Vladimir Putin's opening remarks:

Three weeks ago, I met with a group of Russian writers. We had a frank and substantial discussion of modern Russian literature and its affect on society, primarily its affect on young people. We discussed the overall role of government in cultural affairs.

Accordingly, I asked you to prepare proposals addressing the problematic issues that the writers brought up during the meeting.

Let me recap what was discussed.

First of all, it is still a government priority to encourage literature and writers. Accordingly - as I understood it - you proposed a Russian Federation Government resolution that would increase the number of Russian Government awards for arts and culture from 20 to 25.

Unfortunately, in previous years there were no writers among those who received awards. But this increase of five awards will enable additional support of talented writers, and these additional five awards will be given exclusively to writers. Let me remind you that a laureate receives one million roubles with his or her award.

In addition, grants for creative initiatives in the arts will be doubled from 25 to 50 million roubles, which also means an increase in funding for literary projects. We will allocate the necessary funds from the federal budget for 2010.

Secondly, so-called thick or literary magazines have traditionally played a major role in Russian literary life. The writers at the meeting repeatedly brought up the idea of supporting these thick magazines.

Let me point out that these magazines must be available to general readers, both directly through subscription and in our libraries.

I asked the Ministries of Finance, Communications and Mass Media, and Culture to look for additional ways and additional funds to support these thick magazines starting from 2010.

As of 2010, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media will double the annual subsidies for literary magazines. These funds will be directed towards increasing the circulation of magazines, remuneration for the authors, and improving printing quality and design.

In addition, I consider it necessary to allocate no fewer than 50 million roubles to our leading local, district and city libraries to purchase the thick magazines.

And finally, the property ownership issues came up at the meeting. I know that this is a complex problem and, furthermore, that it is now being resolved in court. But in any case I deem it very important to support the interests of those people who have been using the property of this creative union for years or even decades. And I would ask you to pay particular attention to this.

Besides all of this, we also discussed the possibility of the more widespread use of the intellectual potential of our writers in the mass media. I know that there are already some proposals along these lines.

Please, let us begin.