“The Government of the Russian Federation <…> shall submit to the State Duma annual reports on the Government’s performance, including on issues formulated by the State Duma.” (Constitution of the Russian Federation, Article 114, Clause 1, Subclause “a”).
Excerpts from the transcript:
Mikhail Mishustin: Mr Volodin, Ms Matvienko, State Duma deputies and colleagues,
Under the Constitution, our Government is submitting its fifth annual performance report to the State Duma.
Mikhail Mishustin and State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin at the State Duma
Annual Government report on its performance to the State Duma
Annual Government report on its performance to the State Duma
The Government’s annual report to the State Duma. With State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and Speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Valentina Matviyenko
The Government’s annual report to the State Duma. With State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and State Duma First Deputy Speaker Alexander Zhukov
Members of the Government of the Russian Federation ahead of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s presentation of the Government’s annual report to the State Duma of the Russian Federation
Mikhail Mishustin and State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin at the State Duma
In his 2020 Address to the Federal Assembly, the President set forth two short-term objectives, and we guided ourselves by them during our work.
The first objective calls for fulfilling the socio-economic development programme. The second objective aims to boost the quality of overall state governance. Both objectives are inseparably linked. It was impossible to make substantial headway in the economic sphere and the social sector without streamlining our state governance.
Under the President’s guidance, we built a new, high-tech and effective state governance system that makes it possible to quickly formulate and adopt well-thought-out decisions (that have been coordinated at all state power levels) and to implement the most complicated initiatives.
Interaction with the Federal Assembly became a highly important element of this work. We always made well-balanced decisions through constructive dialogue with deputies and senators, as well as regions, representatives of business circles, expert and academic communities. The parliament accumulated feedback from the people, and the President underlines the need for this feedback all the time. It also accumulated proposals to streamline legislation for facilitating long-term national development. Together, we managed to weather the Covid-19 pandemic and helped millions of Russian citizens stay healthy. We also helped businesses retain their employees, production facilities and jobs.
Unprecedented sanctions were the next serious challenge we faced.
But we have not only adjusted our economy to them but also addressed strategic objectives, which we were able to do thanks to the new quality of modern system of governance we created.
I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all our colleagues, the deputies and the senators, for their constructive approach and support for the majority of our economic and social development initiatives. We worked together to achieve a number of vital objectives set to us by the President.
The conditions in which we had to function last year remained very complicated. External pressure on Russia did not let off but increased. According to experts, the restrictions imposed on us exceeded the sum total of sanctions adopted against all other countries worldwide. Today, they are not only targeting our big business and managerial staff but also the representatives of foreign countries, foreign companies and organisations, those who have not severed cooperation with Russia, who sincerely wanted to work with us and to implement joint projects not in their own self-serving interests but on a mutually beneficial basis.
Despite growing pressure, Russia has successfully finished the difficult period of initial adaptation. According to the tentative Rosstat figures based on last year’s results, Russia’s GDP has increased by 3.69 percent, which is more than double the average figure for industrialised countries. In part, this results from the sanctions and the fact that the economies of those initiating these measures have to face unavoidable consequences. Pressured by their respective governments, several European, American and Japanese manufacturers announced their withdrawal from the Russian market. We understand that they found themselves in a tight spot. However, today entities from friendly countries are stepping in and filling their niches, and Russian companies are even more active, of course.
We have seen this trend before, but it became even more apparent last year. This is an inevitable and objective process for an open market economy.
According to the World Bank, Russia is the world’s top 5 economy by purchasing power parity. In his recent Address, the President set a far-reaching goal for us to make Russia the world’s fourth largest economy, and we have the potential to deliver on this objective since high GDP growth rates spilled over into 2024.
To give you an example, Europe barely generated above-zero economic growth in 2023, and the German economy even experienced a minor recession losing 0.3 percent. This is the actual price people have to pay in the countries which imposed sanctions on us, and, should I say, for the ambitions of their politicians.
