Direct Line with Vladimir Putin (partial transcript)

(Kremlin.ru – April 14, 2016)

Direct Line with Vladimir Putin was broadcast live on Channel One, Rossiya-1 and Rossiya-24 TV channels, and Mayak, Vesti FM and Radio Rossii radio stations.

During the live broadcast that lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes, the President answered 80 questions out of the over 3 million that were received.

Valeriya Korableva, reporter at Channel One: Good afternoon. We are live with the Direct Line with Vladimir Putin and today’s programme hosts, Yevgeny Rozhkov and Valeriya Korableva.

Yevgeny Rozhkov, reporter at VGTRK: This is a joint project between Channel One and Rossiya television channel. You can watch the broadcast live on Rossiya-24, too, and listen live on radio stations Mayak, Vesti FM, and Radio Rossii.

Valeriya Korableva: Our colleagues Olga Ushakova, Vera Krasova, Nailya Asker-zade, and Olga Pautova will be helping us in the studio, and Tatyana Remezova and Natalya Yuryeva are working at the call centre.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: Let me say a few words about our guests.

We have the heroes of TV reports here today, people from all walks of life, doctors, teachers, workers, businesspeople, farmers, students, scientists, military personnel, law enforcement officers, and others.

Valeriya Korableva: The issues raised include rising prices, the drop in living standards, bad roads, the housing and utilities sector, health sector problems, and conflict zones, old and new. We will talk today about all that is really on Russians’ minds. There are already many questions and they continue coming in.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: We will discuss the main issues today and put the big questions to the star of today’s programme – the President of the Russian Federation.

So, here, live, we have Vladimir Putin.

Valeriya Korableva: Good afternoon.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: Good afternoon.

Mr President, this is the question processing centre, or the call centre, as we also call it. It is one of the few such centres specially established by Rostelecom to collect the questions people are sending to you for this direct line.

There are several centres because one alone would simply not cope with the volume. Dozens of messages are coming in every second – SMS and MMS messages and telephone calls. If you look around, you see the girls busy taking the many calls coming in.

At the computers over there they are taking video calls. We have someone right now who wants to put a question to you live. Incidentally, these video calls are one of the innovations of this year’s Direct Line.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Excellent.

Valeriya Korableva: Let me show you how it all works. The operator is taking the call right now. It’s a call from Omsk Region, a video call, and this young lady wants to put her question. It looks like a question about roads.

Vladimir Putin: Let’s hear the question.

Valeriya Korableva: There’s a real hail of questions about roads this year. Yes, let’s hear what she wants to ask.

Vladimir Putin: Go ahead. So, roads then, well, this means we get straight into the heart of things this year, without any warm-up.

Question: Hello, Mr President.

My name is Yekaterina and I am calling on behalf of the people of Omsk Region. We have a problem here, and it’s no small problem – it’s our roads. Take a look at what state they’re in. It’s just one pothole after another. Our cars break down on these roads, the wheels come off.

The authorities turn a deaf ear to our problems and pleas. We try to take action, organise petitions, but the authorities ignore us. The people here don’t have proper roads, no bicycle paths either, the trees are being cut down, and there’s mud everywhere.

Valeriya Korableva: Is this the centre of town or the outskirts?

Response: This is the centre of town. There’s also the question of the metro we’ve all been waiting for so long, but its construction isn’t going anywhere. We just get told that it will be built eventually.

Mr President, Omsk will soon celebrate its 300th anniversary. This is a symbolic date. The local people all hope that by this date at least our city will be a fresh new place with the roads and green spaces we ask for. Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: What is your name? Can she hear me?

Valeriya Korableva: Yes, she can hear you. You can talk.

Response: My name is Yekaterina.

Vladimir Putin: Yekaterina, this is indeed a problem that has worsened of late, strange as it may seem, given that we set up the regional road funds a while ago and have been allocating considerable funds for their work. I spent all of yesterday looking through the questions coming in, and I see that, despite the efforts, very many people have complaints about the state of our roads.

This is obviously not by chance, because I looked at the different issues people are raising, and road-related issues really account for a huge share of questions, which means that this is a real concern for people, not just in Omsk Region, but in other parts of Russia too. I looked at how the road funds are spending their money, and I see that the funds are quite substantial, but a lot of money is getting diverted to resolving other tasks.

