Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Radayev, this is the first time we are meeting in the Saratov Region during your governorship. We are meeting today in a rural municipal district, and we’ll talk about the social development of rural areas at today’s meeting. This issue is absolutely relevant for the entire country because one third of our population lives in rural areas. The mood of people and the production opportunities of rural areas depend on the living standards of the people living there. I’ve looked at some facilities here. On the whole, this village is alive – maybe we are getting that impression because we are now in a school that was built relatively recently, and this is a good, modern school. They also have a medical and obstetric centre – it is modest and old but capable of rendering the required medical services. We must work to develop rural areas.

We also planned to see agricultural production, the work of farmers, but couldn’t make it – the roads were unfit for use because of the rain. This shows that the roads are bad. I’ll be straight with you – various people complained about the roads and I think we must pool our efforts to resolve the problem. We’ll discuss this with other governors as well. We must decide how to pool federal resources, as well as regional and municipal opportunities in the construction and use of roads. In general, roads are bad in the countryside and this region is no exception – I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I hope that as a result of our discussion, the general situation in this district and the rest of the region will improve. I wish you success in running the Saratov Region. This region is very big. It has both certain advantages and many problems.

Valery Radayev: Mr Medvedev, thank you very much for your trust and today’s visit. I think we will discuss the problems you mentioned in a comprehensive manner. I’m referring to social infrastructure, primarily medical and obstetric centres and schools, roads, as well as gas and water supplies. We will adopt a comprehensive programme to resolve these issues. We’ll start working on rural roads this year and I hope we’ll resolve this problem. Rural dwellers will assess our performance on this as well.

Dmitry Medvedev: All right. But you must also deal with other issues – rural medical and obstetric centres and the general improvement of rural lands. This is what we are going to discuss at our meeting. We have a programme for the social development of the countryside to 2013. We are transforming it now into the government programme for agricultural development. I think that our task – the task of federal and regional authorities – is to pool our efforts to make life better in the country and resolve other issues.

Valery Radayev: Thank you. This is a very good programme. It will help resolve the issues that you have raised today.

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