Meanwhile, we focused on defending our own interests and prioritised national development. Last year’s robust economic performance resulted from the President’s decisions, the way the Government did its job, and efforts by all the branches of power in general, as well as businesses, civil society, and of course, our people.
We all focused on achieving national goals and carrying out national projects, state programmes and strategic initiatives, fostering change across all sectors and spheres.
We generated this positive momentum all while keeping unemployment low. In fact, its rate fell by a factor of two down to 3 percent as of the end of 2023. In the meantime, the unemployment rate in the Euro zone is twice as high as in Russia.
There is another important factor behind our overall economic performance. I am referring to promoting investment.
Last year, investment increased by about 10 percent to hit a 12-year high.
Business owners invest their assets in our country, and the Government offered to shoulder their risks so that the state can share this burden with businesses. As of the beginning of this year, we signed 65 agreements to protect and encourage investment for a total of about 4 trillion rubles, and about half of them were signed back in 2023. Businesses created about 20,000 jobs since this mechanism was launched.
We rely on the National Wealth Fund, among other assets, to provide long-term funding for major infrastructure projects. Using these funds, we supported 17 projects last year for a total of 1 trillion rubles. The Project Finance Factory was also there to support new projects.
It is thanks to you, the members of the State Duma, that we carried out a system-wide effort to fine tune our laws governing public-private partnerships to help us make this mechanism even more transparent and appealing for investors.
Of course, macroeconomic stability and responsible budget policy created a foundation for generating economic growth.
In terms of spending execution under the country’s main financial document, i.e., the budget, we came really close to a 100 percent rate. This is the best result we had in recent years. This enabled many projects that matter for the state and our businesses to tap federal resources as early as in the beginning of the year.
And as a result, naturally, production was launched earlier.
Total federal budget revenues exceeded 29 trillion rubles, almost 5 percent above last year’s figure. Most importantly, the national economy is becoming less dependent on commodity exports. Non-oil and gas revenues have increased by a quarter.
All those improvements have helped to ensure the government’s social obligations.
We have provided consistent support to the economy and the regions, implementing development projects, as well as carrying out our plans as part of the special military operation.
These matters are always in the focus of the Government’s attention. We are working on them all the time. But we are not yet satisfied with all the results.
Inflation was a major challenge last year. We were taking the necessary measures of course, while carefully monitored the situation, because inflation is a factor in the level of people’s real incomes.
In particular, petrol and diesel fuel prices stabilised after the government made the most important decisions to restrict the export of petroleum products. We banned these exports to ensure that domestic consumers have more resources, in particular, farmers who need fuel during planting and harvesting, as well as petrochemical companies, and that fuel is in sufficient supply for the needs of the special military operation.
In addition, the policy certainly benefited millions of Russian motorists, public transport, ambulance and many other services.
Relevant policies were adopted to saturate the domestic food market.
Although annual inflation was above the target, it slowed down significantly, to 7.4 percent, thanks to our cooperation with the Bank of Russia.
Colleagues,
In late 2022, the President formulated six key goals for the Government. In order to effectively achieve them and promptly get feedback, we used the unique information systems of the Coordination Centre, where deputy prime ministers and ministers, the heads of regions and members of parliament, entrepreneurs and experts worked within the framework of strategic sessions.
I will now tell you more about our work on achieving these goals.
The first goal was to enhance the wellbeing of Russian citizens.
We are taking systemic measures towards this end.
We have adjusted pensions, allowances and benefits for inflation. Last year, we increased insurance pensions by a total of 15 percent based on the panned adjustment for inflation and the additional adjustment made the year before. We have also increased them for 2024.
Acting consistently in accordance with the President’s instructions, we are raising the minimum wage at a rate that exceeds the inflation rate. This year, it has been increased by over 18 percent.
Why is this important? The wages of millions of workers depend on this figure. When it grows, their incomes grow as well.