The Government and I will think about this. In any case, I believe that what certainly needs to be done is, first, to make sure that road construction funds are used according to their intended purpose. Heads of Russian regions used to be against this approach, since for them these funds were and still are some kind of a piggy-bank, if I can say so, where they could source money to fund other purposes. In fact, they were not prevented by law from doing so. These funds should be earmarked specifically for road construction and overhaul, especially taking into account that no more than 10 percent of the road construction funds go towards overhauling roads. This was the first point.

My second point is about what else can be done within a short timeframe. A decision was taken to raise excise duties on motor fuel by two rubles. Initially we expected to channel all this revenue to regional road construction funds. However the Ministry of Finance, as it turns out, has a plan to transfer the proceeds from this two-ruble increase to the federal budget due to the well-known shortfalls with the budget. We have to keep in mind, that these are not easy times for the Ministry of Finance in terms of balancing the budget, as we will discuss later. I think that we need to find a compromise in this respect by maybe leaving at least one ruble in regional road construction funds. This would amount to some 40 billion rubles, and would hopefully improve road quality.

As for Omsk, of course, the city should benefit from improvements as it approaches its 300th anniversary, and even more so its road network. For that, Russian regions should adopt the same approach as we have on the federal level. Why not? I’m talking about the so-called full-service contracts: from road construction to maintenance and repair, so that companies will be incentivised to do a good job from the outset. I think that we should probably begin by adopting these measures, and this is what we are going to do in the near future.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: Maybe we will return to this subject later on. This was a good start. Let’s now move to the studio. Everyone is waiting for us there.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Of course.

Natalya Yuryeva: As you have seen, this is the first time that we are taking live video calls. In order to ask Vladimir Putin a question, you need to download a free application, register (you may use your social media account) and press the call button.

This application has already been downloaded dozens of thousands of times, and we have over 10,000 video calls. As usual, operators in our call centre also accept pre-recorded video questions, and of course MMS messages at the number 0440.

Tatyana Remezova, reporter at VGTRK: Over this week of work the question processing centre has received hundreds of thousands of questions for the President. Our operators at the different call centres around the country have been working practically round the clock to process all the messages coming in. As the figures stand now, we have received nearly half-a-million calls and 400,000 SMS, and the total number of messages now comes to more than 2.3 million.

Let me remind you that you can put your question by calling the free number 8 800 200 4040, and the short number for SMS messages is 04040. Among our innovations this year is that you can send your questions via this programme’s official group on the social network VKontakte. Young people, people under thirty, have been making active use of this option. We have 20,000 registered users and more than 70,000 questions. This new option for communicating with the President has turned out to be very popular.

Let me remind you that the live broadcast on our site is accompanied by sign language interpretation.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: Well, Russia has traversed another difficult year with the Western sanctions and the fall in oil prices. Of course, this has all had an impact on the Russian economy. The statistics show that for the first time in many years, we have had a drop in production, wages are coming down, and people are losing their jobs. Despite these difficulties, and in spite of everything, perhaps, Russia’s economy has pulled through and is certainly not in tatters, as your colleague [US President] Barack Obama predicted it would be.

Valeriya Korableva: The last year certainly brought its share of good things too, but the specific nature of this programme means that people seldom ask about the good things, they ask about their concerns, worries, and the things that went wrong. After all, the Direct Line programmes are above all a way to take a look at the issues of greatest concern to ordinary people.

When preparing for the Direct Line, we looked through lots of questions, many of which concern the economy – not economics but the economy in a more narrow meaning. For everyone is concerned about his or her personal budget, and many people have had to rethink their spending habits and have become more thrifty.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: Let’s start with questions on essential issues. We are receiving them in the form of text messages and also via the internet.

Lyudmila Safronova from Moscow is asking about prices, of course: “Last year I spent 5,000 rubles on weekly food purchases for my family. A year later, that is today, the same amount costs 10,000 rubles, or twice as much, whereas the Government claims that inflation is only 12.5 percent. Whom should I trust – the Government or supermarket till receipt?”

Vladimir Putin: You should trust both, and here’s why. There is no contradiction. The Government is talking about the average annual inflation, which was 12.9 and not 12.5 percent last year. As for the different component parts making up this figure, the rise in food prices is a very large component. Last year, and especially early last year, food prices grew considerably, by about 14 percent, if memory serves, but in the third quarter the prices of basic foodstuffs decreased. Early this year, the growth was approximately 2.2 percent, which means the Government is not deceiving us. But 12.9 percent is a lot anyway.

