Ivanov confirms Putin slammed 2012 decree enforcement plans

Kremlin and Moscow Environs Aerial View

(Interfax – ST. PETERSBURG, June 21, 2013) President Vladimir Putin harshly criticized the Cabinet’s road maps to the implementation of his decrees of May 7, 2012, but “has repeatedly made quite high assessments” of the Cabinet’s overall performance, said the president’s chief of staff.

“The president has repeatedly made quite high assessments of the performance of the government. He criticized it for one, quite specific thing: plans for the implementation of the decrees of May 7, 2012,” Sergei Ivanov told Russia’s Rossiya 24 television. “He did criticize (the government) for this quite strongly and clearly.”

“It’s not only civilian agencies that Putin criticized but also security agencies that report directly to the president,” Ivanov said.

When the Kremlin started receiving plans of what the government was going to do in putting the May 7 decrees into practice, “the first reaction was extremely negative,” the chief of staff said.

“Our red tape manifested itself in all its glory” in the plans, he said. “There were tomes as thick as this but there was absolutely nothing in them for ordinary people.”

“An ordinary person can’t understand what would improve in practical terms as result of such a plan, what would change. Nothing was said about that. For this reason, of course, those plans were ordered to be reworked to very tight deadlines,” Ivanov said. “Literally in a week’s time the government is due to discuss those plans once again.”

Ivanov also mentioned Putin’s demand for making the plans public.

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