The Government has not slackened attention to wages of the public sector staff, namely, school and university teachers, doctors and other medical personnel, social and cultural workers, as well as scientists. They teach our children, take care of our health, do important research and introduce millions of our citizens to the arts.
We are working together with the regions to adjust wages there in accordance with the May executive orders of the President. Last year alone, we allocated about 190 billion roubles from the federal budget for these objectives. That decision concerned over 5 million people in the public sector.
We allocated about 30 billion roubles from the Federal Fund for Mandatory Medical Insurance for raising the salaries of our medical personnel.
We are creating additional employment opportunities for people with various competencies. We have started modernising our employment service and have opened over 400 modern personnel centres.
They help people find vacancies based on individual circumstances, including temporary jobs if the applicants wish. Last year, such jobs were found for approximately 100,000 people, and another 200,000 people were retrained. Most of them are already working, including young people and people of pre-retirement age, who often have problems with finding employment.
We are implementing the employment stimulation programme, thanks to which 50,000 people have found jobs.
People in difficult circumstances can improve their financial situation by signing a social contract to receive assistance for starting their own business, job retraining or personal subsidiary farming. Last year, about 700,000 people signed such contracts, and 75 percent of them have substantially increased their incomes. Some of them were in what looked like a hopeless situation, but social contracts gave them a new lease on life. We will continue to develop this tool.
Colleagues, we see everything I have said just now as the basis for systemic work to eliminate poverty and inequality, the importance of which the President emphasised in his Address.
The second goal outlined by the President concerns demography, the protection of mother and child, and support for families with children. We are paying close attention to this because the upbringing of children also involves a financial burden on parents, especially when they have nobody to sit with their children. We also take other circumstances into consideration. As per the President’s instructions, we are developing a system of assistance starting with pregnancy and including childbirth and the upbringing of children until 17 years.
As you know, in January 2023 we introduced a single allowance provided to families on a monthly basis depending on the given family’s circumstances. It has been approved for nearly 11 million children and approximately 400,000 pregnant women.
Parents also receive monthly childcare allowances for children up to 18 months old. They have been increased by nearly 50 percent, to approximately 50,000 rubles, for this year, including due to the establishment of a single insurance payment rate. This allowed us to increase the maximum pregnancy and childbirth allowance from 383,000 rubles to 565,000 rubles.
The maternity capital programme is still ongoing. It exceeds 630,000 roubles for mothers who gave birth to a first child and 830,000 rubles for a second child. Most parents use these funds to improve their living conditions. About 670,000 families did so in 2023.
The Government is increasing options of using the maternity capital so that it can benefit as many people as possible.
We are trying to make the process of receiving maternity capital simple, convenient, quick and based on one application or even by default. We continued to introduce social treasury tools in accordance with the President’s instructions.
This format has been approved for 42 federal social protection measures, which nearly 23 million people take advantage of without any red tape.
We have developed a system of notifying people about assistance available to them in eight circumstances so that they know what benefits they can use. Many people simply do not know that they are entitled to government assistance.
We are paying special attention to citizens who cannot take care of themselves due to age or poor health.
We are introducing a system of extended care for them.
The number of those who can receive social or medical assistance at home is growing every year. It was available to 7,000 people in six pilot regions at the start of the project, which I remember very well. When we discussed this issue during a working trip to Pskov in 2021, their number exceeded 100,000. It will grow to about 173,000 by the end of December 2024. We will further develop this system, as well as support for families with children in general, within the framework of the new Family national project, which the President mentioned in his Address.
As of the end of 2023, life expectancy in Russia was nearly 73.5 years, which is higher than in the pre-pandemic period and higher than ever before in Soviet or modern Russian history.
As the President said in his address, it is important that active and healthy life expectancy grows. And this requires, among other things, high-quality and accessible medicine.
