Speaking about the reasons for creating the Russian Popular Front, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that he wants United Russia to come alive with new ideas and new people, as well as numerous formal and informal organisations to gain opportunities to express themselves and promote some of their ideas and their own people in the municipal, regional and federal power bodies.
Transcript of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.
I will not utter long monologues; I just want to remind you what the reason was for establishing such an informal network – the Russian Popular Front. The idea behind it is that should be informal and non-bureaucratic. I would like to see United Russia come alive with new ideas, new people, new faces, and for many organisations – both formal and informal – to gain opportunities to express themselves and promote some of their ideas and their own people in the municipal, regional and federal power bodies.
...Speaking about the reasons for creating the Russian Popular Front, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that he wants United Russia to come alive with new ideas and new people, as well as numerous formal and informal organisations to gain opportunities to express themselves and promote some of their ideas and their own people in the municipal, regional and federal power bodies.
Transcript of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.
I will not utter long monologues; I just want to remind you what the reason was for establishing such an informal network – the Russian Popular Front. The idea behind it is that should be informal and non-bureaucratic. I would like to see United Russia come alive with new ideas, new people, new faces, and for many organisations – both formal and informal – to gain opportunities to express themselves and promote some of their ideas and their own people in the municipal, regional and federal power bodies.
I have already said that this idea was born in conjunction with preparations for the State Duma elections but I think that we should take it further, beyond the national parliamentary elections.
I want to reiterate: we are talking about both the municipal and regional levels; in other words, I would like to see people communicate their proposals for the development of their city, town or region or the entire country through this informal network, the Russian Popular Front.
That is all that I wanted to say initially. I would like to hear your views. Who will start? Go ahead, please.
Alexander Vasilyev: Let's start with our community. My name is Alexander Vasilyev. I am the organiser of an online community, the automotive community Ubitiye Dorogi Pskova (“Wrecked Pskov Roads”). And this is Igor Chernykh, one of our activists. The community was set up in 2008, in February, when the problem with the roads was very severe, and the city did not have serviceable roads. We began with a social network – one picture, and then literally one week later, we came out onto the streets with 200 cars. This was something new for the city, but nevertheless we did not meet with the authorities’ understanding. We followed up with another protest – in general, nothing happened, but our resentment grew. We live in the border region and see how our neighbours in the Baltics – Latvia, Estonia, and Belarus...
Vladimir Putin: Are building their infrastructure…
Alexander Vasilyev: Yes, and the quality of their roads. In other words, people who cross the border into Russia can tell immediately that they are in Russia when travelling on our roads. And in 2009, the situation changed. In what regard? We got a new regional administration, but nevertheless, we knew that they inherited a burdensome legacy of roads. So we still came out, held a protest and were heard. We were invited to a round table where we discussed the road issue with the administration.
Next, the governor himself asked us to rate the roads, to understand which of them should be repaired and what the people need. We submitted these ratings, and already in 2010, the longest and most important roads were repaired. We were able to establish such interaction between the community and the authorities. We decided to go a little further, so now we are creating a new information resource. Igor, could you tell us about it?
Vladimir Putin: Contractors must be scared of you by now
Igor Chernykh: The community is currently part of the social network VKontakte, but the audience there is limited, so we are creating a brand-new resource that will show all the region’s roads, their condition, as well as residential driveways, which is what we really want. And it will address some problems – the price of petrol, parking and traffic jams, which have now begun to appear in Pskov. In other words, we want to create a certain information resource that will be a kind of popular control, so that everyone can log on and add a problem road, say what is wrong with it, and monitor the repair of roads. We have public inspectors, who are already walking around the city, taking pictures, filling the website with records about roads and are monitoring the repairs, that is, photographing them, and publishing the photos after the repairs. In other words, we are showing the roads before, during and after repairs.
Vladimir Putin: This is very good, and important. I don’t think the authorities are willing or even able to supervise this. And if such an additional opportunity arises, then the regional government should be interested in it.
Igor Chernykh (a member of the Lamentable Roads of Pskov online community): It is important for us to make sure that the government recognises this resource and starts observing it or even supervises the troublesome road sections that we will be pointing out. Afterwards, the government can publish corresponding reports, probably, on the same website.