However, we should pay special attention to the situation with food. Frankly, we are partially responsible for the growth of food prices. Why? Because we restricted the import of foodstuffs in response to the Western sanctions against Russia. We did this knowingly, expecting this to create conditions for the development of our agricultural industry and to set the market free. And this is what we are seeing.

Overall GDP has dropped by 3.7 percent, and industry posted a drop of 3.4 percent, but the agriculture sector grew by 3 percent. This sector plays a big part in our people’s life and our economy, given that 40 million people in Russia live in rural areas.

Overall though, looking at the long term, we think this will produce a positive effect, increase our food security, and create better conditions for life and work in the countryside as the prospects improve. I not only hope but am quite confident that what we are seeing now are temporary difficulties and gradually, as local products fill the Russian market, prices will come down. They will stabilise at least, as we are seeing it starting to happen now. Overall though, of course, I realise very well that these difficulties have placed a burden on ordinary consumers.

Valeriya Korableva: Yes, here’s a question precisely on these lines. “Everyone in Russia is trying to spend less and save where they can. What are you personally trying to save on? Tamara Georgiyevna, Moscow”.

Vladimir Putin: I try to save on time, the most valuable thing that we have.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: Natalya Prikhodko from Moscow has a question: “The Government’s economic officials keep telling us that we have hit the bottom in the crisis and are now on the way up again. They’ve already said this 7 times. Where is the Russian economy now as you see it?” She’s making reference to the big news conference you gave, the one at the end of 2014, it seems, 18 months ago, and she asks, “Is the Russian economy going through a black period or a white period now?”

Vladimir Putin: It’s going through a grey period. Let me explain why. The difficulties have not completely faded yet, but we do see a positive trend at work. I said just before that our GDP dropped by 3.7 percent. This year, the Government expects a slight drop to continue, but they expect growth of 1.4 percent next year. Yes, in these terms, it is difficult to say exactly where the bottom lies, but the Government’s forecasts show us the outlines – we can expect a slight drop this year, but next year will bring growth.

I have this chart here with me so that I do not mess up any numbers. I have already mentioned GDP and industrial output. Unfortunately, there are also other negative developments that impact the people of Russia. We should never forget this and work on overcoming these trends. Specifically, real household disposable income declined by 4 percent, and real wages went down even more.

However, there are also encouraging, absolutely positive developments, such as, as I have already mentioned, a 3 percent increase in agriculture. Residential construction reached an all-time high last year of over 85 million square metres. This is a record.

The unemployment rate is still low in Russia at just 5.6 percent. It has inched up, although very slightly compared to the pre-crisis period. The maternity capital has been adjusted for inflation, and now stands at 453,000 rubles.

It should be noted that despite the fact that the price of oil has almost halved, Russia still has a trade surplus, which means that we make more than we spend. This surplus stands at 146 billion rubles, which is a good result. We still have our reserves. Russia’s international reserves have now recovered to the level of early 2014 and are equal to 387 billion rubles, while the deficit is at its minimum of 2.4 percent, which is below expectations.

Valeriya Korableva: Here is another question: it is said that Russia’s national reserves will last only one year. Will it be enough to get through the crisis?

Vladimir Putin: As I have just said, reserves have recovered. I’m talking about the reserves held by the Central Bank or the so-called international reserves of the state. They have recovered to early 2014 levels, and are actually a little higher than that. We had 385.5 billion rubles in early 2014, and now Russia’s reserves are equal to 387 billion rubles. The reserve funds managed by the Government (just to remind you, we have two funds of this kind: the Reserve Fund, as it is called, and the National Welfare Fund) have shrunk, but only slightly. As of today, they hold 50 and 71 billion dollars, respectively, or 10.5 percent of the country’s GDP.

What does this mean? This means that if we keep spending them in the same way as, say, last year, the reserve funds would last at least four years, even if they are not replenished and nothing is done to save them. That said, we expect the economy to grow next year, which means that we may not have to spend as much of our reserves. Maybe, we will not even have to spend as much as we already have. This goes to say that there should be no fears in this respect.

Having reserves in the amount of 10.5 percent of GDP means that if we stopped everything, and I mean, just did nothing, and just laid around the house all day, we could live for four months, and do nothing at all. The country can just freeze for four months and will still get along.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: I hope we won’t come to a standstill.

