Vladimir Putin's opening address: 

Colleagues,

You know that - we have touched upon it at the Presidium meeting today - we have recently undertaken a series of groundbreaking measures to protect the national economy from the negative impact of the global financial crisis.

In my opinion, the key task is to ensure the stability of Russia's banking system and to secure a sustained operation of Russian businesses. The Bank for Development (Vnesheconombank) will play one of the key roles in addressing this issue.

The Bank's equity capital will have been increased by 75 billion roubles by the year end. These funds may be used to buy domestic securities and insure deals in the Russian financial market.

Further 175 billion roubles from the National Welfare Fund will be allotted to and managed by Vnesheconombank to ensure the stability of the domestic stock market, specifically to buy Russian companies' corporate bonds. This was announced a couple of days ago.

The anti-crisis package also provides for a 950-billion rouble long-term facility to be extended to Russian banks for a ten year period. It should be emphasized that these allocations will boost the equity of Russian banks improving at the same time cash liquidity.

The Central Bank will divide this amount between Sberbank, which will get 500 billion roubles, and Vnesheconombank (VEB), which will receive the remaining 450 billion roubles. The latter in its turn shall provide 200 billion roubles to Vneshtorgbank and 25 billion roubles to Rosselkhozbank. VEB shall also be entitled to grant the remaining 225 billion roubles as subordinated loans to merchant banks, provided their shareholders are ready to sign up additional funds and boost their banks' capital.

Naturally, those should be reliable banks with good outlook and high solvency ratings.

Along with the banking sector, domestic industries will also need government support, primarily in terms of access to financial resources. We have also worked through this issue today.

Many Russian businesses are used to attracting foreign loans, but this mechanism is now barely functioning, while the loan maturity dates are drawing nearer.

We should offer our companies alternative sources to refinance their outstanding foreign loans, I mean, domestic sources. This strategy would allow us to protect the assets of the Russian businesses against obvious undervaluation when they can be bought at prices well below their real value.

To this end, the Central Bank will allocate $50 billion to Vnesheconombank. Facilities to refinance foreign loans will be available only to companies with loans attracted before September 25, 2008, meaning, before this measure was announced.

Today we will put down the procedure and the terms of refinancing Russian businesses by VEB. The decision under this plan is vital. It is essential that the support efforts for Russia's corporate borrowers are launched without delay.

I would like to highlight the following eligibility criteria:

First, a corporate borrower must run its core business in the national industries.

Second, the borrower's operations should be important to either local economy or strategic industries. We cannot allow an asset default that would have an adverse social impact.

Third, we will refinance only the debts incurred to implement domestic investment projects or to acquire domestic assets. Again: this programme covers only the national economy.

Finally, in most cases financial assistance will be provided to companies capable of raising respective capital themselves, thus sharing risks with the government.

The steps listed above have been envisaged in the amendments to the federal budget and in the Law on Additional Measures to Support the Financial System. The State Duma and the Federation Council have already passed the law and will consider budget amendments this week. Hopefully, the Russian Government and the MPs will be able to coordinate their approaches and come up with the necessary solutions, as anti-crisis measures must not be delayed.

By the time these statutes take effect, all relevant arrangements by Vnesheconombank should be made, and the bank must be ready to conduct these financial operations. This is the reason why we called this extraordinary meeting of the Bank for Development supervisory board.

Now let's move on to today's agenda.