RUSSIALINK TRANSCRIPT: “Direct Line with Vladimir Putin (transcript continued)” – KremlinRu

File Photo of Putin Sitting at Desk, Looking Down, Writing, During Call-In Show, adapted from screenshot of video at kremlin.ru

(Kremlin.ru – June 20, 2019 – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/60795)

Pavel Zarubin: Mr President, the producers are telling me we are ready to connect to the village of Kaskara in the Tyumen Region, where there is no water. We sent a film crew there at the beginning of our Direct Line. Let’s see what is happening there.

Vladimir Putin: Just a moment.

I just read some interesting information here. “Yeltsin realised at the time – it was written – that Primakov absolutely had to head the Government. Do you think it necessary for Mr Grudinin to head the Government now?”

Primakov did not have bank accounts abroad; he was not engaged in business. Yevgeny Primakov was an absolutely clear and transparent person. Therefore, before making such personnel decisions, as proposed, one needs to think carefully. A candidate will have to withdraw money from offshore companies – for a start.

Pavel Zarubin: Could you please show the Tyumen Region on the screen.

Artur Mikhailov is ready to start the videoconference.

Artur Mikhailov: Hello, we are in the village of Kaskara. It is not far from the regional centre, about 20-30 minutes by car. We got there quickly and had time to talk with local residents, including Maria Kuznetsova, who sent the video message.

Here is the problem in a nutshell, so that everyone understands. Water is available in Kaskara, but Kaskara is quite a big and old village, more than 10,000 people. So in the old part, the water quality is okay for drinking. But in the new developments, mostly low-rise areas, which are home to over 3,000 people, there is no water supply. People use wells, and even go to Tyumen to get their drinking water. This is rather inconvenient.

But local residents believe the solution to the problem is literally under their feet. We are now standing in the place where a water pipe is buried. We are here together. The local residents will better explain where it leads. They also know better how acute the problem is. By the way, the local authorities have just arrived at the site, and a debate is unfolding, of which we were witnesses.

I suggest we let them talk now. Everyone is present here – the local authorities and Maria Kuznetsova, the local resident who sent the video. Hello! The President can hear you.

Maria Kuznetsova: Good afternoon, Mr President.

We have a big favour to ask of you. Please help us with our water supply. We have lived in this village for 20 years, and we still do not have running water. They make new promises every year, but we are still waiting for them to deliver on their promises.

Artur Mikhailov: I see that you have brought water bottles with you. What kind of water is this?

Maria Kuznetsova: It is the water we get after four-stage purification. We use it to make tea. Look at it. Our children have to drink this cloudy water, because the only other choice is to buy bottled water or to travel 15 kilometres to obtain clean water.

Moreover, our village is located in direct proximity to the Velizhany water intake system that runs towards the Tyumen Broiler poultry farm. We have lived in these conditions for 20 years.

Artur Mikhailov: By the way, you can see the farm from where we are standing. The pipe is where the Tyumen Broiler farm is located. It is barely one kilometre away from here.

Pavel Zarubin: In other words, a branch pipeline should be built from the intake system. Is this the case?

Vladimir Putin: How far is the village located from the regional centre?

Pavel Zarubin: It is only 20 kilometres away.

Maria Kuznetsova: We travel to our relatives in the nearby village to wash our children and to do our washing.

Remark: The water is yellow.

Maria Kuznetsova: We have to sink individual artesian or other water wells.

Remark: This is what I would like to say. We have lived here for a long time, and every one of us had to sink water wells. They have promised to connect us to the water system by 2020. We would greatly appreciate this.

Pavel Zarubin: We see your problem. Let us listen to what the President has to say about this.

Vladimir Putin: Ok, I understand your problem.

Pavel Zarubin: There are members of the local authorities there. Shall we give them the floor?

Vladimir Putin: Please, do.

Oleg Podenov: Good afternoon. I am Oleg Podenov, and I live in this village.

At present, I get water from an artesian well. A new water supply system is scheduled to be built in 2020 or 2021. It will be connected to the new buildings of Kaskara. We are preparing the documents and discussing the plans. I believe people can wait for a year or two…

Remark: We have waited 10 years…

Oleg Podenov: …and then they will have clean drinking water. As of now, we are preparing the documents. They will be approved by the local legislature after discussions, that is, if it was not discussed 10 years ago.

Pavel Zarubin: Let’s listen to the President.

Vladimir Putin: Yes. What our colleague said just now is also relevant; this is important information. I take it that the village is not far from the regional centre – 20 minutes or 20 kilometres, as you said, but very near anyway. There is a water main there. Unfortunately, this is a problem across the country. Unfortunately, millions of people do not have access to quality drinking water. We have a whole programme to ensure that people have access to clean and quality water.

