Transcript of the beginning of the meeting: 

Vladimir Putin: Mr Dmitriyev, how is work progressing on realising the bank's projects? How are you planning to use the resources you have received?

Vladimir Dmitriyev: Our work has been intensive, but we believe we will meet all the targets set for us by the supervisory board.  First and foremost, I would like to thank you for your support in increasing the asset contribution to Vnesheconombank - 100 billion roubles have been received, and that takes our registered capital to over 360 billion roubles. This is a significant resource. First of all it strengthens our potential to give loans to key industrial sectors, involving long-term and capital-intensive projects. And second, this increase in capital has allowed us to comply with all banking norms.

Looking at the first half of the year, I would like to draw attention to the fact that our pre-tax profit was nearly 6 billion roubles, which is about 60% of the pre-tax profit for the previous year. That means we are developing at an acceptable, sustainable pace. Credit portfolio grew by 30% in the first half of the year to 250 billion roubles; and so, we see a continued 2% monthly increase in the state banks' credit portfolio. We have also built up a considerably significant potential for growing the credit portfolio. At the next supervisory board meeting, we intend to present the latest in a series of investment projects, which have an overall value of about 90 billion roubles, with the bank's participation at 30 billion roubles. These projects will be for key sectors of industry and infrastructure. Incidentally, one of the infrastructure projects to be presented will be Vnesheconombank's participation as a financial backer of the first major public private partnership - Section 1558 of the Moscow-St Petersburg highway.

In addition, I would like to inform you that we are also, as I see it, nearing implementation of serious projects in other areas. Above all, we are talking about the support for small and medium-sized business. You may recall that last year we set the figure for support at 9 billion roubles.

Vladimir Putin: Right now, that should be 30 billion.

Vladimir Dmitriyev: Yes but we have increased 9 billion to 12 billion in the context of the old programme. Now we have received requests from 130 banks for 30 billion roubles. And if we give this project the go-ahead - lending to banks against the security of these resources to support small and medium-sized businesses, possibly refinanced via the Central Bank - then in that case we have an agreement on how to achieve the multiplier effect in lending to small and medium-sized enterprises.

Vladimir Putin: At the beginning of the year, resources were allocated to purchase shares in our major companies from western financial institutions and reinvest them in Vnesheconombank. How much money overall was spent on this?

Vladimir Dmitriyev: Overall, 10 $billion was spent. Of that sum, the company Rosneft paid off in advance a loan of $577 million, and those resources offered to Vnesheconombank for refinancing are being fully serviced on time. Naturally, those companies, which were given the opportunity to refinance, and which on reaching the loan's deadline will apply for an extension, will of course welcome the decision taken by the supervisory board allowing these loans to be extended for a year. Of course all the original conditions for the loan will have to be adhered to, and both the preceding and additional conditions will have to be met.

Vladimir Putin: And work with these companies on such extensions is being carried out?

Vladimir Dmitriyev: We are working on these extensions. Essentially we have developed draft credit agreements, but since in extending these loans we are working from the market rate, the basic financial conditions must coincide with the need to extend these loans. I am referring to the market rates that will apply to any borrower taking into account the financial risks on the day the loan extension closes.

Vladimir Putin: That is a timely measure, which we consciously adopted in the conditions of the world financial crisis. Added to that, the bank's clients must understand that these extensions will not continue indefinitely. They must gradually move towards working under normal conditions.

Vladimir Dmitriyev: I agree, and further, in confirmation of this, I would like to tell you about the foreign creditors' attitude to the Russian Government's support for refinancing foreign debt. This measure could help us move into a feasible system of servicing our companies' foreign debts, which are currently in the advanced stages of negotiation on restructuring foreign debts already extralegally from Law No. 173 (the Federal Law On Additional Support Measures for the Russian Federation's Financial System).