Alexander Vasilyev (the head of the Lamentable Roads of Pskov online community): This will be an anti-corruption measure. We can see what a road looked like, how it was repaired and what was done to it and what happened to it afterwards. If money is stolen, you cannot call the contractor into account. One can see at once if something was done indeed…
The road issue is becoming less topical, but motorists are facing new issues in out city. Since I’m here, I would like to ask you on behalf of the motorists. Roads are getting better, but the number of cars in the city and the traffic running across the region, including through Pskov itself, are growing. Pskov is almost stalling in gridlock.
Vladimir Putin: The traffic is running through downtown Pskov?
Alexander Vasilyev: Yes, through the city centre. There are two main streets. The bridges are the weakest point. There are only few of them. A section of the ring road has not been completed there. If we could help in this issue, this would get rid of the traffic in the city for several years to come.
Vladimir Putin: The ring road around the city is under construction?
Alexander Vasilyev: One section of it has been completed, while another, including a bridge and a connection to the motorway to Riga, is still pending.
Vladimir Putin: How long is this section?
Alexander Vasilyev: It is between five or six kilometres long.
Let me now ask a question about our community. I believe others would find it interesting, too. Presently, our community only exists on the VKontakte social networking website. This means we are not registered as a NGO.
Vladimir Putin: Let me first say a few words about the issues you raised.
First, we expect the amount of funds that can and need to be set aside for road repairs and construction to grow significantly after the establishment of regional road funds. These will be very substantial funds. In this respect, it seems important to me to make sure you get a representative in the regional parliament.
Why am I referring to the regional parliament? Because this is where the spending is planned. We need to make sure that members of your association can supervise at the level of the regional parliament what funds are being set aside and for what purposes rather than drive around the city and post this information on the Internet.
I would like to emphasise that this is extremely important given that money allocations for this purpose are expected to surge dramatically.
This is my first point.
Second, I will certainly take a look at the unfinished ring road section and will hold a meeting with the governor to discuss this issue. He will tell me in detail about everything and I will issue corresponding instructions to the federal road fund.
Let me now return to the organisational issue. Speaking about the Russian Popular Front, I was above all speaking about lifting excessive bureaucracy.
To my mind, it is not so important whether your organisation is registered as such or not – the main thing is that it deals with a specific and topical issue. There should be no organisational or bureaucratic barriers for organisations like this. It does exist de facto and I believe this is what the decision should be grounded in. So, it is possible we will be taking part in this work together.
Remark: Good.
Vladimir Putin: Moreover, it is not only important. It will only be appropriate if you take part in this work because what you are doing is very important. I don’t think there’s a point citing Russia’s three main troubles. I would like to reiterate that the establishment of road funds will reverse the situation.
Question: What are these three troubles? The fools, the roads, and…
Vladimir Putin: …import.
Remark: I’d say alcohol abuse.
Vladimir Putin: Well, maybe. Go ahead, please.
Daniil Novikov (head of the Let’s Help association of independent volunteer initiatives): I represent youth associations and my name is Daniil Novikov. Here is Alina Chernova, a fellow of mine. We have been working on important volunteer and charity initiatives for four years now. About a year ago we set up a community called Let’s Help in our region.
Vladimir Putin: What is the name?
Daniil Novikov: It is Let’s Help. So, the name incorporates an appeal. At first, this community was only working with the support of Pskovskaya Pravda, our local newspaper, but then the regional government and the youth policy committee turned their attention to us. Over that year we carried out about 20 campaigns – we are working to help orphans. But now given this support through grants, applications, consultation and information support we have already planned twice as many campaigns as we conducted over the previous year.
Vladimir Putin: When was the community set up?
Daniil Novikov: We established the Let’s Help organisation last year.
Vladimir Putin: Could you repeat how many campaigns you have carried out since then?
Daniil Novikov: About 20. Let me say a few words about these campaigns. We don’t come to orphanages carrying gifts; our objective is to contribute to the children’s development, above all to teach them to communicate because this has turned out to be the kids’ primary need.
There aren’t many of us in the association. Its mainstay group includes between 15 and 20 people and about 150 people are registered in the organisation. We do not only visit orphanages but we also try to take the children on trips to Pskov. Yesterday we had a football match. We invited children from two orphanages and organised a football match involving volunteers, with entertainment. We also take kids to various industrial facilities so that they can take a look behind the scenes. In this way, we help them choose their future profession. There aren’t many of us in the organisation but we have ambitious plans.
More to be posted soon...
источник новости: http://premier.gov.ru/eng/events/news/15311/