In this particular case, it sounds a little strange to me that the place is in close proximity to a large and self-sufficient regional centre. Tyumen is one of the donor regions, and there is quite enough money there to resolve such problems. I do not know if there is an objective reason to wait for a year or two to do this. Honestly, I doubt it. In any case, to build a water discharge system in the next two years would not cost that much. Let us hear what the governor has to say. Go ahead please.

Tyumen Region Governor Alexander Moor: Good afternoon, Mr President,

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.

Alexander Moor: Indeed, supplying water to residents of the Tyumen Region has always been monitored by both the Governor and the government of the Tyumen Region.

As for Kaskara, indeed, the village does have a centralised water supply. The supply system was built a long time ago, in 1974, when the local poultry farm was built, and until recently it was managed by this poultry farm. Earlier this year, it was transferred to the management of the Tyumen Vodokanal water and wastewater services provider, because water is supplied to Kaskara from the centralised system of the city of Tyumen. So today, anyone can apply for a technical connection, and this opportunity will be provided to them. The system is indeed quite old, as the residents said today. We are reconstructing the water supply system not only with government money, but also by attracting investor funds through concessions. Three years ago, in the city of Tyumen, we concluded one of the largest concession deals in Russia, for 23 billion, and now we are working on another concession, planned for September-October, involving the entire Tyumensky district – and Kaskara is part of this district, to provide not only Kaskara, but also other villages in the district with centralised water supply and wastewater disposal systems.

Pavel Zarubin: So when will there be water?

Alexander Moor: It was announced at a local meeting that it would be in 2020, and one of the meeting participants, as I understand it, wanted to say just that. The water line from the city of Tyumen to Kaskara will be built, and it will be possible to increase the volume and throughput capacity of that line, so all the residents of small house suburbs will be connected to the centralised water supply. Absolutely no problems here, the question is clear.

Pavel Zarubin: So they will have water in 2020, right? Mr Governor, water in 2020, have we understood correctly?

Alexander Moor: The water supply system will be modernised in 2020. But applications for connection can be submitted even now, because the management has been transferred from the poultry farm to a professional market player, Tyumen Vodokanal.

Vladimir Putin: You can consider the application already in place. That is what people are talking about. So you need to do it right now, not postpone it.

Alexander Moor: We need to apply to Tyumen Vodokanal, and the connection will be made.

Vladimir Putin: Do it. This is as good as done. I have just applied on their behalf. I am asking you – do it as quickly as possible. Agreed?

Alexander Moor: We will do it, Mr President.

Vladimir Putin: I hope this will be done.

In general though, I would like to tell my colleagues, the governors, that they must, of course, join programmes that are being implemented at the Federation level. But they need to use modern water purification methods. We have large enterprises, including those in the defence industry, and one of them, MITT, the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, has made a remarkable discovery, a water purification invention, and it is working effectively. But they cannot expand into the regions. I am pointing out to my colleagues in the regions that they need to use such technologies, including the one I have mentioned.

As for this specific case, I am asking you to resolve it as quickly as possible.

Pavel Zarubin: It is a striking example, but there are many more such examples. It appears that no matter what happens through the fault of village, city or regional heads, you are the one who is held accountable. Is it frustrating for you? Many new governors have been appointed this year. Has this produced any positive effect?

Vladimir Putin: This must not frustrate me, because this is my job. I have already said somewhere in the middle of this programme that I feel responsible, in part, for the fact that some of the goals set are not achieved. Of course, I will not turn a blind eye to the failures of ministries, departments or regional authorities. Our colleagues must be held responsible for the range of subjects that are directly within their competence.

I have seen a scrolling line here that said, “Is Direct Line a special services’ show?” I know that it is a loaded question. I can assure you that none of Russia’s special services has anything to do with today’s programme.

You saw how I was preparing for today’s event, this Direct Line. Questions started coming in a long time ago, and the direction of these questions and the topics that are the biggest concern for the people were clear to me. However, this is a direct line to the nation, to our citizens, a direct line that is intended to bring the bottlenecks into focus and to find solutions to these problems, the possible methods of dealing with them, sometimes right on the spot, during our dialogue.

Yelena Vinnik: Mr President, many programmes have been launched in the past few years to help talented young people. We have a representative of the Leaders of Russia contest. Is this contest an effective instrument?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, I believe that it is an effective project. The Leaders of Russia is not the only project of this kind. By the way, we received over 200,000 applications for this contest. Overall, we received more than one million, or more precisely, 1.5 million applications for various sourcing and training projects.

As for this social lift project, the Leaders of Russia, it is an effective project. A considerable number of those who have passed through this screening system now hold the jobs of federal ministers and governors, as well as deputy governors in nine regions. I believe two of them are now federal ministers.

