The following issues are scheduled for discussion at the July 30, 2009 Meeting of the Government of the Russian Federation:

1. Draft of the Basic Guidelines of Budgetary Policy and the Main Characteristics of the Federal Budget for 2010 and the Planning Period of 2011 and 2012.

2. The List of Federal Targeted Programmes to be Financed from the Federal Budget in 2010 and the Planning Period of 2011 and 2012.

1. The report of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia notes that in 2010 56 Federal Targeted Programmes (FTPs) will be financed, compared to 51 in 2009; in 2011, 52 FTPs will be financed, and in 2012, 49 FTPs.

As part of the national priority project High Technology Development, 9 FTPs are to be implemented with funding from the Federal Budget to the tune of 132.4 billion roubles in 2010, which is 92.4% of the 2009 sum (143.3 billion roubles). The Housing Priority Project in 2010 will be implemented through 2 FTPs worth a total of 72.1 billion roubles, which is 28% less than the volume of 2009 (100 billion roubles). Under the Transport Development Priority Project, the programme Development of the Transport Infrastructure of Russia (2010-2015) will be financed at practically the 2009 level (218 billion roubles): 221.1 billion roubles in 2010, 217.5 billion roubles in 2011 and 216.6 billion roubles in 2012.

As part of the national priority project Agriculture   3  Federal Targeted Programmes are to be implemented in 2010 with financing in the amount of 15.9 billion roubles from the Federal Budget, against 26.6 billion roubles in 2009 (59.8%).

Under the priority project Social Infrastructure, 8 FTPs are to be implemented in 2010. Federal Budget funding will amount to 32.1 billion roubles (39.8 billion roubles in 2009).

Under the Security National Priority Project, 16 Federal Targeted Programmes worth 70.5 billion roubles will be implemented in 2010. That figure is 14% less than the 2009 level (81.8 billion roubles).

Under the Regional Development Priority Project, 5 Federal Targeted Programmes are to be financed to the tune of 112.4 billion roubles in 2010, 87.9 billion roubles of which will go to the programme Economic and Social Development of the Far East and the Trans-Baikal Area up until 2013. The figures for 2009 were 120.4 billion roubles and 89.7 billion roubles, respectively.

Under other priority projects, 5 FTPs will be financed from the Federal Budget in 2010 in the amount of 29.2 billion roubles, which is substantially less than the 2009 level (43.1 billion roubles).

2. The period indicated will see, among other things, comprehensive measures to develop the East-West, North-South, Europe-Western China transport corridors. Comprehensive projects for the development of the Moscow air hub (Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo) will be implemented, and construction will be completed on the railway between Berkakit, Tommot and Yakutsk, bridges across the Ob River near the city of Salekhard, the Central Ring Road in the Moscow Region, and the M-4 Don Highway, as well as seaports, which will also be  built and expanded.

In 2011, the space astrophysical observatory will be completed and launched into orbit. The stages of work to develop a new-generation reusable manned spacecraft will be completed by 2012. Flight tests will begin for the Angara booster rocket, while flight tests for the Soyuz-2 booster rocket will be completed and the rocket itself put into operation.

The GLONASS orbital group of satellites will be brought to its full complement of 24 GLONASS-M satellites and an orbital and ground reserve of 5 satellites will be created. Coverage of the GLONASS Navigation System will be brought to 100%, both on the territory of the Russian Federation and globally.

Key innovation projects, comprehensive R/D to develop critical technologies and prototypes of science-intensive products are to be completed, with more than 200 technological processes to be created and introduced in industry, and approximately 30,000 science and engineering-technical jobs to be set up.

Infrastructure facilities in support of mother-and-child health, mass sports and top-level sports facilities, secondary specialized and higher education and training and laboratory facilities will all be introduced.

Measures aimed at comprehensively tackling the housing problem will be taken to ensure accessible housing for citizens. Similarly, garrison social and engineering infrastructures for enlisted men are to be built in order to accommodate petty officers and sailors in the Navy, as well as junior enlisted men in the Army.

To ensure the holding of the APEC economic summit, construction will be completed on the Vladivostok airport, bridges to the Russky Island across the Eastern Bosporus Strait and the Golden Horn Harbour, a conference centre, and the Far Eastern Federal University on the Russky Island.

Under the new federal targeted programmes whose implementation is due to start in 2010, digital broadcasting facilities of the first all-Russian multiplex are to be introduced by 2011 in 12 Russian regions, which will preserve the frequency resource of ground TV and radio broadcasting in the 800-km-wide Far Eastern border zone.