The experience of the pandemic has taught us a lot. And on the instructions of the President, we are creating the country's “sanitary shield” – a special programme to be proactive and respond promptly to changes in the epidemiological situation.
We have created a solid foundation for the future. We have developed about 40 new test systems for quick – literally within an hour now – diagnosis of diseases. We have established a network of centres, mobile laboratories, and ensured their technological independence with the production of 100-percent domestic reagents. And we will continue to develop this important project.
We are organising the healthcare system in such a way that a person can receive qualified and necessary treatment in any corner of Russia. Free of charge, under an obligatory medical insurance policy.
During our working trips to the regions, we have seen that many facilities are not in the best condition. There is a lack of equipment. And the physical environment in which healthcare was delivered could not be called comfortable either.
Of course, this is not the case everywhere. But we are aware of such problems and we are solving them consistently.
In 2021, on the instructions of the President, as you know, we launched the modernisation of primary care, where people turn to most often. And over the past three years, we have created and renovated about 3,500 such facilities. Many have been repaired. We have purchased 147,000 pieces of medical equipment, about 5,000 ambulances and three times as many cars for transporting doctors and paramedics.
Over the past four years, we have re-equipped 600 regional vascular centres and primary departments and 200 medical institutions for oncology patients as part of the national Healthcare project. We have opened over 500 units that provide outpatient treatment for such diagnoses.
We have also expanded health check-up programmes so that citizens can have their health checked free of charge. If in 2020, about 39 million people underwent preventive check-ups, last year it was already every second resident of Russia, which became a good opportunity to detect health problems in time, if any.
Specialised, including high-tech treatment, which is required in difficult cases, has also become more accessible.
The Government has made decisions so that residents of any Russian region could apply for medical help in all federal organisations, not only those located in their region.
Last year, 1.5 million people underwent complex surgeries free of charge. This is 12 percent more than the year before.
These are not just numbers – they are lives saved.
We are also increasing the provision of medicines to patients with cardiovascular diseases. Over the past three years, almost 2 million people have received the necessary medicines free of charge. Thanks to your support, an additional 2 billion rubles have been allocated annually to this end. This means that they will be provided annually to more than a million people with heart disease. This will help to extend their lives.
In line with the President’s instructions, a major state programme was also launched to combat hepatitis C. In 2023, it included over 45,000 people. This year, the number of participants will double; now 100,000 patients will annually receive treatment for this severe disease.
A pivotal project on diabetes mellitus has also been launched.
We found a solution for children with diabetes who lost access to critical medical devices when companies from unfriendly countries refused to supply them. These young children were hardest hit by these sanctions. The local analogues available back then were not always suitable for children. But this year, almost 49,000 children aged 2–17 will be provided with continuous glucose monitoring systems. They will no longer need to check their blood sugar level by doing a painful test several times a day. The ongoing monitoring will help prevent complications.
Thousands of parents will no longer need to worry when their child is not around, because their condition can also be monitored remotely.
We are doing everything we can to ensure that young patients receive more care. We are building cutting-edge children’s hospitals around the country, where innovative medical solutions are used. Last year, the construction of 24 such hospitals got underway. Seven hospitals have opened for use, and about 15 more will be completed next year.
The Circle of Kindness Foundation, established at the initiative of the President, is making every effort to provide children with severe orphan diseases with the necessary drugs and medical products. Since its inception, the foundation has helped 23,000 people. Last year, 30 items were added to the list of diseases covered by its programmes.
Thanks to the advancement of medical science, Russia began clinical use of innovative biomedical cell products and tissue engineering practices. More than 6 million people need these innovative methods. We are also completing research to register the world’s first drug for previously incurable ankylosing spondylitis.
Scientists from all over the world have struggled to find a cure that would stop its progression, but Russian innovators have succeeded in creating a drug that can help tens of thousands of people. We are proud of this achievement.
Up-to-date equipment, medicines and treatment methods are certainly important. But the main burden in helping patients always falls on doctors and nurses. A person’s recovery and sometimes life depend on their qualifications and involvement.