Pavel Zarubin: Let’s have a quick round of questions with short answers.

Yelena Vinnik: Yes, we have been on air for over four hours now.

Vladimir Putin: Let’s go for it.

Pavel Zarubin: The Tyumen Region: “When will the President stop bothering with minor questions?”

Vladimir Putin: Well, these are not idle questions. I do not consider them to be minor if they affect human lives.

Yelena Vinnik: One more question: “All of us know how hard you work. Do you ever feel lazy? How do you fight this feeling?” This question is from a school student Danila Karyakin.

Vladimir Putin: First, psychologists say, if I am not mistaken, that feeling lazy is a normal human state that overcomes people when the body feels it needs to take a break. You should learn to give yourself time to rest. But the only method of fighting laziness is to start working.

Yelena Vinnik: How can you force yourself to work?

Pavel Zarubin: There is an interesting film, “The President’s Vacation”…

Vladimir Putin: Sorry, but I see a hand raised there. Please.

Yelena Vinnik: We will take a microphone over there.

Natalya Kaspersky: Mr President, I am Natalya Kaspersky, President of the InfoWatch group of companies.

My question: What do you plan to do in light of the Huawei scandal, attacks on Venezuela’s energy system and the recent item in The New York Times regarding possible US cyberattacks on Russia’s electricity power grid? How can we boost the import substitution programme in this sphere, because it is clear that we seriously depend on these imports and the substitution project is marking time?

Vladimir Putin: I see. I have already spoken on this subject, but I can mention it again. We are working on import substitution. As I have said, we have allocated some 667 billion rubles for this, including for the high-tech sectors of the national economy.

But the key idea I want to repeat once again is that we must protect the critically important infrastructure sectors, including with the assistance of such companies as yours. We are trying to do this. We need to create an internal market for such products. We will be encouraging this, even if we have to resort to non-market methods.

Natalya Kaspersky: We need to provide assistance to the procurers, because companies and corporations are reluctant.

Vladimir Putin: I understand. We do not so much need to support the procurers as, much as I dislike the word, force them to do what we want. We must encourage them to buy Russian products. We are pondering the possibilities here. I have issued instructions to the Government. We will continue working on this.

Pavel Zarubin: I have been informed that Governor Uss, governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, arrived in the microdistrict with no infrastructure at all. We can put him on now, if you see fit. We can see what is happening there. Let’s have a look.

(A fragment of a meeting is shown on the screen.)

Pavel Zarubin: I don’t know if they can hear us, but we can see that work is in full swing now.

Yelena Vinnik: They have responded, they have.

Pavel Zarubin: Let’s continue with our quick questions.

Yelena Vinnik: Mr President, shall we continue with the quick Q&A section or move on to the guests in the studio?

Vladimir Putin: Let’s have some questions from the audience, we have already been talking for four hours.

Yegor Beroyev: I will try to be quick.

Vladimir Putin: Go on please.

Yegor Beroyev: Yegor Beroyev; I am an actor and co-founder of the I Am charity foundation.

We work with mentally special people: with Down syndrome, autism, other wonderful special needs which you are aware of. I would like to speak with you about psychoneurological care facilities. The head of such an institution is simultaneously the client, the service provider and the sole guarantor of the services provided. This results in a direct conflict of interests.

Vladimir Putin: A client and a service provider? How is that?

Yegor Beroyev: Yes, a client and a service provider.

Vladimir Putin: I have no idea what they can provide.

Yegor Beroyev: Everything possible. They are the only caretakers for people living in these care homes. This means there is a system, and it’s completely corrupt.

In 2017, in Petrozavodsk, you instructed your colleagues to reform the system, but regional officials completely sabotaged your instructions; and adoption of the law on distributed guardianship is our only hope now. You know this law very well. Both the government and the State Duma have been trying to adopt this law for two years now.

Now the law is hindered by the State-Legal Directorate of the Presidential Executive Office. We cannot understand its reasoning in this situation. All our hopes today are on you.

I can assure you that society needs this law, because, well, I have been working for eight years and have travelled across Russia with my colleagues; we know that people are living as if they were in prison. These people have no joy in life like we do. They share underwear, they share toothbrushes; they cannot go outside. We must solve this problem. Society needs this. We need them more than they need us.

Vladimir Putin: Ok.

Yelena Vinnik: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: I shall return to this.

Yegor Beroyev: Please do.

Vladimir Putin: I am sure that the Presidential Executive Office’s State-Legal Directorate has no element of corruption and as you may be aware, personally they are very far removed from this problem. If this is the case, there are some substantive arguments, if there are any at all. Maybe it’s a simple administrative issue. I promise you that I shall return to this subject.

Yegor Beroyev: Thank you.

To be continued.

[featured image is file photo]


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