mr Putin, in general these are our common conclusions, but you made the main one and it is correct. Interactions with the people were poor because when they start talking to the authorities via central television channels or demand that these authorities talk to them or they will shut down a federal motorway, the situation becomes abnormal.

Now I’d like to mention two moments about which Mr Volkov knows. I’m referring to the 330 repaired buildings. We inspected some of them. These 150 contractors, especially the unscrupulous ones, visited old people and persuaded them to sign the acceptance reports, promising to finish everything tomorrow. The old people signed, these workers took the reports and got the money and that was it – nobody came to finish anything. There are many similar cases and most complaints received by the headquarters are about them.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Volkov, and why did you have to wait for me to send ministers there and create this headquarters after their visit? Didn’t you see what was going on earlier? Why didn’t you think before about establishing an agency for rapid response to all developments there?

Alexander Volkov: Mr Putin, it is always difficult to justify oneself, especially when it comes to such serious grievances, but believe me, all of us have been all acting in good faith since the emergency happened. The headquarters was operating, we worked with the people and, as I reported, did what we had to do in time. There were failures in our work with the people but not on such a scale. We had seen everything, and I visited the place many times. The headquarters was working and the deputy chairwoman sitting next to me was in charge of this district at the time. But yet there are some people who are trying to exploit these difficulties in order… For instance, people from a five-storey building wrote: “We will close the road. Give us certificates and we will calm down.” Meanwhile, we are still checking buildings and the damage is being recorded in relevant documents.

So, I admit that we had shortcomings in our work (and this was a lot of work) but they were not that huge and we did not neglect people. We will fix everything mentioned in complaints by March 1. We haven’t yet finished work in 147 buildings. Everything that is being done… We are visit people again based on repeat complaints – in some places we haven’t notice some cracks… I agree that we must step up this work and be more attentive, but regrettably not everyone has done this on the ground.

Vladimir Putin: Look, you are hinting that someone is blackmailing you. We must never allow blackmail. This is correct. But this would not have happened if you had been there personally all the time and had accurate reports from your subordinates on what was happening there. In this case you would have been able to explain the real state of things to everyone and what the government’s decisions are all about. But judging by what you have just said and what I heard from the minister of regional development, you don’t have a clear view of what is going on and your report is superficial. This is the whole problem. Whom did you charge with this work? Who was doing it? You must demand explanations from these people? You have hired 150 contractors and what is the result?

Now Mr Basargin has mentioned the measures that must be taken as soon as possible – report on this plan and its funding next week. I’d like the Ministry of Finance to get involved – we will have to allocate additional money from the federal budget for this work. No doubt, we will do this to support the people. I hope law-enforcement bodies will conduct a detailed inquiry into where the previous allocations have gone.

Alexander Volkov: We will do better, Mr Putin.

Vladimir Putin: I hope so. Mr Volkov, you are a very experienced man and have been working for a long time. I don’t want to think that you aren’t seeing things clearly. Please, take a very serious attitude to this.

Alexander Volkov: I will. I don’t think I have lost the ability to see things clearly but we will do better anyway.

Vladimir Putin: Okay. We will see whether you are able to or not. So, in a week’s time please… It’s Friday today. Please report about the immediate measures on Thursday or Friday. It would be better to report on Thursday on urgent measures you are going to take as soon as possible. I would also like to hear about the plan of additional repairs of housing and infrastructure facilities that have ostensibly been repaired, as well as those where nothing has yet been done or the work has just been started. This plan must be carried out properly – on time and with high quality. I wish you all the best.

Alexander Volkov: All right, Mr Putin. We will do everything.