OREANDA-NEWS. October 17, 2011. Dmitry Medvedev discussed with his supporters the most topical issues in the development of the political system, innovation economy, investment climate, social sphere and fight against corruption. The President was interested to hear the ideas and suggestions of the discussion participants.

The meeting with Dmitry Medvedev, which took place at the Digital October centre, was attended by cultural figures and media professionals, as well as representatives of the academic, business and online communities.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: First of all, thank you very much for coming, for being here in this fascinating place.

I see a lot of familiar faces in this room. I know some of you well and others I have only seen at various events, but as I understand it all of you here are people who want to see our country changing; that is, you support the modernisation of our nation and our state. And that makes you my supporters. That is why I had a wish to meet and talk with you, and perhaps you also wanted to clear up some things for yourselves.

I'll start with the most significant recent event, perhaps with the exception of Kudrin’s resignation – I suggest we don’t spend time on that since everything is clear where that’s concerned. I would like to tell you about the motives that guided me in deciding about my future. I want to tell you about it because there are people among you who really want change, who want to modernise the country and truly support, to a greater or lesser extent, the state policies of recent years.

I know that when we announced the decision at the United Russia party congress, some of my supporters, the people who spoke about the need for change, felt a certain disappointment, or at least I saw a slight shadow of tension in online publications.

You know, I would like to sincerely thank everyone who trusts me, absolutely everyone – those are present here today and those who may be watching us right now, and in general all the people who voted for me in the presidential election and later believed that our policies were beneficial for the nation. I told the truth when I said that we discussed the political configuration long before the United Russia congress.

Why? Because both Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and I are responsible people. You know, when some people say that we met up somewhere in the woods, on a fishing trip, and changed everything around, worked out this configuration and took it to the party congress – that is simply not true. In reality it was the result of careful analysis.

Naturally, we allowed for different scenarios. Politics is a tough field, you can lose points very quickly and then there will be no questions at all, whether about the presidency or about heading the electoral list, for example. On the other hand, it is also possible to gain points.

In other words, our actions must depend on the current situation. And what is the situation? It's quite simple. Both my approval rating and the degree of confidence in me as President, and Vladimir Putin's rating are high for any politician. But his approval rating is higher. And we are practical politicians, not dreamers, and our choices must reflect the easiest way to achieve the stated policy objectives.

That is especially true since we have very close political approaches, we are allies and in everyday life we are close friends, though perhaps not many people believe that, and we have been friends for twenty years now. Otherwise I would have had no political career in Moscow at all.

For some reason, many people think that when someone becomes President, he should fight everyone around him, destroying all those who assisted him in his political career and in life. But I don’t believe that.

In other words, any public and political activist must reckon with the balance of power and the prevailing opinions. We based our decision on these considerations and made it as allies and friends. And, of course, we did not make it for our own sake but for the benefit of our nation’s stable development.

However, we all realise that development will continue, that one way or another a new generation of politicians will come to power – that is obvious. Therefore, the configuration we have proposed, whatever some people write, is not a return to the past but rather a way to reach the objectives we have set for ourselves.

Despite the decision that was taken, I would like to tell you as my supporters – and I say this without false modesty – that I do not underestimate my potential, and I don’t believe it has been fully realised yet. My potential remains quite extensive and that is why I have no right to betray the trust of millions of people who put me in office and who pin their hopes for the future on me.

I have no right to abandon those who truly believe in the need to modernise our state, our economy and our society. I feel a great sense of responsibility. That is the reason for my decision to stay in politics, to continue my work and pursue specific objectives.

That is why I called you here today to explain my motives and to talk about the future, as well as to listen to you, your ideas and suggestions on how we should live and work in the future.

What does our country need? On the one hand, our country really needs modern development and gradual but steady reforms, as I have always said. I have often been criticised for that; people say, yes, he says the right things but very little changes in reality, and we want things to happen more quickly, we want radical changes in the political system and we want the investment climate to improve.

Let's face it: this isn’t possible. First of all, the situation in the country is very different from what it was 10 or 15 years ago – just think back to the way it used to be. But there can be no instant changes, it just isn’t realistic.