This question of when will the crisis hit the bottom is a real concern on people’s minds. Here’s another question: “Does it worry you that economic discussions boil down to three subjects now: when we will hit the bottom, when will oil prices rise, and should we print money or is there enough in the treasury? Meanwhile, technological change keeps taking place in the world, new markets emerge, and new trade alliances such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership are forming as alternatives to the WTO. Do you not get the impression that we have turned inwards, shut ourselves off, and could end up left behind in these global economic transformations?” This is a question from Oksana Stychinskaya in Lipetsk Region.

Vladimir Putin: Let me say to Oksana and everyone else who follows our economic developments closely that this is what gets discussed at the superficial level, in the media, but this is not the case of the expert community. You hear the discussion on the three main issues you named, to print or not to print money, oil prices, and so on.

In reality though, the real discussions have a different focus. The main issues are how to attract investment, make our economy more efficient, and ensure demand, in other words, how to raise people’s incomes. This is what the Government is at work on. We discussed just recently issues such as aid for the most vulnerable population groups. This is extremely important because people who were living below the poverty line had just started to do better, but now face new difficulties. This is a worrying situation and we see it and will definitely respond.

What does the Government plan in this area? Most important is not to print money but to change our economy’s structure. This is a very complicated undertaking, but we do have some positive movement in this direction, and this can be seen, for example, in the fact that industrial production has increased.

In February, we saw the first positive change in this trend, and we also saw that high-tech exports have increased compared to exports of natural resources. So you can see that in real life we certainly do not limit ourselves to the three issues you just named.

Valeriya Korableva: One more question on the same issue: is it true that Alexei Kudrin will become head of the Centre for Strategic Research and will prepare a new economic programme?

Vladimir Putin: Maybe Mr Kudrin and I don’t meet as often as we’d like to, but we still do so regularly.

I appreciate his past contributions to our economic development; he is definitely one of our best and most valuable experts. As you know, he refused to work in the administration, but I see now that his stance has changed a bit.

Our situation is not simple, and he is willing to do his part to deal with the tasks facing the country. We have agreed that he will work more actively at the Presidential Expert Council, possibly as a deputy chair. He can also work at one of the more effective agencies, including those created in the past, such as the Centre for Strategic Research, formulating a development strategy for the immediate future, the post-2018 period and a more distant future.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: Let’s move from the economy to foreign policy. The Syrian campaign has definitely been a major success, which no one can deny.

Vladimir Putin: Are the three of us the only ones who’ll do the talking?

Yevgeny Rozhkov: No, we’ll give the floor to others, too.

Valeriya Korableva: Yes, we will.

Vladimir Putin: Ok.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: So, let’s talk about the Syrian campaign and Syria, all the more so since Russia’s achievements there have been really recognised around the world.

Our Aerospace Forces’ operations have seriously undermined the potential of ISIS, but the bulk of our forces have pulled out of Syria, though some of them are still there. Is it possible that the head of this terrorist hydra will grow back?

Vladimir Putin: Such a danger always exists if you do not pay enough attention to combating terrorism. We see that many countries suffer from this scourge: the Middle East, Asia, the United States, and European countries. As for Russia, we all know about terrorism and know what losses we have suffered in this fight, and the threat remains today.

But in Syria, it is not a case of that we simply got up and left, abandoning everything. Let me note that we did indeed withdraw a substantial portion of our forces, but we made sure that after our withdrawal, the Syrian army would be in a fit state to carry out serious offensives itself, with our remaining forces’ support. And we see that after our withdrawal, the Syrian army took Palmyra and a number of other important strategic towns.

The number of towns now enforcing the ceasefire has increased since our withdrawal. We hope very much that this ceasefire, with support from whichever quarter, including from Russia, will pave the road to a peace settlement. There needs to be a political process, to get everyone to agree, sit down at the negotiating table and adopt a constitution, and then on the basis of this constitution hold early elections and find a way out of the crisis.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: How long do you think it will be until Aleppo is liberated, and then Raqqa, ISIS’s heartland?

Vladimir Putin: The problem is that the situation with Aleppo is very complicated. Aleppo is a strategically important region in Syria. It is the second-biggest city and perhaps even the country’s industrial capital. The armed opposition is present there, and so is Jabhat al-Nusra, which is internationally recognised as a terrorist organisation. It is very hard to tell who is who there. They take different tactics in behaviour and are currently all trying to strengthen their own positions.

The Syrian army does not have to try to bolster its position, because it achieved what it wanted before the ceasefire was announced, with our help, and does not have to make such attempts now, but the opposition is trying to take back what it lost. Incidentally, it is not the Syrian army that is fighting there, but for the most part it is Kurdish groups and a few other armed groups. They are fighting each other and fighting the Kurds. We are following the developments closely and will do all we can to prevent any worsening in the situation.

