Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Let's start with the volume of railways shipments. As we know, this is one of the more objective indicators of the state of the economy as a whole.

Vladimir Yakutin: Mr Putin, that is indeed the case. Thank you for qualifying our data in precisely that way.

I have prepared a special report for you. It traces the performance of our company for the past ten months with complete accuracy.

This is the first slide. Compared with the first quarter of this year, and even compared with our projections when the Government approved the company's budget, we hold that the measures that the Government has taken to stimulate the economy have had a definite effect on the situation. Accordingly, when approving our budget we had confirmed that we would see a decrease of 19% for this year. Then our management decided that we would actually probably see a decrease of 15-15.5%. Of course, this is a decrease, but it is not at the level of the first quarter, particularly during the first few months of this year. Today we're looking at the situation more optimistically, and believe that the decrease in the financial aspect will be somewhere around 9%.

This will allow us to allocate additional resources, first of all, for retaining employees, and secondly, for maintaining safety, primarily for all our track facilities.

I must tell you that during that period, in accordance with the plan of our anti-crisis measures, 953,000 personnel had their workdays and workweeks shortened, or were put on unpaid leave. Now that number is 500,000. The workforce is employed.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Yakunin, what are your investment plans for 2010?

Vladimir Yakutin: We presented our proposals to the management and then to the board of directors. The proposals are based, of course, on the financial support that the Government is providing. We feel that we will be able to keep investment at the same level as this year. This will of course be a decrease compared with last year. But we all know the conditions in which we are working.

We are directing all necessary funds, in accordance with the Government's resolution, to the Sochi project. We are working on decreasing bottlenecks and freight transit to the Far East. I must tell you that even compared with last year, the volume of cargo transported to the Far Eastern port has increased by 30%. This is even more than during the Soviet period. Markets have changed, and we've had to react to this quickly.

Vladimir Putin: What is the companies' workload?

Vladimir Yakutin: Regarding the companies. I remember your visit to the Tver Plant...

Vladimir Putin: Yes, that's just what I'm remembering. When I was there, the workers told me, "We'll invite you back next year." It's not that I don't have enough time - I always have enough time for that. But I would very much like the work to continue uninterrupted, and not require my personal intervention. I know about the problems connected with limited investment resources.

Vladimir Yakutin: Mr Putin, we bought 444 locomotives last year, and only 350 this year. We have, naturally, decreased our orders. But with regard to plans and steady work: we're working closely with the owners of our machine-building companies, providing them with all the information about our plans, and I think this is helping them to avoid interruptions in their operations. Incidentally, those three billion roubles that were allocated are already being used for our projects with Siemens and Transmashholding. Mr Loescher of Siemens told me that he reported this to you.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, he did. But we need to keep our companies busy - both the Urals Railway Carriage Plant and the Tver Plant.