We must continue to modernise the economy, that much is certain. I believe that we must continue to develop public life, social relations and the political system, to continue our efforts to improve the investment climate and support business, while not forgetting about the working people, those who may not have the highest incomes today, because our nation is made up of very different people.

We need to create a modern democracy, not just a carbon copy of democracy in the United States or somewhere else, as we are sometimes told. I remember when I was working in the Presidential Executive Office as First Deputy Chief of Staff, one person, whom I will not name now, answered my question about what should the political system in our country be like by saying: “What do you mean? It should be exactly like in the United States.” I said, “Are you serious? Do you really think it is so perfect or that we can just implant it in our soil?” He said, “Yes, I’m serious.”

But I, for one, support other approaches. I believe that no system can be just implanted in our country; instead, we must create our own modern democratic political system and we must fortify it with the right laws.

We must continue the fight against poverty, which in our country is very acute although in recent years we have achieved a great deal. We must continue to fight for a decent life and for high living standards.

A separate issue, which I have tackled despite certain public perceptions or recommendations of colleagues, is the fight against corruption. Why despite? Because, as I have said before, I was told: “You shouldn’t have got involved in this, you cannot win, we still have unbridled corruption and you will only undermine your authority this way.”

I can tell you in absolute honesty: I don’t regret it at all. Yes, we understand the scale of the problem, we are aware that unbridled corruption plays a significant part in public life, but at least we are talking about it openly. A decade ago, nobody said anything and no laws were adopted. Now at least we have a legal framework.

Therefore, the fight against corruption must continue, and it must be persistent and driven, but not senseless. Attempts to put all officials behind bars or to get rid of the entire police force and get a new one, as some of our neighbours have done, would be futile. We cannot do that – our country is too big.

We will still argue about how profound these changes are and how quickly they should be introduced but I am certain that these changes should be irreversible. The strategic objective is to create a modern system of state administration. You know, the more I work on it, the more acutely aware I become of how imperfect the system is. I didn’t have any illusions about it when I first started work in public office, but I perceived it like many successful people do. I was a successful person, a practicing lawyer, a researcher in the field of law, and I thought that I know how the state system works. I was wrong – it turned out to be far more complicated and in some ways much worse.

We must think about ways in which we can change the system of state administration. We must continue with the reforms calmly, steadily, firmly and without drama. I have a proposal in this regard that I would like to discuss with you today. I suggest that we think about creating a so-called “large government” or, as some say, “extended government,” which will be based on cooperation between the leading political party, which may form such a government, with United Russia, and civil society, the expert community, regional and municipal authorities, all the voters who are ready to give us their support and even those who disagree with us if they are ready for it.

I would like to discuss this with you today, to make sure that we can talk with everybody during the election campaign about the future cabinet, the Government, who may be part of it, and in general, how the system should operate. I would like to discuss with you, as well as with other people, our entire civil society - how the public administration system works. I invite all of you to take part in this discussion.

Why? I'm a big fan of different kinds of communication, of social networks and the Internet; I have always attached great importance to feedback – the feedback the authorities receive from the public. Why is that? Because otherwise power cannot survive in in the modern world, it simply degenerates. Therefore, any government must be ready for direct dialogue with the public. If it does not do it, it is doomed to the scrapyard of history.

We needn’t look far for examples: just think about what happened in Africa and the Middle East. The governments there seemed to be absolutely stable, immutable, and, incidentally, whatever some say, they enjoyed the support of many people. And what happened? It took only a few weeks and the regimes were ousted simply because they were not ready to respond to major challenges facing their nations.

So, if you find this idea interesting, I would like us to discuss it, and we will act depending on what we decide. Let me just add so I don’t sound arrogant that obviously it can be done only if we win in the elections.

We have representatives of different political forces here, including United Russia, whose election list I now lead. Perhaps this seems strange or illogical to some people, so I would like to tell you, United Russia members, those who sympathise with United Russia, and those who do not support it or even can’t stand it: it was a deeply thought-out move on my part. Why?

First, let's not forget that United Russia nominated me for President, and it was not a ritual nomination but a clearcut and resolute decision. Second, United Russia supported all of the initiatives that I submitted to the Parliament, to the State Duma. Finally, we must have a powerful political force, and I think that our country should have several strong political parties, though I do not know what the political configuration will be like in 10 to 15 years. I am confident that United Russia was, is and will continue to be one of them because that is how history has ordained. And that is normal.

