Vladimir Putin meets with citizens at the United Russia public reception office
Transcript of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Be seated, please. What is your name?
Yulia Khodakovskaya: I am Yulia Khodakovskaya.
Vladimir Putin: I am listening, Yulia.
Yulia Khodakovskaya: To begin with, I am pleased to be received by you. My story is this: I am 31 years old and expecting my first and much desired child.
Vladimir Putin: My congratulations.
Yulia Khodakovskaya: Thank you. But amendments to the federal law on social insurance in case of temporary disability and motherhood have somewhat marred the joy of the upcoming event. We are watching the changes and see that the government values literally every baby in this country. You have introduced maternity capital and birth certificates, for which we owe you a separate thanks. Dmitry Medvedev devoted an entire presidential address to this subject and stressed how efficient the state policy should be in this area and how important it is for the state to have second and third children born into a family. At the same time, a document has been signed that seems to negate all these good intentions articulated in the address.
Vladimir Putin: Oh come, come. Not negating …
Yulia Khodakovskaya: I am referring to the new wording of the law, and it substantially alters the situation. In fact, it not just alters it, but worsens the financial condition of future mothers, as a rule, by one-third and in some cases by 50% to 65%. As for myself, I was lucky to go on maternity leave on December 27, 2010 and, naturally, I received my grant in the size I expected, that is, according to the law’s old wording. If I had gone on my maternity leave on January 10, 2011, I would have lost more than half of my benefit, because current calculations are based on two calendar years and the amount reached is divided by 730 days. In 2009, more than four months of these two calendar years was spent on sick leave, with a knee fracture …
Vladimir Putin: What happened?
Yulia Khodakovskaya: I had a skating accident.
Vladimir Putin: You had a fall?
Yulia Khodakovskaya: Yes, and broke my kneecap. In 2010, already pregnant, I had to spend over two months in confinement. With sick pay deducted from the total, my benefit would have been greatly reduced. Expectant mothers, naturally, quickly counted how much each would get in 2011, which must have prompted a current review of and amendments to the law. I know that on January 14, parliament adopted on the first reading the amendment allowing a woman to opt for a more favourable arrangement in 2011. But it is good only for 2011, or the interim period that concerns women who will go on maternity leave and a leave to raise a child in 2011. And what about the future?
That is to say in 2012, we will have a calculation schedule which will worsen a mothers’ position. Naturally, a second child in my family will be a critical issue. I want to raise my child with enough money to spend on some sports groups, fine clothes and other things.
I therefore have this question: why do these amendments (parliament agreed they hurt a mothers’ circumstances) deal only with rollovers through 2011?
Vladimir Putin: Why do you think the lawmakers decided to change the applicable laws?
Yulia Khodakovskaya: I do not know. Perhaps the Social Insurance Fund had some funding problems …
Vladimir Putin: No. The deputies saw the need because in some cases part of the pay during the working time is issued in envelopes and it is not until the last moment – before the disability period sets off – that they switch to an officially reported salary or a greater one. This way, they increase the pregnancy and maternity grant.
But overall I agree with you. If we want to have more babies born in this country and the population situation improved, we should of course avoid worsening the position of future mothers.
A variety of solutions is currently being considered. You know that our pregnancy and maternity grant is now much higher, its upper limit …
Yulia Khodakovskaya: Wait a minute, the upper limit has remained at the 2010 level.
Vladimir Putin: 34,000 [roubles a month].
Yulia Khodakovskaya: 34,500.
Vladimir Putin: 34,500.
Yulia Khodakovskaya: There are workaholic women who work from morning till night and earn the top salary: 50,000 to 60,000 [roubles a month]. And though they pay taxes from this amount, they are told: “Excuse us, but we can pay you only 34,500.” Again, we are a bit …
Vladimir Putin: Well, 34,500 is much higher than the average pay across the economy.
Yulia Khodakovskaya: I agree. But all the same …
Vladimir Putin: The average salary in this country is now just over 20,000 [roubles a month].
