Agenda: Allocating benefits to the victims of the Listvyazhnaya coal mine accident; importing medications for children with epilepsy; developing social treasury; results of regions’ applications for infrastructure loans; container shipments in the Russian Far East.
Excerpt from Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Meeting with deputy prime ministers
Good afternoon, colleagues,
A tragedy happened in the Kemerovo Region last week. As a result of an explosion at the Listvyazhnaya coal mine, miners and rescuers were killed and injured. We are mourning this terrible loss together.
A government commission led by Alexander Novak was established to help the families of the victims and address the consequences of this accident. At the Government meeting, he was instructed to hold the first meeting of the commission immediately. The meeting took place last Friday.
Kuzbass officials, municipalities and the company owning the coal mine affected by the incident will provide financial help to the people caught up in this tragic event. These people will also receive benefits from the Social Welfare Fund.
For its part, the Government will also allocate funds to support every person affected by the accident and every family that lost a member. A directive was signed to allocate around 80 million roubles for this purpose. The families will receive 1 million each from the federal budget and the injured with severe and moderately severe injuries will receive 400,000 roubles each. Those with minor injuries will receive 200,000 each.
All these funds must be promptly delivered to the people, with no bureaucratic delays.
Mr Novak, please continue to keep your finger on the pulse and hold another meeting of the Government commission as soon as possible. Nobody should be overlooked. Please do everything you can.
Another important issue concerns children suffering from epilepsy. Young patients suffering from this illness need medication to overcome this critical ailment. Moreover, treatment must be continuous, regardless of whether the medications required are registered in Russia or not.
The Government instructed the Moscow Endocrine Plant to import 5,000 packages of Petnidan and deliver them to healthcare providers. Children must receive their medication as soon as possible, meaning that the plant must promptly submit its application to the Healthcare Ministry.
Ms Golikova, please make sure that once the application has been submitted, the ministry prepares all the documents for the authorisation of the import of these epilepsy drugs for children.
The Government is also continuing with the development of a social treasury system. This system is important when it comes to proactively supporting people: those in need will not have to knock on doors, collect supporting documents, wait in queues and do other unpleasant things that take a lot of time and energy.
One more resolution will come into effect on 1 January 2022. All citizens will be able to receive sick leave or maternity leave benefits automatically, based on their electronic leave certificates. All healthcare providers will be required to submit the leave certificates to the Social Welfare federal database.
In addition to that, one-time childbirth benefit will be paid automatically, based on the data in the National Civil Registry.
The Social Welfare Fund will pay the benefits directly to the citizens entitled to them.
The social treasury system will eliminate unnecessary obstacles so that people can receive the financial support that they are entitled to under law. This is particularly important to those who have recently recovered from an illness and new mothers who are not able – and should not have to – go around public offices to obtain benefits. They need to take care of their babies at home.
Now, the next topic. Today we will summarise the results of the applications received from regional officials for infrastructure loans. The Government is implementing this new support mechanism as per the President’s instructions. About half a trillion roubles has been allocated for this purpose. Regions will be able to receive loans on attractive terms. This money must be spent effectively on creating comfortable living conditions. It is one of the national development goals set by the President.
There is a lot of work ahead. We will build new roads and new utility infrastructure for residential buildings, as well as nurseries, schools, outpatient clinics, hospitals, cultural and sport facilities. We will modernise public transport, the water supply and waste treatment facilities. It is important that the infrastructure loans stimulate further development of the territories and attract additional investment for construction projects.
One more issue concerns container shipment in the Russian Far East. Sakhalin, Chukotka, Kamchatka, the Magadan Region and several other areas recently faced serious delays in cargo delivery via seaports, including shipment of food, medications, other socially important goods and construction materials. This situation was discussed at length at a meeting with the President. The head of state instructed us to fix the problem in the Far Eastern ports as soon as possible.