To support Russian medics, the Government established special social benefits for medical workers to be paid in addition to their salaries. These benefits were launched last year in response to the President’s instructions; about a million primary care employees have taken advantage of them by now.
In March 2024, these benefits were increased, again at the President’s initiative. In rural areas, district centres and small towns with populations below 50,000 people, doctors will now receive an additional 50,000 roubles, and nurses, 30,000 roubles. In communities with populations between 50,000 and 100,000 people, they will be paid 29,000 and 13,000 roubles, respectively.
The current personnel shortages at the local level are continuously addressed by the programmes Country Doctor and Country Paramedic. Last year, more than 6,500 medics took part in them. We will extend both programmes until 2030 in line with the Presidential instructions. I am sure that this will help attract specialists to rural areas and remote communities, and local residents will have better access to treatment, and most importantly, of better quality.
I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank our doctors for their selfless work across the country, saving people and helping them fight diseases on a daily basis. And from the bottom of my heart, I would like to wish them, their children, families and dear ones the best of health – something they are fighting for helping their patients. We are profoundly grateful to each of them.
Colleagues, one of the crucial factors in the development of our country is educating the younger generation.
We are building and renovating preschool institutions in every region. Today, they can serve 157,000 more children than four years ago. Families with children aged between 2 months and 7 years now have easier access to preschool programmes.
Two years ago, in response to the President’s instructions, we launched a programme to overhaul general education institutions; more than 4,000 schools have been improved by now.
This number includes 2,500 renovated last year, and the construction of new ones also continues.
Children who live far away from their schools can benefit from school buses which take them to classes. Almost 3,000 buses were delivered to the Russian regions in 2023.
At the initiative of the President, all primary school pupils are provided with free hot meals financed by the government. The quality of school meals is always kept under close review, including by parents. This is a matter of children’s health.
We also support teachers who perform classroom management and supervision. It’s a huge responsibility. They are true mentors for their mentees. At the President’s initiative, we have added 5,000 roubles to their salaries. In March 2023, this benefit was doubled for teachers working in communities with populations below 100,000 people. The change actually covered more than 565,000 educators. The corresponding Government resolution has already been developed. People will receive their due funds for last month in April.
Starting from September, a monthly bonus of 5,000 roubles will also be paid to educational advisers to directors in schools and colleges, or approximately 37,000 employees in total.
Getting access to the achievements of culture and arts also has a significant impact on the development of a person.
Young people aged 14–22 years old, can take advantage of the Pushkin Card, which is quite popular.
When we were preparing for its launch, the main idea of the project was to make exhibitions and performances on Russian history, culture, and traditions more accessible for young people, and create more useful content for children, which is very important.
More than 10 million young people have received the card since the initiative was launched. Over 64 million tickets to museums, exhibitions and theatres have been purchased.
Now you can use it to watch domestic films. Their number is growing. High-quality films appear on the screens. Over four years, the Government has invested 36 billion roubles in film production. And just last year alone, cinemas in Russia earned more than this entire sum: almost 40 billion roubles. About 57.5 million people have seen films created with funds from the federal budget.
We continue to support all areas of culture: upgrade theatres, repair and open new museums, exhibition spaces, and replenish library funds. Of course, cultural centres are being built and renovated in rural areas, which is extremely important for the people living there. In line with the President’s instruction, we will launch the Country Cultural Worker programme, and specialists will receive allowances when moving to small towns and villages and doing such significant work there. We have talked about this more than once in the State Duma with almost all party factions.
Travels also help in learning the history and traditions of our country. We have unbelievably beautiful and diverse nature, interesting cities, and landmarks.
Many people are happy to choose vacations in Russia. In order for this to develop, benefits were introduced for tour operators working in the area of domestic and inbound tourism. We exempted them from paying value added tax when selling tourist vouchers for the period since 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2027.