Conditions will be created for the timely launching in 2011 of Express-AM5 and Express-AM6 spacecraft to preserve the orbital frequency of TV and radio broadcasting resource of the Russian Federation.

In order to develop new nuclear energy technologies, work will be launched on creating new fast neutron reactors with lead and lead-bismuth coolant, as well as a 4^th generation reactor with a sodium coolant.

3. The report by the Ministry of Economic Development notes that the Government of the Russian Federation has decided to develop a number of new FTPs starting in 2010, including:

• The Development of TV and Radio Broadcasting in the Russian Federation in 2009-2015, to be financed from the Federal Budget to the tune of 10.8 billion roubles annually during the period of 2010-2012;
• New Generation Nuclear Energy Technologies in the Period of 2010-2015 and through 2020, to be financed from the Federal Budget to the tune of 3.17 billion roubles annually during the period of 2010-2012;
• the Social and Economic Development of the Republic of Ingushetia in 2010-2016, to be financed from the Federal Budget to the tune of 1.5 billion roubles annually in the period of 2010-2012.

The Ministry of Economic Development notes that none of the above new programmes have yet been approved.

3. Improving Government Price Controls on Vital and Essential Medicines.

The draft decree introduces mandatory state registration of the caps on ex-works prices and envisages registration (renewed registration) by March 1, 2010, in accordance with the approved methodology, of the above prices on earlier produced vital and essential medicines, and also determines the procedure of development and approval of such methodology. The procedure of development and approval of the methodology for determining wholesale and retail mark-ups in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation compared to the actual ex-works prices is also determined. In this context, the Federal Tariff Service (FST of Russia) is to be vested with the powers to approve such a methodology.

The Government of the Russian Federation has set a deadline of two months for developing the methodologies. Similarly, the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development has proposed a deadline of 4 months for the development of the methodology for determining maximum wholesale ex-works prices on medicines.

The Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development is creating a corresponding commission to settle any disputes arising during the registration of maximum ex-works prices for medicines. 

Under the draft, the maximum wholesale prices of foreign producers for medicines will be registered exclusively in roubles as of January 1, 2011 (currently, registration is in both roubles and foreign currency).

The wholesale prices for medicines charged by wholesalers and pharmacies are to be formed on the basis of the actual ex-works price of the producer. This effectively rules out the possibility of wholesale organizations which buy medicines at their own cost directly from producers forming wholesale prices by introducing wholesale mark-ups on the ex-works price, as well as the possibility of retail prices being set by applying retail mark-ups on the ex-works price of wholesale organizations, thereby increasing prices on account of numerous middlemen. The Ministry of Healthcare of Russia is charged with monitoring the range and the prices of medicines, the volumes of their import into the Russian Federation, the actual ex-works prices, and the volume of production and shipment of medicines by Russian producers, by using a uniform format of the submission of electronic data. Roszdravnadzor is charged with monitoring the range and the prices for medicines. The draft determines the procedure for interaction among the federal executive bodies concerned in the formation and use of the single electronic data base for the monitoring of the range and prices of medicines.

To determine the procedure for supervising the project, the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development, in conjunction with the federal executive bodies concerned, will be instructed to duly submit proposals on the further improvement of the mechanism for regulating prices on medicines.

The relevant amendments are to be made to 8 resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation on issues concerning the improvement of state regulation of the prices of medicines, including:

• the inclusion of medicines in the list of production, consumer goods and services for which the prices (tariffs) in the domestic market of the Russian Federation are regulated by the Government of the Russian Federation and federal executive bodies;
• inclusion in the list of production, consumer goods and services for which the prices (tariffs) in the domestic market of the Russian Federation are regulated by the executive bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation; regulation of maximum wholesale and retail mark-ups on the prices of medicines included in the list of vital and essential medicines (instead of the regulation of trade mark-ups on the prices of all medicines with the exception of mark-ups on the prices of medicines provided for certain categories of citizens entitled to state social benefits in the form of a set of social services);
• addition to the list of the services of transport, supply and trade organizations for which executive bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation have the right to introduce state regulation of tariffs and mark-ups, to regulate the maximum wholesale and retail mark-ups on prices for all medicines not included in the list of vital and essential medicines;
• a more precise definition of the concept of state registration of prices for medicines and the procedure thereof and other concepts.

Moscow, July 29, 2009

* Press releases by the Department of Press Service and Information contain the materials submitted by the executive federal bodies for discussion by the Presidium of the Government of the Russian Federation.