Valeriya Korableva: Let’s go back to the question processing centre and Natalya Yuryeva.

Natalya Yuryeva, Channel One Russia: Thank you. Judging by the video questions that we are receiving here at the Centre, wage arrears is one of the most pressing and painful issues. This issue seemed to be a thing of the past, but during the crisis it has once again become a reality. People don’t have enough money to buy food, medicine, pay for utilities or make payments on their mortgages. In fact, this problem is relevant for almost the entire country. Workers building the Moscow metro, construction workers in Khakassia, workers of Dalspetsstroy in Khabarovsk, Elektoapparat plant in the Novgorod Region, the 20th Aircraft Repair Plant in St Petersburg, Sibvodokanal in the Kemerovo region, and bread bakers in Novosibirsk – all these people are not getting their salaries.

People are not asking for anything supernatural. All they want is to get the money they earned. I propose that we watch a video question submitted by Dmitry Dudkin from Chelyabinsk.

Dmitry Dudkin: Hello, Mr Putin. I’m calling you from the city of Chelyabinsk. My name is Dmirty and I work at the Uralavtopritsep plant. We work for the defence industry and make car trailers. The problem we have is that salaries are paid three months late and not in full, only in small amounts. This is devastating. My salary isn’t that big to begin with, and I have four kids.

Vladimir Putin: Dmitry, what did you say the company name is? (Can I see him on the screen again?)

Valeriya Korableva: He can’t hear you, this is a recorded question. The company is called Uralavtopritsep.

Vladimir Putin: Well, let’s see. Uralavtopritsep should be operating in the automobile industry. This sector is among those that has suffered the most from the crisis. Sales went down sharply. What is actually happening? To keep it short: the price of oil has dropped, and this led to a decrease in the orders from the oil and gas sector, for metals companies, and farther down the chain. Revenues declined.

As I have said, unemployment is at its minimal level and is very low. I see that many companies are trying not to lay off workers. It goes without saying that not paying salaries should not be an option either. As for this particular plant, I do not know of course what is going on there, but since it is related to the automobile industry…

Generally speaking, the Government’s anti-crisis plan envisages specific support measures for industries that have suffered the most. And the automobile industry is first on that list. Over 40 billion rubles were allocated to support this sector. Of course, all the available funds were earmarked for specific purposes, but I will talk to my colleagues, including the Ministry of Industry and Trade and its minister, to make sure that they pay attention to this company. Of course, we must help this company, if there is a possibility to do so.

What else can be the problem there? The problem can be that a some time ago, strangely enough, with the aim of supporting our manufacturers, we introduced the so-called scrappage tax, which increases the cost of final goods, but factoring in these support tools, should not in the final count make things worse but, on the contrary, should help them compete with foreign manufacturers.

Regarding the trailers that the plant manufactures, the scrappage tax also applies to them. It was introduced quite recently and I am not sure that this decision was thought out well enough. I believe that in this particular case the scrappage tax should be abolished for this type of product. We will definitely take this issue up with the Government. This should also help improve the company’s financial status. I promise that we will take a closer look at what is happening there.

Valeriya Korableva: It so happens that wage arrears are this year’s problem. In the regions.

Vladimir Putin: That’s right.

Valeria Korablyova: This did not happen before.

Vladimir Putin: There were arrears as well, but…

Valeria Korablyova: Not on this scale.

Vladimir Putin: No, not on this scale.

evgeny Rozhkov: Let us take another phone call. Tatyana Remezova got it.

Tatyana, please go ahead.

Tatyana Remezova: Mr President, in addition to wage arrears, medicine is another sensitive issue. Here are some of the incoming messages, “prices in pharmacies are like those in a jewellery stores” from the Ivanovo Region; “the greedy pharmacy mafia plunders defenceless people” from Arkhangelsk. I see an incoming call on this subject, let’s try to bring it on the air. We have Dmitry from Moscow calling us.

Good afternoon, Dmitry, you are live on the air, please go ahead with your question.

Dmitry, Moscow: Good afternoon, Mr President. I have a question about medicine. My parents have complained to me that pharmacies do not carry inexpensive domestic medicines. Recently, I had a chance to see it for myself. Why is that pharmacies sell only expensive imported medicines? Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: I do not think that there are only expensive imported drugs on pharmacy shelves (by the way, some people prefer it that way). There are Russian-made medicines as well. Several years ago, we started a national pharmaceutical industry development programme. I am not sure about the exact number, but we set aside about 148 billion roubles to it. This year, we will release an additional 16 billion roubles.

