OREANDA-NEWS. Vladimir Putin took part in the first conference of the All-Russia People’s Front held under the theme Building Social Justice.

The conference participants included heads of federal ministries and agencies, Mr Putin’s election campaign supporters, heads of the Front’s regional offices, and members of the expert community and public organisations.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Friends,

It is a pleasure to welcome all members of the All-Russia People’s Front who gathered here today in this ancient and at the same time youthful and fast-growing city of Rostov-on-Don. I ask you all to thank the people of Rostov-on-Don for their hospitality and for letting us meet here today.

Colleagues, I welcome you to the first conference of the All-Russia People’s Front. Right at the start of our meeting and discussion today, I want to say that we should continue our work in this broad format on a regular basis over the coming months. We must do this so as to carry out all that we agreed on during last year’s election campaign, all that I set out in my articles and executive orders as the basis for our common programme. We must ensure that no matter what problems and difficulties we encounter, and we know that there are many of them, including the numerous uncertainties surrounding the global economic situation, we must nevertheless ensure that none of the development priorities we agreed on are forgotten, neglected, or tossed aside.

This is tremendously important. Life can and does make changes to any plans of course. Life is always more diverse and complex than any plans we may draft. But if we do make any changes and adjustments, we must do so publicly and ensure they are clear and comprehensible for people, because only then will society accept and understand them.

We have heard from many quarters, from colleagues and opponents, from right and left, from people of all different views that the priorities we have set are impossible to fulfil because they place too great a burden on the economy. If we carry out our plans, they say, especially our plans in the social sector, it will undermine our economy and budget and we will ultimately achieve nothing and get nowhere. At the same time, there are people who sincerely seek development and genuinely want to help others, but say that our plans do not go far enough and that we need to do more. In this respect I want to outline my position and ask for your support.

First of all, as I said, life can and does make changes. But this does not mean that when it comes to matters of principle we should make concessions. I say this because I believe that we can realise the goals we have set despite the difficulties we may encounter on the way. 

But we can achieve our goals only if we are determined and persistent in our work, take the initiative, and, most importantly, take a creative approach. Excuse my bluntness, but if we just sit there pumping money out of the budget of course we won’t get anywhere. If we look at how to restructure particular sectors however, and how to improve work in particular areas and spend public money more effectively, we will achieve our goals. 

In this respect I ask our colleagues from the Government and the regional and municipal heads not to be so linear in their approach but to be more creative in resolving the problems before them. Let me stress though, that we must not simply pretend to be tackling the issues.

If we are looking at restructuring in particular sectors, for example, we need to carry it out in stages, calmly, without sudden upheavals. We must do it in a way the people find acceptable and at the same time ensure it fits with the real situation in their lives and the real state of our economy. But as I just said, we cannot set ourselves ambitious social goals without first carrying out the plans we already outlined. If we do not complete that work first, we will indeed end up getting nowhere.

We have drawn up a tight but realistic timetable for modernising the main areas of our life and the main directions of Russia’s economic development. I think that the People’s Front can play a big part here as a broad platform where people with different views and approaches can work out a consensus on resolving our key development problems.

This is why I propose that we hold meetings like today’s on a regular basis. Moreover, I want to reaffirm that, as we agreed, the All-Russia People’s Front should become a public movement, and I therefore propose that we not delay this step, but hold the movement’s founding congress in six weeks’ time, on June 11-12 this year.

Now I want to turn to the issue of social justice, the issue that has brought you all here and is the theme of the discussions that began yesterday and are continuing today. Social justice is the kind of philosophical concept that one can discuss endlessly. We could philosophise about it too, but our task is to give the discussion a practical dimension and link it to our people’s lives. 

What is social justice? It is equal access to free, high quality medicine and education, care for families and children, support for mothers and children in general, including orphans, respect for labour, decent wages for one’s labour, and so on. These are all issues we can and must discuss in terms of practical measures and implementation. They are all key areas in any country’s life, Russia’s life too. 

I know that you began this discussion at the round tables yesterday. Let’s sum up the results of those discussions today. If you have any questions or proposals, I will try to answer your questions and will listen to your proposals, and I will try to implement them in practice in government documents or legislative acts.

Thank you very much for your attention.