Yulia Khodakovskaya: When people earn a lot, they also want to receive …
Vladimir Putin: Yes. It is all connected with the top amount from which social benefits and taxes are calculated. Our upper limit there is just over 400,000 roubles. We have lifted it, and last year pregnancy and maternity grants rose as well, to 34,500. Correct, you are well informed. This allowance is paid for four months, and then follows …
Yulia Khodakovskaya: Yes, for 140 days …
Vladimir Putin: Then follows …
Yulia Khodakovskaya: … then follows 40% of the average salary.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, for eighteen months. Next we have a birth grant of 12,000 [roubles]. And there is also maternity capital – which we regularly index. This year, it will be somewhere in the neighbourhood of 370,000 roubles, I think.
But this payment, about which you ask and which we are discussing, is… Of course, the proposed solution is too inflexible and does not reflect our desire, the desire of the state, to improve demographics and help women who decide to become mothers and have a child, especially a second child.
We debated the issue just recently once more. Judging from your question, it is of great interest to you and to women in the same situation.
The final solution – I will raise the matter again with my colleagues at United Russia in the Duma tomorrow – will be this: first, we will leave the old procedure for another two years – 2011 and 2012. Second, we will greatly ease the procedure for calculating the amount due to women deciding to go on a pregnancy and maternity leave. Cases like the ones you mentioned in connection with your knee injury and which can materially cut the overall assistance within two years will be excluded from this two-year period. Say, the time spent on sick and some other kinds of leave will be excluded from the formula.
Everything that reduces general income will be omitted. I presume, given this approach, women will face no problems or losses …
This is the first thing. Second, we will pass it in the near future, but it will be effective starting January 1, 2011, so that young mothers will be able to take advantage of the benefits over the entire period (from January 1) and will lose nothing this year.
Thank you very much.
Vladimir Putin: I hope you will like this trouble-shooting option.
Yulia Khodakovskaya: Sure, thank you.
Vladimir Putin: I wish you all the best. Goodbye.
Marina Dmitriyeva: Good afternoon.
Vladimir Putin: What’s your name?
Marina Dmitriyeva: My name is Marina Dmitriyeva. Mr Putin, you have visited the Orenburg Region regularly.
Vladimir Putin: That’s right.
Marina Dmitriyeva: Apart from natural gas, crude oil, down shawls or the Orenburg Folk Chorus, the Orenburg Region boasts an ancient cultural heritage. Archaeological finds from the Filippov Hills have made our region famous all over the world. Excavation work still continues there.
The Kargala Copper Mines, a unique federal archaeological monument, are located in the Orenburg Region.
Mr Putin, what is now the Orenburg Region was the first area to start mining copper on the entire Eurasian continent. Ancient miners excavated this mine in the second millennium BCE (Showing materials).
Vladimir Putin: And where is this located?
Marina Dmitriyeva: In the region’s Oktyabrsky, Sakmarsky, Perevolotsky and Alexandrovsky districts, covering an area of 500 square kilometres.
Vladimir Putin: Is it due east?
Marina Dmitriyeva: No, it’s exactly 70 km from Orenburg.
Vladimir Putin: Near Orenburg?
Marina Dmitriyeva: Yes. Please visit us in the summer, and you will see blue grass there. Just imagine, there is no copper museum in the world. And we can establish the world’s first copper museum in Orenburg.
Please accept these books as a gift. You know, they were printed prior to the 300th anniversary of prominent Russian geographer Pyotr Rychkov (1712-1777).
Pyotr Rychkov was the Columbus of the Orenburg Territory, the first Corresponding Member of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences and an amazing person. As Chairman of the Russian Geographical Society’s Council of Trustees, you support geography, and you will find this very interesting.
And now I would like to discuss the most important thing. On October 1, 2011, we will celebrate the 220th anniversary of Sergei Aksakov (1791-1859), a prominent Russian writer and storyteller who praised the nature of the Orenburg Territory and the entire Trans-Volga Region.
Vladimir Putin: Was he the one who write “The Scarlet Flower?”
Marina Dmitriyeva: Yes! It’s wonderful that you know this! He spent over 15 years in what is now the Orenburg Region’s Buguruslan District.
Vladimir Putin: Surely, you know the story “Beauty and the Beast.”
Marina Dmitriyeva: Of course.
Vladimir Putin: Which one was written earlier – “The Scarlet Flower” or “Beauty and the Beast?”