There is also a preferential lending programme for hotel construction. The implementation of these projects will allow the introduction of more than 20,000 new hotel rooms. About 2,000 of them are ready.
Some time ago – I think it was in Gorno-Altaisk – we discussed with experts and business representatives the launch of a pilot project to support the construction of module hotels. By the end of this year, another 14,000 rooms will be available in them.
In order to promote tourism, in addition to infrastructure issues, we also deal with environmental protection, which is very important. A lot is being done to overcome the damage caused to nature.
We continued to build and renovate treatment facilities.
In fact, I often recall my trips to the Far East, the Urals, Siberia and other regions. I often noticed that next to beautiful nature, advanced enterprises, modern infrastructure, some new project, there are piles of dirt, abandoned landfills, or sunken ships. But everyone likes to live where it is clean, well-groomed, and comfortable.
At the President’s initiative, a large nationwide cleaning project has been launched, which includes the elimination of such landfills and other garbage.
We discussed these issues during my trip to Magadan in 2020. Today, 131 sunken ships have already been lifted from the bottom and disposed of. It is cheaper to throw them like that in the water than to dispose of them and deal with complex procedures. About 200 objects of accumulated environmental damage have been eliminated. Thanks to this, it was possible to protect the health of millions of people.
The third key objective set by the President is the priority development of infrastructure.
This offers a foundation for improving the quality of life in every region. The construction sector in Russia has demonstrated outstanding results with an annual growth rate at about 8 percent. This is one of our main economic development drivers. Over the past four years, it expanded by more than a quarter – by 27 percent.
We have lots of new housing. Last year, we built over 110 million square metres, which is an all-time high for the Russian Federation for both apartment blocks and single-family homes. This enabled almost 4.5 million families to improve their living conditions.
Mortgages serve as the main tool for addressing housing issues. There are several programmes benefiting from state support. To enable even more people to buy a new flat or home, we expanded the family mortgage programme to parents with two children under 18 years old.
There is also the Far East mortgage programme for people working for defence industry, as well as teachers and medical workers. People living in the Arctic regions can also use this framework. In the new regions, borrowers can buy apartments at a 2 percent interest rate. IT specialists have a dedicated IT mortgage programme. Here, we revised down thresholds in terms of age and salaries.
Overall, this enabled about 1 million households to improve their housing conditions using preferential loans.
We also continued moving people out of sub-standard housing while carrying out two programmes.
Last year, almost 200,000 people moved to new homes, leaving over 3 million square meters of sub-standard housing behind, and for the past four years there were 670,000 beneficiaries.
Apart from housing, we must ensure that people can enjoy embankments and streets in their neighbourhoods. We are improving these territories so that walking there becomes a pleasure for local residents.
Last year, we improved about 10,000 courtyards and public spaces, while the federal project to this effect covers over 65,000 facilities of this kind. Hearing what people want is essential, since they must be able to determine how the cities they live in must look.
In 2021, we launched an online vote and offered people to choose whether they needed, say, a children’s playground, a sports court, a park or a square. Almost 9 million people took part in it at the time, and two years later, this number exceeded 14 million.
Projects from the National Contest for Creating a People-Friendly Urban Environment help us change the face of small towns and historical settlements. About 700 projects of this kind have already been implemented.
Last year, we fulfilled the President’s instructions by holding two contests for this kind for cities in our Far East, with the final round taking place in Vladivostok. A total of 8 billion roubles in grants were distributed among 82 winners.
Upgrading utilities infrastructure requires a lot of attention and a major effort on our behalf. For us, this is a comprehensive effort. We launched a five-year programme to modernise the utilities sector and are carrying out about a thousand initiatives within this framework, which includes fixing heating and water supply.
Subsidised loans from the National Wealth Fund is another major tool at our disposal. We used them to upgrade about 800 facilities, including boiler and water treatment plants, and almost 900 kilometres of utilities networks.
