Transcript of the beginning of the meeting: 

Vladimir Putin: The Russian and global economies have not yet fully overcome all the consequences of the economic downturn. At the same time, the Russian economy and finances have demonstrated their viability and, most importantly, the ability to recover rapidly. According to available information, including data provided by your service, between late December 2008 and December 31, 2009, the Russian market showed the most impressive, the highest growth in the world. The RTS gained 131% and the MICEX 122%. That was, to a great degree, a result of positive trends in the global and Russian economies, but also a result of the well-considered actions of the Russian government, the Central Bank and your service. I would like to express my gratitude to you for this.

We have submitted eight draft laws to the State Duma. Three of them have been adopted and come into force. One of them, the law regulating financing derivatives, such as futures, allows market player to act promptly so as to adjust to market situations and more expeditiously overcome financial problems.

The second law lifts limits on the issue of securities. I believe that it was one of the most important decisions because enterprises were unable to attract additional funds amid the economic downturn and accumulating debts. These limits have now been lifted, which means we now have additional opportunities for saving enterprises and also for creating conditions for their post-crisis development.

And lastly, the third law introduced criminal responsibility for financial violations. Punishment is severe, up to seven years in prison, which has vexed quite a few market players, but we must certainly restore order in this area. I would like to ask you to continue working jointly with the Central Bank to cut short all illegal practices.

These were positive remarks. And here is a question for you, Mr Milovidov: What problems do you still have, which of them are of priority significance, and how do you intend to resolve them?

Vladimir Milovidov: First, I would like to thank you for your praise of the Federal Financial Markets Service, but it should be said that we acted jointly with other government departments. We now have a package of draft laws we plan to submit to the State Duma. And, of course, work should be finished on the laws submitted to the parliament in 2009, which have been adopted in the first reading. Our top priority is to finish the projects we start, not abandon them halfway to the end.

The most important of the priority laws and the problems of concern to us is the law on preventing market speculations and use of insider information. It engendered a lively reaction on the market. It is an innovative law, as we have never before had such regulation, unlike the other industrialised countries, which have had such laws for decades.

Preparations are currently under way for a second reading of that law, which the State Duma has adopted in the first reading. I believe that this law should be our priority in 2010. Moreover, the absence of such a law prevents Russia from taking a firmer stance on the international financial markets, and complicates our dialogue with foreign colleagues and international regulators.

We have recently been working more closely with them. In 2009, the Federal Financial Markets Service worked jointly with the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank in the International Financial Stability Council, which elaborates these standards. In the past year we signed eight memorandums of cooperation with other international regulators and plan to continue working with them. This law is crucial for strengthening Russia's stance in the group of international financial market regulators.

Another of our priorities is the infrastructure of the Russian financial market. The State Duma is currently considering three laws, on clearing, on stock exchanges and organised trading, and on the central depository. These laws should be specified in time for the second reading. I believe that if they are adopted as a package, they will create an effective exchange infrastructure that will allow us to build the foundations for turning Russia into a global financial centre.

One more issue I would like to spotlight is the reliability and transparency of our financial institutions.

In 2009 we approved stricter requirements to financial institutions and to their capital adequacy. They will come into force in 2010. Although their work is now becoming more transparent, we still see that market players and the public's attention to the financial market often provokes an increase in mala fide operations on the financial market. Some operations can be described as suspect, including deals involving the transfer of funds and money laundering.

We are working jointly with the Central Bank to take measures to prevent these practices. We have recently revoked the licenses of 30 suspect companies. In 2010 we should focus on ways to cut the number of financially unreliable, suspect companies on the financial market. In fact, this is why stricter capital adequacy requirements have been approved.

These are the areas we will focus on this year, just as we did in 2009.

A separate important task is to gradually elaborate a reliable domestic investment basis, because the [market] plunge during the crisis showed that if Russia had had an investment basis the fall would have been smaller and less painful for the financial market. This is what we are working on now. We are preparing proposals on supervision of financial institutions and schemes for guaranteeing compensations on the financial market. This is what we intend to do in 2010, and we hope to continue this work in the future.

Vladimir Putin: Good.