OREANDA-NEWS.  February 21, 2012. Transcript of the meeting: Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I will not speak about the Interior Ministry reform today. It is a subject that has been discussed at length, much has been written about it and there have been many disputes. All of us know why the reform was launched in the first place and what its goals are. I will only say that your profession is vitally important to the country and the nation, and is also very complex. It is complex because it involves working with people, and also because people judge the government’s efficiency by the results of your work and your methods. It is complex because the conditions in which we live and you work are sometimes dangerous. The recent events on the border between Dagestan and Chechnya, where your comrades, officers of the Interior Ministry, have died, are the latest proof of this. But you made the right choice when you decided to devote your lives to serving your homeland, the country and its people.

But at this meeting in Barnaul I would like to speak above all about the social aspects of your service. I want to know if you have benefited from our decisions in the social sphere regarding the increase in remuneration. I see law enforcement veterans in this room – have your pensions and other allowances, including payments for occupational diseases, been raised? Have our decisions regarding housing benefited you? I will gladly answer all your questions – I am sure that you have many. I suggest that we conduct this meeting in a relaxed and informal manner.

Colleagues, who will be the first to speak?

Svetlana Perova (head of the Interior Ministry department on the financial and economic policy and social guarantees): I am Svetlana Perova, head of the financial department. I will probably express the opinion of everyone in this room and all Interior Ministry officers who are grateful to you for your personal assistance to the Interior Ministry agencies, in particular material and technical assistance, as well as for the social benefits which we will discuss today.

I would like to report to you that, acting in accordance with your instructions, we monitored the payment of remuneration at all Interior Ministry organisations and divisions in all Russian regions in January. We can say that the planned targets have been achieved. A new system, a new structure of monetary remuneration has been created. It is based on the basic salary and the rank pay grade, which account for half of the remuneration. Rank payments have grown 300% on average, and monetary remuneration as a whole has doubled across the country.

However, our monitoring has shown that there are some categories of employees whose remuneration has not grown accordingly. These are mostly top officials, who received substantial pay raises in the past, such as heads of territorial police agencies, some categories of the OMON and OMSN special police units, and our criminal investigation departments. Seeking to resolve this issue and ensure proper balance, we have amended the documents and departmental orders, which have been signed so that we will now work with due account of the new regulations.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the same opportunities as you, Mr Putin, because of certain limitations. Our wage fund consists of basic payments, rank payments and fixed compensation incentive payments. They make up about 90% of the wage fund, which means that we can make amendments only within these limits. As for additional payments – for hazardous working conditions, for special services and for risk, they account for about 8.5% of the wage fund, or 46 billion roubles. As you know, we have increased the remuneration of police officers in Moscow and the Moscow Region for dangerous service conditions, in accordance with the presidential instruction.

Vladimir Putin: By 10%, if memory serves?

Svetlana Perova: That’s right, by 10%, which brought the figure to 65,000 a month in Moscow and 60,000 in the Moscow Region, so our resources are not very extensive. Naturally, to even out the financial support for the different categories, we would ask you to issue another mandate for us to consider this issue further along with the Finance Ministry and scrape together some additional financial resources for 2012 if possible.

We have monitored the implementation of the earlier decision – the regional bonuses to transport police officers. They are not paid in the regions, I mean as incentives. The decision was made in Moscow and the Moscow Region, but local transport police officers are not getting anything. Policemen in Khanty-Mansiysk and the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area saw a small pay rise. A bill should be drafted, as part of the instruction also issued by the president, which would authorise regional leaders to pay these bonuses, if possible.

I know that in the Altai Territory, district police officers received a monthly bonus of 1,000 roubles, and it was paid as an incentive.

Vladimir Putin: I will answer your question in a moment. Let’s hear the inspectors first, and then I will return to the point you were making.

Kristina Archibasova (truant officer): Mr Putin, my name is Kristina Archibasova and I am a truant officer. In January, police officers received a good pay increase…

Vladimir Putin: Do you work already?

Kristina Archibasova: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: You aren’t a university student, are you?

Kristina Archibasova: I graduated from the Barnaul Law School in August 2011.

Vladimir Putin: So you work here in Barnaul?

Kristina Archibasova: Yes, I mean I was placed in this position after graduation and began working as a truant officer in September.

Vladimir Putin: How many charges do you have?

Kristina Archibasova: How many kids? We have as many as 256 in the Indusrialny District.

Vladimir Putin: Is that where you work, the Industrialny District?

Kristina Archibasova: Right. Police Department No. 2.

Vladimir Putin: Are you satisfied with the working conditions?

Kristina Archibasova: Yes, completely. They are entirely normal.

Vladimir Putin: What do you mean by normal? What is it like there?

Kristina Archibasova: As a place of work, there are no problems at all. When I came to the office on my first day as a new employee, I was immediately given a desk.

Vladimir Putin: What about the room? Is it in a good condition? In good repair? There are no leaks or drafts? Are you warm enough there?

Kristina Archibasova: No, there are definitely no leaks. And we are warm. It’s good. They showed me right away what my job would be and gave me all the files for problem children. I mean those registered proactively with the department. So I found myself in action on my first day.

Vladimir Putin: How many charges did you say you have? Two hundred and…?

Kristina Archibasova: Two hundred fifty six, in the entire district.

Vladimir Putin: And you have to take care of all of them personally?

Kristina Archibasova: No, I have my own group which is far smaller.

Vladimir Putin: That’s what I am asking you. How big is your group?

Kristina Archibasova: I have nine minors registered.

Vladimir Putin: Nine?

Kristina Archibasova: Yes. You're wondering why only nine? I have the smallest number of charges in our department, probably because I am responsible for an area that is a new development and it is considered to be more well-off. It is clean and well cared for, and one can tell it is high-class just by looking at the local school and local people…

Vladimir Putin: Do you mean the residents there receive a higher-income, and there are higher living standards?

Kristina Archibasova: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: I see.

Kristina Archibasova: The buildings are all new, and new housing is not something many people can afford. It is a newly developed area, as I said, and one can easily see the difference between the central area and remote parts.

Vladimir Putin: How old are your charges, on average?

Kristina Archibasova: They are all under 18 of course, and most of them are 14. They are badly in need of control at this particular age, because they are still…

Vladimir Putin: Is there no one to control them except you? Why do they need you so much? What is happening to them? Can’t their parents get them under control? What kind of families are they from?

Kristina Archibasova: If their parents could do that, we wouldn’t have had to intervene. To get their name registered with a police office, minors either have to demonstrate anti-social behavior or commit a crime before they come of age, that is, there must be something going on. If they are simply truants, or have problems at school, we do not register them, although we plan regular activities for them, too. As a school inspector, I visit schools at least twice. We discuss things with them, or give lectures on specific issues and proper behavior, trying to keep them from committing offences and crimes.

Vladimir Putin: Is there a chance that they will improve?

Kristina Archibasova: There certainly is, I think. Otherwise, what are we doing there?

Vladimir Putin: Do you truly care about them?

Kristina Archibasova: Of course I do. How else could I feel? I always try to reach some understanding, so that they won’t look at me as a uniformed officer, but rather as a friend – as someone they can trust. It often happens that they cannot confide in their parents or are afraid of telling them something. So they come to us. We call them our kids. Sometimes they just come to visit.