Turning to roads, we undertook a far-reaching effort to upgrade them, from the street network in every community to approach roads to manufacturing sites.
We have largely achieved the goals in road construction as articulated by the President, and on certain indicators we even went beyond that. As of the end of last year, about 53 percent of regional roads and over two thirds of the main thoroughfares met all the requirements and became better and safer.
Road construction and repairs exceeded 31,000 kilometres across Russia. We launched the M-12 Vostok highway from Moscow to Kazan. This was a very important project, which brought new jobs, and a new quality of life. We will continue to develop this route, just as many other roads.
Improving connectivity and transport accessibility within our vast country is a strategic priority for us.
Considering its unique geography, an efficient and up-to-date air service and a branched network of airports is what Russia needs. This is why we not only focused on reviving domestic aircraft manufacturing, but were also proactive in upgrading our regional airfields.
Last year, nine cities, including Pevek, Yakutsk, Blagoveshchensk, Arkhangelsk and Magnitogorsk, among others, upgraded their runways or built new ones. In the beginning of this year, Kemerovo completed the first stage in this process in Udachny, a community near the Arctic Circle. The construction project in Tomsk has been completed.
People can already benefit from shorter and more convenient destinations. For the first time, about 53 percent of domestic flights did not involve a stopover in Moscow.
In his Address to the Federal Assembly, the President tasked the Government with enabling more people to travel by air. We will upgrade at least 75 airports within the next six years and allocate a quarter of a trillion roubles to this effect.
We will also continue working on other projects as part of the Comprehensive Plan to Upgrade and Expand Mainline Infrastructure, including the railways.
On a special note, I would like to mention an important event that happened already this year. In March, the President launched the construction of our country’s first high-speed railway between Moscow and St Petersburg.
We are upgrading out public transit so that people can move around in comfort.
For that we have two programmes, including involving VEB.RF, our key development institution. These initiatives enabled us to deliver about 5,000 buses, trolleybuses, trams and electric buses to the Russian regions last years, doubling our deliveries compared to the three preceding years.
Colleagues,
The President emphasised the need to have a proactive economic policy so that we create demand for new products and services we make domestically rather than simply respond to momentary fluctuations.
The Government prioritised this agenda last year.
It is impossible to create an affluent economy offering a wide assortment of products without ensuring food security and attaining the country’s technological and financial sovereignty.
I will discuss this in greater detail.
I will begin with the agro-industrial sector, one of the strongest sectors that largely owes its success to decisions made with your involvement. Last year, we spent over 0.5 trillion roubles on supporting our agriculture; we spent over 440 billion roubles under the state programme alone.
Our measures include the re-cultivation of over 500,000 hectares of farmland throughout 2023, including land reclamation projects that we have discussed in detail. Farmers are taking out state-backed insurance policies more often.
Russia expanded farming machinery and equipment production by over 8 percent during the same period. Production of machinery and equipment for the food industry soared by almost 40 percent.
We assist agrarian exporters at every stage, from investing into new enterprises to entering foreign markets. Our exports to other countries have exceeded 2020 volumes.
We have gathered the second record-breaking grain harvest in modern Russian history. The processing industry, especially its fish-processing factories, is also posting good results. All these achievements help implement our Food Security Doctrine. We are producing much more vegetable oil, grain, fish and fish products, sugar, meat and meat products than planned.
We already boast certain successes in the cultivation of potatoes, vegetables, melons and gourds. We continue to increase the production of milk, fruits, berries and salt. They are all highly important elements of our food security.
Of course, we prioritise the seed-growing sector. The domestic market is receiving more and more home-grown seeds.
Experts actively implement selection research, seed-growing and molecular genetics projects at 150 new laboratories. In the past four years, we have created 34 technologies using our own research results. Of course, there is still room for improvement here. We are extremely proud of our agro-industrial sector’s achievements, and we will continue to help actively introduce advanced solutions for making it more competitive.