Marina Dmitriyeva: Aksakov translated this. But Aksakov expressed such profound love for our homeland, nature and the people that this fairy tale filled millions of human hearts with the scarlet colour of love.
Vladimir Putin: This is true.
Marina Dmitriyeva: The situation is quite vexing because there are so many monuments to Hans Andersen who wrote “The Little Mermaid” in Denmark, while not a single monument has been erected in Russia to the creator of “The Scarlet Flower.” But we will eventually accomplish this objective. So, look, Sergei Aksakov …
Vladimir Putin: Let’s build a monument to Aksakov.
Marina Dmitriyeva: Yes. Sergei Aksakov spent many years, 15 years, to be exact, at his grandfather’s estate in the Orenburg Region’s Buguruslan District (Showing materials). This is the entire estate of Sergei Aksakov including the landlord’s manor, restored in 1998. Here is another photo of the landlord’s manor.
Vladimir Putin: Nice work, beautifully restored.
Marina Dmitriyeva: Yes, this lime-tree alley was planted by Aksakov’s grandfather. Can you imagine this?
Vladimir Putin: In what year?
Marina Dmitriyeva: He bought the estate in 1760 …
Vladimir Putin: And the trees were already there …
Marina Dmitriyeva: No, the trees were planted by Aksakov’s grandfather.
Vladimir Putin: In the 18th century?
Marina Dmitriyeva: Yes. Aksakov’s grandfather also commissioned an absolutely wonderful pond. In 2007, federal funding helped to replace the pond’s locks with new ones. Just imagine, it’s like a sea with black and white swans. We have all this. You know, newlyweds like to visit the place where fairy tale “The Scarlet Flower” was written. In 2011, we plan to restore the 5.6-hectare park, and plant about 400 trees there. The lime-tree alley that I showed you is also there. Some trees need to be treated, and about 80 new lime-trees planted. This building, notably, the landlord’s manor, the former stable, the housekeeper’s house and servants’ quarters are all in need of restoration. Objectively speaking, we have conducted a great deal of work that involved everyone, including the public, scientists, the regional government and the State Duma Committee on Culture. Grigory Ivlev, Chairman of the Duma’s Committee on Culture, treats the region’s cultural heritage with the utmost respect.
We have been working closely with the Ministry of Culture to implement the federal programme the Culture of Russia. We have filed an application and there is a good chance now that it will be included. This estate is federal property and part of federal-level cultural heritage. This is reason enough to include it in the federal programme.
The problem is it needs a little push that your support could give. I mean your personal support and that of United Russia, because if we do not have it…
Vladimir Putin: What kind of push do you mean? Are you talking about co-financing?
Marina Dmitriyeva: Yes, we need at least 3 million roubles to be provided by the regional government.
Vladimir Putin: Regional government? You will need to contact the governor. Or did you mean federal support?
Marina Dmitriyeva: Federal support too. Just to be sure that our project will be programme. And a small contribution from the regional budget. If the federal government allocates the 2.5 million roubles we have applied for, then the regional government must contribute another 3 million.
Vladimir Putin: What is the cost of the project?
Marina Dmitriyeva: We won’t need more than 5 million roubles this year – to restore the park with its beautiful lime alley, and the old stables. And a conference room will be needed of course to accommodate writers’ meetings.
Vladimir Putin: Right, Ms Dmitriyeva. We have the federal programme – Culture of Russia. Its budget is not large but your project is good and fits in well with the programme targets. I will ask the Minister of Culture to find the funding for you. When did you send your request?
Marina Dmitriyeva: Before the deadline of September 1, 2010.
Vladimir Putin: So it’s there already?
Marina Dmitriyeva: Yes.
Vladimir Putin: You’ll have the funding.
Marina Dmitriyeva: Thank you very much. I mean, people must know that restoring the Aksakov Estate is an important government project.
Vladimir Putin: How about building Aksakov’s monument here, in addition to restoring the estate? We should organise a tender for that.
Marina Dmitriyeva: Yes. But this won’t happen until next year when we’ll have more money. Now, unfortunately…
Vladimir Putin: A tender will also take time. Therefore, if it is announced today, you’ll be able to collect the proposals by next year, and your experts could select the best one - set up a special commission, pick the best project and implement it.