What is happening in this sphere? First, I want to reassure you that, despite all the problems, the Government maintains constant focus on this issue, even if it may appear that no one is paying attention to it.

So, what is happening there? Indeed there is a certain decline in the production of cheap domestic drugs, about 2.5 percent, but this reduction affects only the selection of drugs. There are no reductions with regard to any chemical formulas, meaning that alternative drugs are becoming available. This part of inexpensive products, especially when it comes to critical drugs, is regulated by the state. In today’s circumstances, when personal incomes are down in our country, the Government is implementing price controls. If, overall, the prices for these life-saving drugs rose by 8.8 percent in the past year, the prices for cheap medicines rose, I may be off with the number, but, I think, they rose by 16 percent.

What is this all about? The manufacturers claim that even such price increases are not enough to cover their costs. The fact that the Government limits price hikes and makes adjustments to rising prices causes manufacturers to lose money as they try to manufacture these medicines. Why? Because even though these are domestically produced drugs, their components (the so-called substance) are largely imported en masse from China, for instance. Given the exchange rate, this component cannot be compensated for by increasing prices.

In this regard, the Government has two ways of dealing with this problem: either to subsidise the industry – but here we need to make sure that we have enough funds in the budget to do so – or remove price restrictions to some extent. Perhaps, other solutions will be found within the next 45-60 days. In any case, the Government has been tasked to resolve this problem within the next 45-60 days. That’s what I have to say on this issue.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: We have pharmaceuticals representatives here in the studio. Let’s ask them to choose between continued subsidising and price deregulation.

Vladimir Putin: Right here, in this studio?

Yevgeny Rozhkov: Yes, right here. Nailya, please introduce our next guest.

Nailya Asker-zade, VGTRK: One of our guests is Vitaly Oleinikov, co-owner of a pharmaceutical plant in the Samara Region, which produces popular medicines like Analgin and Bromhexine, and he claims that their medicines are of good quality. Let’s give him the floor.

Mr Oleinikov, what would you like to say?

Vitaly Oleinikov: Good afternoon. I’m Vitaly Oleinikov from the Ozon pharmaceutical plant, the city of Zhigulevsk, Samara Region.

To begin with, I don’t want to try to justify myself, as my colleagues and I have been working for the past 13 years to produce inexpensive and moderately priced medicines. We have been doing this honestly, and I can assure you of the high quality of our medicines.

My children and I personally take medicines produced at our plant, and I recommend them to my friends and acquaintances. Unfortunately, Mr President was right when he said that a considerable number of our medicines have recently become unprofitable, and that we had to stop producing some of them.

The root cause is that we have to buy not just raw materials, but also accessory parts and equipment, abroad for foreign currency. You all know about the exchange rates. But the retail price ceilings have been fixed by the government and haven’t changed since 2009. What surprises me most in this respect is that the ceiling prices are different for Russian and foreign medicines. Sometimes…

Nailya Asker-zade: Mr Oleinikov, please remember that brevity is the sister of talent.

Vitaly Oleinikov: I can’t stop; I need to unload, really. Sometimes foreign medicines are 20 times more expensive than Russian medicines, don’t you see? Why is that?

The prices of raw materials have increased. Raw materials make up to 70 percent of the cost of cheap pills, and the pricing has doubled. But we still have to sell these pills at prices fixed in 2009. Who would sell at a loss? No one would. And so these pills are not produced, and their place at drugstores is taken by more expensive medicines, usually foreign ones. We’ve tried to draw attention to this problem more than once.

Nailya is stopping me, but let me take this opportunity to ask you please to do something about this issue. It is really a serious problem. I ask you first of all to give us the same conditions as our foreign partners, and second, this might sound a bit unexpected, but I think that price limits for the cheapest medicines in the low-cost segment should be abolished so as to encourage production of these medicines. You spoke about a compensation mechanism, but this is not a market mechanism as we see it, and it is hard to say just how it would be actually implemented. If we abolish the price limits, we would see cheap medicines on the pharmacy shelves, more of them, and our own pharmaceuticals industry would start doing better. If things continue as they are, our factories will shut down altogether.

Nailya Asker-zade: Thank you very much. Your question is clear.

