#7
BBC Monitoring
Putin says Russia not interested in seeing a US defeat in Iraq
Source: RTR Russia TV, Moscow, in Russian 0100 gmt 3 Apr 03

Russia is not interested in seeing a US defeat in Iraq, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on 2 April. Instead, Russia will continue to press for a UN-brokered settlement to the Iraq situation. On domestic issues, Putin promised free and high-quality medical care for elderly people and praised recently passed laws on local government and farmland sales. The following is the text of the report by state-run Russia TV on 3 April; subheadings have been inserted editorially:

[Presenter] The public health care system in Russia will be improved by means of changes in mandatory health insurance. They will affect the most unprotected social strata in the first instance. This decision was taken at a meeting of the presidium of the [Russian] State Council in Tambov, chaired by President Vladimir Putin.

At the start of the meeting, Putin described the situation in the Russian public health care system as unsatisfactory. Free and high-quality medical services must be guaranteed to the population, he said. Special attention must be paid to children and pensioners, he said.

Putin summed up the main results of the presidium conference at a meeting with journalists from the Russian Black Soil region [part of central Russia south of Moscow].

Pension Fund allocating money for health care

[Putin, talking to journalists] [caption indicates that meeting took place 2 April 2003] The first step in this direction will affect medical care for pensioners. It was found expedient that the Pension Fund should allocate up to R1.5bn to improve medical care for pensioners this year.

Wage arrears to public sector workers down

[Presenter] In his conversation with journalists, Putin also touched upon other acute social problems, in particular wage arrears to public sector workers. In most regions this problem does not exist any more, he said.

[Putin] I must say that there are no wage arrears to public sector workers in 63 constituent parts of the Russian Federation. In 63 out of 89! That has some meaning. It means that in those regions the implementation of the budget is correctly organized, priorities are correctly identified and there are no contradictions between municipal heads and the governors. Or, if they do exist, such contradictions are not being resolved at the expense of the population.

As for redistribution of financial resources in favour of the federal centre, I have to say that the sense of such a redistribution is to take some money from the so-called donor regions and give it in a more balanced way to other regions by various means via the Finance Ministry in order to create the financial conditions for payment of salaries. In general, this goal is being achieved, because, as I said before, 63 regions have no problems with paying salaries to public sector workers. Let's remember that several years ago it was a large-scale problem affecting practically the entire country.

Regrettably, there are still many unclear points and unsolved problems in relations between the centre, the constituent parts of the federation and the municipalities. A set of bills on the delimitation of powers between the federal centre, the regions and the municipalities is being prepared so to resolve all those problems and to enable the municipal authorities to carry out their obligations to the people in accordance with their financial opportunities.

Federal Energy Commission right place to raise electricity price rises

[Presenter] Another important topic mentioned by Vladimir Putin was the rise in energy tariffs. The president stressed that they should be raised gradually and in accordance with the growth in people's incomes. He recalled that the government had set limits for growth in tariffs. The consumers may also defend their rights on their own when a rise in tariffs is unfounded, he said.

[Putin] When we discuss a rise in tariffs, this is really a very acute problem. I agree with the people who are indignant when they see tariffs pushed up for no obvious reason or in an untimely way. Maybe some people do not know that customers can appeal to the Federal Energy Commission if they believe that their rights have been violated. No such appeals have been made. People often go on demonstrations, but they don't know their rights to a full extent.

The view exists that the government should be given powers to influence the decisions of regional energy commissions when the latter make unfounded decisions. In particular, the One Russia party has made such a proposal. In Stavropol [Territory], they insisted that the tariffs were brought down to the level of common sense. I think that this [proposal] should be considered.

Land sale law makes dealings transparent, protects landowners' interests

[Presenter] The president was asked one more question, about the new law on farm land sales. The law will make the situation regarding land sales clear and transparent for everybody, Putin said. The sooner regional authorities put it into practice, the sooner all kinds of abuses in this area will be liquidated.

[Putin] First of all, it was decided that the local authorities, regional or [Russian constituent] republics' authorities should decide on their own whether to implement the rules or not. If the authorities in a region think that the time has not yet come, then they have no need to do it and the federal law will not be applied to that particular region. But I think that the fact you've mentioned should prompt the [local] authorities to adopt their own law endorsing the federal law on their territory. I don't know all the details concerning the situation in Voronezh Region, but, judging from what you've said, I think that the sooner the local authorities realize the need to implement the federal legislation, the sooner the situation will become transparent, the sooner shady land dealings will come to light and the sooner the real price of land will be identified. The people will get real money for their plots of land [in a collective or state farm], should they decide to sell them.

Russia not interested in US defeat in Iraq

[Presenter] The president also touched upon the most important international issue, the war in Iraq. For political and economic reasons, Moscow is not interested in seeing a US defeat in Iraq, but it insists that the crisis should be resolved by peaceful means, he said.

[Putin] Russia has always consistently called for a peaceful settlement of the Iraqi problem. I agree with you that the events of the last few days and weeks, especially those involving the loss of human life, confirm the correctness of the stand chosen by Russia. At the same time, I must say that, for political and economic reasons, Russia is not interested in seeing a US defeat in Iraq. We are interested in bringing the matter of resolving this problem back to the UN platform. This is what we are trying to achieve. And the sooner it happens, the better for all countries involved in this conflict. I have stated my view on this issue more than once. There is nothing new in what I've said, but events are really developing in a dramatic way and the Russian Foreign Ministry will make additional efforts to have the settlement of this issue returned to the UN Security Council.

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