VALERY TRAPEZNIKOV: Good afternoon, Mr President,

We held a round table on labour yesterday as it happens. I have 50 years’ work experience as a machine-tool operator. I recall that you spoke about reviving the Hero of Labour title or Order of Labour Glory. I’ve got a Hero of Russia sitting next to me here, why not have a Hero of Labour too? I’m thinking not of myself, but of my colleagues. That’s my first point.

Second, we discussed the minimum wage. It is low of course, and this is something we should think about, all the more so when you look at the ‘golden parachutes’ that get paid out. Rostelekom, for example, pays 280 million rubles [USD 9 million] as dismissal compensation [to the company’s president]. I think that our public has a hard time understanding this kind of thing. What was he after all, a Nobel Prize winner?

I’m not against people earning a lot of money, but there have to be limits! This is something we should reflect on.

Thank you very much.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Let’s start with the ‘golden parachutes’. This is a matter of debate not just in Russia but all around the world, especially in developed economies where this practice has existed for a long time. They are setting limits on it. I fully agree with you that we should reflect on and introduce some limits too. They should not dampen in any way top level managers’ incentive to be active, effective and useful, but should set some healthy limits. In this sense I agree with you. Let’s think about it together and formulate the relevant proposal.

As for the Hero of Labour title, during the Soviet period there was the Hero of Socialist Labour title, and I think it was a justified thing overall. I know that the idea has support not just from people in professions like yours, people who use their hands and their heads in their work, but is also supported by key trade union groups in the country. Mr Shmakov [President of the Russian Federation of Independent Trade Unions] would probably give a nod here. We have discussed this matter together in the past.

I agree with you. Not only do I agree with you, but I think your proposals will be carried out before the day is over.

IRINA ILYICHEVA: Mr President, I am Irina Ilyicheva, director of Moscow school No. 1409, and I took part in the round table on traditions and quality in education.

We are working on modernising Russia’s education system. We discussed many questions at yesterday’s round table, including the issue of federal educational standards. The most sensitive issue we looked at yesterday was the question of textbooks on Russian history.

If you permit, I’d like to give the floor to my colleague.

VIKTOR MALENKOV: Viktor Malenkov, from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, I’ve been teaching Russian history since 1982.

Mr President, colleagues,

I think that having a common history textbook would be a form of social justice for our country’s schoolchildren. We should not have a situation when students in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk learn one version of history, students in Moscow another, and students in Rostov another yet again. We should not have a situation when students from one place, having studied one version of history, come to another place to sit exams and find themselves facing a completely different set of demands.

All schoolchildren should have equal opportunities. That is what social justice is all about. To achieve this, we need common standards for teaching history and in particular, a common history textbook.

I think that you should get the specialists to work out a basic module for this textbook.

Let me add that, following my logic, all of the subjects taught in the standard school programme should be based on a common set of standards.

Thank you very much.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: I have been following the public debate on this issue as much as possible and have listened to different views on the matter. As a specialist, you know the different points of view better than I. In any case, for those of our colleagues who are not so familiar with the issue, let me clarify what the debate is about. People say that history should not be taught in uniform fashion, but at the same time, as our colleague just said, and as some specialists are saying too, there should be a set of general standards.

I agree with both sides in this debate. I believe too, that it is possible to reconcile both points of view.

How can we do this? First of all, I fully agree with the idea that there should be some kind of common set version of our history. Indeed, if we have students in the Far East learning one set of facts, students in the Urals learning a second, and in European Russia learning a third, overall this could undermine our multi-ethnic nation’s common humanitarian space, if I may put it that way. A common approach to fundamental historical epochs and events of greatest importance to our country is something we do need and should be reflected in a common textbook. I see nothing bad in this.

But this in no way means that teachers, all the more so teachers with as much experience as our colleague here, shouldn’t bring to students’ attention other points of view and interpretations of particular events in our history during the teaching process. Indeed, in my view they have a duty to do so.

There is nothing wrong with this. We have always said after all, and not just about history but about other subjects too, that we need to teach students how to learn and think. I can see that the rector of Moscow State University [Viktor Sadovnichy] agrees with me. The humanities are not mathematics after all, which is what Mr Sadovnichy has devoted his life to. They are a science, but one that requires a creative approach.

I see no contradiction between the two sides in this debate, and I think that we do need to have a common standard.

