Opening Remarks at the Meeting with the Leaders of the Parliamentary Parties
January 28, 2009
Barvikha, Moscow Region
Вступительное слово на встрече с руководителями парламентских партий
28 января 2009 года
Московская область, Барвиха
PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Dear colleagues, I would like to welcome you, congratulate you on the New Year, and wish you all success in your work this year.
We agreed to meet regularly to talk and discuss topical issues, political problems, the national economy, and that is what we are here to do today. The only thing I regret is that I didn't give you warning that this would be an informal meeting, instead, I see you are all still wearing your ties.
DEPUTY HEAD OF THE STATE DUMA, LEADER OF THE LDPR, VLADIMIR ZHIRINOVSKY (loosening his tie): I hesitated.
DMITRY MEDVEDEV: That's a step in the right direction, Vladimir Volfovich (laughter).
That's why now, having dismissed journalists our respected colleagues from the media, let us remove our ties, if no one objects that is, because after all we did agree to meet informally.
I will run through the agenda briefly. It's not set in stone by any means, and we can discuss anything we please. First of all, I would like to thank you for the fact that we are now working together on those initiatives that I formulated in my address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, initiatives which are aimed at refining our political system and developing democracy in our country. And to that end there are a series of laws which have already been passed by the State Duma and the Federation Council, in addition to those laws which will be passed soon.
I will briefly mention a few of them. One is the law on the new procedure for forming the Federation Council, which will not come into force immediately, but nonetheless that period of time stipulated by the law is vital if we are to ensure that this process is as uncomplicated and as effective as possible, so that we get (in my view and I think you would concur) a new, more developed formation procedure for the Federation Council, as this country's upper house or chamber of regions.
Another important draft law affects the granting of powers to the heads of the Russian federal subjects. This is also a procedure, which we discussed last time we met, and which, it seems to me, to a significantly greater extent corresponds to democratic principles. I mean the process of granting power through decisions made by the party that has won regional elections in any of the constituent territories of the Russian Federation. There is no perfect process, but at least it is no longer something that happens behind the scenes between those in the know. If a party wins a majority, whatever that party might happen to be called, it has the right to propose its candidate for confirmation as regional head.
One more draft law, which is quite new, is one I discussed not long ago with the Presidential Executive Office based on the decisions already taken and on my Address to both chambers. It is the question of the removal of municipal heads from power. This is a theme which I have discussed with the heads of federal subjects and local authorities, on more than one occasion. It is a mechanism we suggest using everywhere in the country to make municipal authorities more efficient. And also so that, at the same time, the process itself of removing local authorities from power (a term chosen to mean stripping a local head of his / her authority) takes place in accordance with the law. Thus inefficient local heads would not be able to remain in office, and could instead be removed from power.
It is these three draft laws which I consider very important. There are others as well which we can consider, including those relating to the refinement of existing procedures.
There is one more subject I suggest we discuss. It is linked to the current economic situation and those decisions that you are making. I would like to thank you all for your constructive work with the Government. Today this is very important. And without that kind of consolidated effort many of the critical decisions relating to instilling order in our economy, counteracting the crisis, and containing the situation in the banking and financial spheres simply could not have been made.
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10:32В.Путин-Д.Медведев.Съезд партии Единая Россия.2...by niknikolay3,680 views
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