Vladimir Putin: If prices rise too fast, the medicines will no longer be cheap. We need to find a balanced solution. I gave this instruction and the Government promised to find a solution within 6-8 weeks. We have just looked at the possible options for fixing this situation. Probably, we do need to find a balance here. But we cannot deny the fact that some companies really are working at the very limits of profitability, as our colleague said quite frankly just now. This is the reality. Costs in this cheap segment are around 50 rubles, isn’t this right?

Valeriya Korableva: We have an interesting SMS on just this subject: which medicines does the President take, imported or locally made?

Vladimir Putin: I try not to reach the point where I have to take medicines. I make an effort to play sport and lead a healthy lifestyle.

Valeriya Korableva: But if you do have to take medicines?

Vladimir Putin: If it comes to that, it’s usually a case of catching a cold or something, and I make sure I get my vaccinations in time, before the flu season starts.

Valeriya Korableva: But if there’s really no choice?

Vladimir Putin: Then I take what the doctor gives, a mixture of foreign and Russian medicines, no doubt, but it’s a very basic assortment. I think they are precisely the basic medicines you find in the low-cost segment.

Valeriya Korableva: Let’s continue with the studio and change the subject. I give the floor to Olga Ushakova.

Olga Ushakova: Thank you.

Mr President, I suggest that we return to foreign policy. Here in the studio today we have Andrei Bystritsky, head of the Valdai Discussion Club. I think he has a question for you on foreign policy.

Andrei Bystritsky: Good afternoon.

Just last September, Recep Erdogan was considered your friend and Turkey almost a strategic partner. You opened the new building of the Cathedral Mosque in Moscow together. And now the friendship has ended abruptly, turning into what – enmity? Looking back, Ukraine, then Moldova, Georgia, and Turkey, other countries – it seems like we will soon find ourselves surrounded by enemies. Could Russia develop successfully in these circumstances?

Vladimir Putin: We are not surrounded by enemies and we will not end up in that position. This is absolutely out of the question. We have good, friendly relations with most countries. I am not even talking about effective organisations such as the SCO, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which is expanding by adding great powers, and our integration entities, the Eurasian Economic Union, BRICS and so on.

On the whole, we have good relations with our neighbours. We see Turkey as a friend, and the Turkish people as friendly people with whom we will definitely continue building good-neighbourly and friendly relations.

We have problems with certain political leaders whose behavior is less than adequate as far as Russia is concerned, and we react appropriately. But we are still operating smoothly, as you can see, without any sudden moves. We have confidence in this policy of responding to any unfriendly actions towards Russia, because we should definitely respond, otherwise they will end up walking all over us. We do have a recent history of just that, and we will not allow a return to it. Yet, even keeping our interests in mind, we will certainly develop our relations with all our partners, including our neighbours.

Valeriya Korableva: Mr Putin, there is something else people are interested to know. Last year, you said you would come to the rescue of a drowning Obama. If you found Poroshenko and Erdogan drowning now, who would you save first? Varya Kuznetsova, 12 years old. (Applause.)

Vladimir Putin: Varya, you have put me on the spot. I do not know what to say. I would say, you cannot save someone who has decided to drown. But of course we are ready to lend a helping hand and friendship to any of our partners, if they want to take it.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: Turkey used to be the most popular destination for Russian holiday-goers. There were many charter flights to Turkey. Now most people go to Crimea. I suggest we switch to Crimea for our first live report with Nikolai Dolgachev.

Nikolai Dolgachev: We are now on Tuzla Island in the Republic of Crimea, where the construction site of the Kerch Strait Bridge is located. This mammoth structure is already taking a shape. It will be the longest and largest bridge in Russia, 19 kilometres.

Construction works are taking place at eight contemporaneous locations, including by sea, the Kerch Peninsula, the Taman Peninsula and Tuzla. All these locations will eventually be incorporated into a single transit passage and Crimea will be connected to the mainland, a much anticipated moment for all the Crimean people.

Here with me is Yury Beskov, Director of the Technical Service. The work is ongoing as we speak. What is happening?

Yury Beskov: Right now, we are using a concrete pump to fill the second support of the passage across the Kerch Strait with concrete. The first support is ready. As of today, some 500 piles have been driven into the ground. Here you can see metal pipe-shaped piles.

Nikolai Dolgachev: Do these figures show how deep the piles will be driven into the ground?

Yury Beskov: Yes, it is an intermediate value. The maximum depth will be around 90 metres.

