OREANDA-NEWS. November 22, 2011. Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. You know that I attended a forum of rural intellectuals about a week ago. It was an interesting conversation that touched upon on a broad range of subjects, some of which I will highlight today. What I mean is that I have signed a number of instructions today. They concern issues that are nothing new to any of you, namely the provision of electricity and the development of culture and cultural facilities in rural areas, as well as healthcare – specifically, a proposal to revive an on-call service. We should consider this. I’m asking you to do this.

As for schools, I’m asking you to finish the relevant programme and to ensure – together with the regional authorities – that teachers’ salaries are raised to the average in the country’s economy. Not all of the regions have done this. Teachers’ salaries have been raised almost everywhere, but not to the average level in the economy. We must do this by all means.

Next to sports, primarily competitive team sports, popular sports, sports facilities and sports and health centres. By the way, athletes’ per diem in Russia is a problem. It is a laughable sum – 100 roubles. Have you forgotten where we live? What can you buy with 100 roubles? Several boxes of matches? I am asking the Ministry of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy and the Finance Ministry to draft a relevant proposal. This issue is actually on the list of their instructions.

As for the simplified procedure for registering people’s ownership of real estate, there are a number of unresolved problems. Ms Nabiullina (Elvira Nabiullina, Minister of Economic Development), please, take this into account. I am asking you to once again analyse current practices and, of course, to draft proposals to simplify the procedure.

And one more issue. Is Mr Shoigu here today? (Sergei Shoigu, Minister of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief) The issue concerns safety and preventing forest fires.