Marina Dmitriyeva: I can see what the monument should look like – the magic flower, the Beast… You know, Nastenka in the fairy-tale was really Aksakov’s granddaughter, Olga. Her father – Aksakov’s son – was the governor of the Samara Region. The whole Aksakov family was amazing – all outstanding and respected people, a model Russian family devoted to Russia, the Tsar and the Russian Church.
Vladimir Putin: Slavophils.
Marina Dmitriyeva: Yes. Thank you very much.
Vladimir Putin: Here is what we will do. I will talk to the governor and arrange the funding for your project. I hope the Orenburg Region will fulfill its part of the deal. And we’ll plan additional financing for the monument for next year.
Marina Dmitriyeva: Excellent!
Vladimir Putin: Agreed.
Marina Dmitriyeva: Thank you so much! You know, I have actually made a vow not to die until I set up the Kargala Copper Mines Museum, the Aksakov Museum. I thought that would mean I’d have to live forever.
Vladimir Putin: You can live happily ever after.
Marina Dmitriyeva: Thank you very much Mr Putin!
Vladimir Putin: Next please. Go ahead.
Tatiana Korablyova: I am Tatiana Korablyova from the village of Troitsk, near Krasnokholm. My son is in seventh grade, in the Krasnokholm secondary school. We have a problem: the school is seven kilometers away from the village, and children have to use a bus to go to school.
Vladimir Putin: Is it a good school?
Tatiana Korablyova: Not really. But it’s OK.
Vladimir Putin: OK? How many students does it serve?
Tatiana Korablyova: 600.
Vladimir Putin: But it’s a large school!
Tatiana Korablyova: Thirty-six children from our small village go to that school.
Vladimir Putin: You say the school isn’t very good. What would you like to change - to improve?
Tatiana Korablyova: I wasn’t talking about improving the school. The problem is we no longer have the bus to take the children there. The old one was provided by the Orenburg city government, but they have discarded it. We no longer have the bus and our children can’t go to school.
Vladimir Putin: What is your village called again?
Tatiana Korablyova: Krasnokholm. The village is Troitsk, seven kilometers from Krasnokholm.
Vladimir Putin: Now where is the school?
Tatiana Korablyova: In Krasnokholm.
Vladimir Putin: Which school is it?
Tatiana Korablyova: School No. 84. But our village is administratively part of Orenburg…
Vladimir Putin: The federal government allocated a billion roubles last year to support the regions, and specifically to buy school buses.
Tatiana Korablyova: They discarded it last year.
Vladimir Putin: Do you mean you never got that money? I see. You know what, Ms Korablyova, I think your problem is easy to resolve. But let me now return to your statement that the school wasn’t very good. How would you like to improve it?
Tatiana Korablyova: It would be great to have a large gym.
Vladimir Putin: A gym? The school doesn’t have a gym?
Tatiana Korablyova: There is one at the Zarya leisure centre, but it isn’t part of the school. It would be good to have a school gym, or better still, a whole fitness centre…
Vladimir Putin: But you’re right. A gym is good, and a fitness centre, to have PE lessons there… I was just talking about this with my colleagues in our discussion of sports and fitness development. PH classes are key to grassroots sports and fitness. You are perfectly entitled to wish to have a gym at your son’s school. We’ll consider it.
Tatiana Korablyova: There is something else… The roads where we live aren’t good either. This road from Troitsk to Krasnokholm is dangerous. But our children ride it twice a day.
Vladimir Putin: That’s not good. When we talk about developing education centres, schools, we imply that large schools will provide better services than small ones. But we also need to think about transport and roads.
Tatiana Korablyova: Yes. These roads are just dangerous to use.
Vladimir Putin: And you say the school bus is your only problem. There are other problems too.
Tatiana Korablyova: Mr Putin… There is something else – something I was not going to mention at first. It just happened – something one of my colleagues asked me when she learned I was coming here. She simply begged me to tell you this: she took a mortgage, to buy an apartment for her daughter…
Vladimir Putin: In the same village, right?
More to be posted soon...
источник новости: http://premier.gov.ru/eng/events/news/13973/