Nikolai Dolgachev: Let’s have a look at the map and find where we are to understand the scale. This 19 the kilometre mark where we are, right?

Yury Beskov: We are now right there, at the fourth location, Tuzla Island.

Nikolai Dolgachev: Is this the middle of the bridge?

Yury Beskov: Yes, it is the equator of the construction.

Nikolai Dolgachev: Thank you very much.

Tuzla sends greetings to Moscow. Good afternoon, colleagues. Good afternoon, Mr Putin.

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.

Nikolai Dolgachev: People from across Crimea came here to Tuzla Island to ask their questions. Please introduce yourself.

Olga Kuzenkova: Good afternoon, Mr Putin. Olga Kuzenkova, Palmira Palace, Yalta.

We, the people of Crimea, are really looking forward to the bridge opening. Crimea can and must be self-sufficient. As a representative of the travel industry, I would like to point out that we are now very busy preparing for the high season.

Crimean resorts offer a high level of hospitality and service. I would like to invite everybody from anywhere in our huge country to Crimea for rest and relaxation.

Vladimir Putin: Your question, please.

Olga Kuzenkova: Perhaps I will sound nosy but my question is, Mr Putin, when are you going to Crimea on holiday?

Vladimir Putin: I have not thought about it yet but I will definitely go to Crimea at some point, at least for several days, for some R&R as well. Thank you for the invitation.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: I would like to ask, if I may, about Turkey, since it has been mentioned several times as a tourist destination. I have vacationed there more than once with my family. The same goes for people I know. There are also a lot of questions about Egypt. So the question is when? When, in your opinion, will air service with Egypt and charter flights to Turkey resume? When will it happen?

Vladimir Putin: First of all I would like to respond about Crimea. I was happy to see how the construction of the bridge is progressing. I must say in all honesty that usually there is no shortage of candidates to build construction projects like this. But in this case, we could hardly find a company to take on this project, mostly because of the limited financing, as well as a number of other restrictions that contractors can face.

Nevertheless, we found a contractor that has gotten started and is successful. It went through the required selection procedures that were very strict, since the cost issue was at stake. The related Government agencies even succeeded in lowering the final price. I hope everything will be well done on schedule.

As for trips to Turkey and Egypt, it didn’t depend on us. While the reasons behind the restrictions were different in these two cases, the results were the same. Why different? In Egypt, the current authorities are fighting radicals, but it’s not always easy. We see what’s happening there. Hostilities take place on the Sinai Peninsula almost daily. The former government, that was removed from power by the current president, and its supporters are quite active in this respect.

Against this background we have no right not to tell people that visiting this country could be dangerous. What could be the possible solution? Together with the Egyptian authorities we must find a way to screen passengers, luggage, on-board meals and aircraft maintenance personnel so as to make the stay, arrival and departure of our citizens, including by air, safe and secure. So far, we have not been able to find a solution of this kind with our Egyptian colleagues, although Russian special services and law enforcement bodies are working with our Egyptian friends on this issue. This was the first point I wanted to make.

My second point is about Turkey. We are seeing a similar picture here, although, we believe that the current Turkish authorities are not so much fighting radicals as they are cooperating with them. However, the country’s domestic issues also make us consider security. A de facto civil war is underway in the south of the country.

We are trying not to notice it, and the international community pretends that it is not taking place. But this is a fact. Heavy weapons, tanks artillery and so forth are being used. In addition, Turkey suffers from terrorist attacks almost every week.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: It happens all the time.

Vladimir Putin: Who can guarantee that it won’t happen to Russian tourists? We know for example that in countries like, say, Tunisia, some tourists came under fire right at the beach.

By the way, I’m more than sure that the Turkish authorities will strive to provide security for tourists, including from Russia, since tourism accounts for a substantial portion of budget revenues in this country. Last year, almost five million Russian tourists visited Turkey.

I have no doubt that they will try. But whether they will be able to actually do it, is another matter. For this reason, just like with Egypt, we had to tell our people that vacationing in Turkey is now dangerous.

Yevgeny Rozhkov: This means that we will have to spend our vacations in Crimea. Everything is fine there.

Vladimir Putin: Crimea and the Caucasus. There are also many other countries in the world. Why are these two so attractive? I suppose they are cheaper and not too far away. But still, there are many other countries.

Many countries are now trying to reduce the cost of a stay and lower rates. Russian companies are looking for cheaper holiday transport. We have to work on this.

To be continued.

[featured image is file photo, from different occasion]