IRINA ILYICHEVA: Following on from this subject, there is also the question of the policy for mathematics education. If you permit, (addressing Alexei Semenov) could you say a few words and tell us your view?

ALEXEI SEMENOV: Alexei Semenov, rector of the Moscow Institute of Open Education and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Let me start by saying that we see maths, like the humanities, as a science about people, about the way we think, reason, prove and argue. In this respect, we see a need for a common policy for developing maths education in Russia.

A lot has already been accomplished. Specialists are taking part in this work, as are teachers, academics from Moscow State University, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, people from many cities, including Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Ufa, and St Petersburg. [Presidential Aide] Andrei Fursenko and Viktor Sadovnichy are also helping with this work.

Maths is a whole culture of thinking that can be cultivated through maths itself and then used in all different areas of life. It is a general cultural phenomenon that has become an inherent part of Russia. We think that our 300 years of developing mathematics in Russia is a source of national pride and an important part of our national culture, national idea, and social justice. Technology is impossible in modern world without mathematics. 

We are certain that mathematics knowledge, including the broad areas of applied mathematics and informatics, could become the base that could propel Russia to a leading position in the world of modern technology, including information technology based on mathematics.

Mass-scale maths education is the foundation for this. There are no children incapable of learning maths. I think this should become a principle for general education schools’ work and for our entire society’s understanding.

Developing maths skills begins through games and experiments already in kindergartens. We teach maths and computer science in elementary schools according to the federal standards. Monitoring the information environment helps us to follow each student’s progress and development. We teach students to apply maths, develop real maths, and use computers. In these areas we are among the world leaders.

We have a common open data base of mathematics tasks, similar to the data base of historical information that was spoken about today. This forms the future for maths education.

We are in the process of creating the common open data base now and are working together on this with the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation. This is also very important. We know that the leaders in maths education are Korea, Japan and Singapore. We are close behind them. We are not quite breathing down their necks yet, but we are confident this will happen.

Maths competitions help us to find the most talented students and act as a complement to the national final school exam. What is important here is that the competitions are directly linked to the universities and are overseen by the Russian Rectors’ Union. At the last international maths competition, six Russian participants came away with four gold and two silver medals.

As for our proposals on maths education policy, we think that the state authorities should give everyone the chance to study any area of maths for free, if this study produces results. In other words, you cannot simply study, but have to show that you’ve actually understood what you’ve learnt.

We need to compensate for the added costs of raising maths education’s quality and its increasing individualisation. Maths tools and literature should be available to all free of charge on the Russian internet. We need to support leaders in the field and establish the Eiler Higher Research Institute in St Petersburg, where the global maths potential will concentrate in order to develop Russia’s potential in this area. We need to support the best maths schools and teachers and give them federal status.

Teachers are key figures in developing education. Work is underway on drafting a future professional standard for maths teachers. We need to select school graduates and train them specially to become teachers in classes made up of the best students of our country’s teacher training institutes and universities. Older teachers who have difficulties with the new school programmes could work as tutors and help students who are lagging behind. This would also help to ensure that everyone keeps up in maths.

One final important point, looking at the situation in Russia today, we see that there is growing demand for engineers and that higher education is starting to develop a system of real aims. Universities’ maths teaching staff are becoming stronger with the arrival of mathematicians who are doing actual practical work. We need to introduce the title of federal professor, awarded through a competitive process, to mark leaders in this field.

I think that if we implement this development policy we would make Russia the leader in maths education in the world within ten years.

Thank you.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: What is a federal professor? Could you clarify the idea?

ALEXEI SEMENOV: This would be a federal competition. We have federal universities, for example. Universities that are at the world level receive this designation. I think there are some objective criteria, including those that international experts could decide, that could determine who deserves to receive the title of federal professor. The title could be given for life in some cases, since mathematics talent isn’t something you ever lose.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: When you started talking about maths, I remembered a well-known joke from back in the Soviet era: the teacher in maths class asks Givi what two plus two makes, and he replies, “Are we buying or selling?”

We need to be flexible, but not that flexible, certainly not in mathematics. Yes, maths is indeed one of the fields in which Russia can be proud of its achievements. This has always been the case. Maths has been the foundation of all of our big successes of the previous decades: the nuclear programme, the space programme, and our metals studies, with its implications for shipbuilding, our nuclear submarine fleet, and our achievements in space. All of this rests on mathematics.