I believe that if we are to discuss the so-called “extended government” United Russia will play a significant part in the process but I see nothing wrong if other parties and public movements become involved in the discussion as well. In fact, that is one of the strengths of this idea.

In addition, if we talk about United Russia, as a person who is leading its election list, I can say that United Russia must also change. This is imperative. It must become less bureaucratic, it must have a more varied membership, including top officials – there is nothing wrong with governors and ministers being United Russia members. But that is not what its main strength should be. It must be strong through popular support and the professionalism of the people who work their way up.

That is why, let me remind you, the idea of United Russia primaries received the support that it did, and we have seen some results from this preliminary vote, some of them very unexpected. Certain people weren’t too happy about it because they fell flat on their faces. In any case, the more progress we make in this direction, the stronger the political system will be.

In general, our political forces should have broader influence on the one hand, and more freedom on the other. This does not apply only to political parties, by the way, but to everybody: municipalities, the business community, the media and public organisations. These are the ideas I have been trying to promote during my term in office. Or rather I hope we have been promoting these ideas together because I have heard words of encouragement from many of you and that has been very important for me.

What else needs to be done? We must continue to reform the political system. Despite what some people say, we have seen some achievements in this area as well: the threshold for political parties running for the State Duma has been lowered and we are certain to see the results of this soon. The opportunities for various abuses during elections, violations involving the counting of votes, have been sharply reduced. I hope that the State Duma elections will be held in this spirit.

By the way, any talk about setting targets during the elections – I think this is just a provocation. Naturally, each party should adopt a plan, that is normal and every party has one. These plans must be realistic and consistent with the electoral potential, but these plans still need to be implemented. Everything else is nothing but lies.

One more thing I would like to say: naturally, every person in certain situations thinks about what he or she has achieved or failed to achieve. I believe we have done a great deal in these past years. This is not just a figure of speech; I am currently preparing the State of the Nation Address and I have been looking at different figures.

What have we achieved? These is our real achievements: we have substantially changed the demographic trends, the birth rate increase has been recorded for the first time and mortality has declined, and not just by a fraction of a percentage point but quite significantly, and life expectancy has increased.

When I started working in the Government, I was deeply struck by the statistics, which perhaps I didn’t give much thought to before that: the average life expectancy in Russia was 63.5 years, 59 years for men because of certain bad habits and somewhere around 67 years for women. And what are these figures now? They’re still not perfect but they are different.

Since the launch of the state programme in support of family and motherhood the average life expectancy has risen to 69 years. Let me emphasise that this figure was never higher during the Soviet period. And women have been doing really great: their average life expectancy is now 74 years. So men should follow their lead.

The standard of living has also improved. This is not a political rally, I'm here among my supporters but I will say this because it is also important. Despite the economic crisis, the average salary has increased from 17,000 to 21,000 rubles, and that is while the ruble has remained within the limits of the exchange rate band that had been set.

We have contained unemployment. It was a major problem, and I remember my colleagues and I have repeatedly discussed this issue at G20 summits, believing that it is a grave challenge. But we have managed to tackle it successfully and now the unemployment rate is the same as it was before the crisis. I think this is a good result – the result of our efforts, my efforts, the efforts of the Government, the State Duma, the Federal Assembly and the efforts of all those who worked on this.

We have been developing the political and legal system, as I have already mentioned. I am committed to strengthening Russia’s standing in the world, assuming a reasonable, but at the same time a firm stance. In some cases it was necessary to give a tough response. Nevertheless, I believe that we have not wasted these years: Russia has its international image, it is respected but at the same time we are not seen as a kind of brute force that tries to order around other states.

In general, all of these are vitally important objectives and I believe that in order to address them we will need great energy, I would even say global energy. We have it and I am absolutely certain that all of these goals are achievable, if we work together and if we implement the plans I have outlined.

That is why I would like to ask you today to give your support to these efforts. I believe that this work is extremely important for our country and I am confident we will succeed if we work together. I have no doubt about that.

That is all I wanted to say at the beginning so let's go on to our dialogue. This is probably the most interesting part of such meetings.