I know that specialists have some concerns. Mr Sadovnichy has spoken to me about this, as have [President of the Russian Academy of Sciences] Mr Osipov, [Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Nobel Prize laureate] Mr Alferov, and other specialists. It is sad that some of the specialised schools that searched for talented children all around the country and taught them according to their own special programmes have now disappeared.

The things you said are proposals rather than questions. I fully agree with you. As I said, these are matters I have already discussed with my colleagues. We agreed to revive specialised educational institutions, including at the school level, and of course will reflect on how to breathe new life into maths teaching in general schools.

I will not repeat the things you said, I agree with your points completely. We simply need to structure these proposals and look at what steps to take and how to go about them.

Thank you very much.

ALEXANDER BRECHALOV: Mr President, colleagues, good afternoon. Alexander Brechalov, president of OPORA Russia.

Mr President, I want to say a few words about individual entrepreneurs’ insurance payments. This was an issue that came up at almost all of the round tables yesterday. Most of the discussion reflected its urgent nature and was pretty much similar in tone.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: I can guess what kind of tone you are talking about.

ALEXANDER BRECHALOV: I don’t want to get overly emotional in any way. We already had enough emotions. I want to talk about the specifics. Over this last month, the All-Russia People’s Front has had a working group looking into this issue, and it has accomplished a lot of work of very high quality. We got more than 100 municipal heads involved, and OPORA collected more than 135,000 signatures in support of our proposal. This was not just work for work’s sake, but is a very important process that has enabled us to get feedback.

If we now examine the situation, it is clear in our view that the state’s tax policy towards micro and small business should be more differentiated in approach. There are individual entrepreneurs working in rural areas, in small towns. Consumption levels are limited from the outset in such places and these entrepreneurs have only limited possibilities, but rather than joining the ranks of the unemployed they work legally, trying to produce something, and they pay their taxes. These are entrepreneurs with annual turnover of only 100,000-150,000 rubles. It might be a surprise for some, but this is the case, and they get by quite comfortably with the help of their own gardens and so on. This is all normal. But the contributions they have to make are a burden they cannot bear. Meanwhile, there are individual entrepreneurs earning millions of rubles a year.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: How big exactly is this unbearable burden?

ALEXANDER BRECHALOV: The insurance payment they have to make is set at 35,000 rubles as from January 1, 2013.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: So, 37,000 in total.

ALEXANDER BRECHALOV: Yes.

The 350,000 entrepreneurs who had themselves taken off the register paid their insurance contribution last year. Looking at the situation, we consider the period from 2005 through to 2010 at least as positive for small business. The Economic Development Ministry’s programme alone increased from 1.5 billion [rubles] to 20 billion. Effective programmes that helped to develop small business were carried out.

Now we are taking not even one but two big steps backward. If we look at the figures, we have to see how much revenue the increased contributions will bring in, and also how much revenue will be lost if entrepreneurs deregister. We need to think about the price of confidence. In this respect we have a specific request, Mr President. There are still hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs who have not deregistered and are waiting in the hope that you and the Government will take a rational and balanced decision on this matter. Our request is that you introduce a moratorium on the increased insurance payments so that the payment this year would be 17,000 rubles as it was last year.

We need to take this step so that we can prepare the legislative amendments that will introduce the differentiated policy we need and have them ready for the State Duma to examine at its spring session. We will paint them the portrait of the micro-businesses that are earning money in rural areas and small towns but that only have limited resources. This is not because these people have no money or do not know how to run a business, but because, as I said, consumption is limited from the outset. We understand and support the principle that business should pay taxes and probably insurance contributions too, but I stress the need for a differentiated approach in this respect. We therefore ask you to bring in a moratorium and to support our initiative. There should be a programme for Russia’s individual entrepreneurs.

We have been concentrating lately on resolving the big problems, including the Pension Fund issue, as you know, but in this work we have not taken into account the possibilities and interests of this particular group of entrepreneurs and citizens. We believe that these people are not only economic actors but are social actors too. Someone running a business in a little town of only 500-1,000 people is helping to create life there. This was something said by many of the colleagues taking part in yesterday’s discussions.

We therefore propose drafting a programme and are already in the process of doing so. We have given it the name A Place for Business – a Place for Life, and will have it ready to present soon. This programme aims to stimulate small business development, especially in these small towns and rural areas.