Now, as regards industrial production.
The overall production grew by 3.5 percent in the reporting year, exceeding our most optimistic forecasts.
The manufacturing industry has been the biggest driver of this growth, having grown by 7.5 percent. It is record high for the past ten years. It is extremely important to note that the share of the manufacturing industry in the GDP is also on the rise.
According to the estimates based on the pricing trends in different sectors of the economy, this indicator is now close to 13 percent. Therefore, we have achieved the goal set by the President.
Moreover, almost all the sub-industries, especially those focused on the domestic market, have climbed into positive territory. The fact that the domestic market has recovered is the main outcome of the year.
The machine-building sector has shown the biggest growth, over 21 percent. I will give you more details.
In the aviation industry, the production volume has increased by almost 20 percent. Huge work has been done in aircraft engineering to ensure the transition to Russian-made technology-intensive materials and products in order to reduce the dependence on foreign suppliers. We plan to increase the output of civilian helicopters by almost 30 percent this year.
When visiting regions and plants, I constantly communicate with directors and chief designers as well as people directly in charge of production and air worthiness of our new planes and helicopters. The priority task for all of us is to ensure safe operation. This requires most reliable and modern equipment. Of course, our engineers and other professionals are looking for ways to launch serial production of such equipment.
I will briefly speak about unmanned aerial vehicles. We have adopted a development strategy for this important industry and approved a national project. Today we understand the nuances of this industry’s further progress. To achieve practical results, we will carefully start to remove barriers that are holding back the development and more extensive and effective use of UAVs, including economic barriers.
Car manufacturing. The output of all types of vehicles has increased by 16 percent, exceeding 700,000 vehicles, which includes 500,000 passenger cars. This result became possible thanks to launching several new production facilities.
In machine tool engineering, production has increased by more than 60 percent. Sixty percent! The industry has the most serious prospects.
We have not attended to its development for 30 years. Now we are doing even more than just recovery. We have developed a federal project from scratch. In the next six years, we will allocate around 300 billion roubles from the federal budget alone, including 130 billion in the next three years. This amount is available in the budget.
As a result, we will create more than 70 modern machine-tool builders and set up the domestic production of more than 500 new types of machine-tools.
It is crucial to help companies with technological upgrade and modernisation. Goals have been determined. Russia intends to make it to the top 25 of countries using industrial robots. The President set this goal in the Presidential Address.
The metals production sector has shown a 3 percent growth despite all the challenges caused by the sanctions, mainly thanks to building up the domestic consumption of metal products.
The power engineering market has grown by more than one-third. Major achievements include the launch of the first Russian high-capacity gas turbine into serial production. Certainly, this will strengthen our technological independence and make our energy supply system more reliable.
The shipbuilding industry has grown by 4 percent. We have been actively developing our own equipment and upgrading manufacturing facilities.
The output of civilian vessels, both cargo and passenger ships, has increased by a quarter, and by more than 100 percent for fishing vessels.
Three universal nuclear-powered icebreakers are currently under construction at the Baltic Shipyards in St Petersburg. In March, we decided to allocate almost 22 billion roubles for this project to continue.
The Russian energy industry is gradually adapting as well. We had to reinvent logistics substantially, which does not happen overnight. And yet, there has been significant progress in several segments. Last year, Russia became the fourth largest LNG producer. Our LNG exports have increased almost three-fold over the last six years.
In the chemical sector, the output of low- and medium-tonnage products has increased by almost 25 percent in the past three years. The President set the goal of achieving a 30-percent grown of the industry by the end of the year. We are moving to this target ahead of schedule.
Now, a few words about the pharmaceutical and medical industries. Over the past year, drug manufacturing has added over 7 percent to the output. As many as 530 new drugs have been released domestically, including some advanced products.
We are building up the development of medical devices. In the past year alone, this industry has grown by more than 15 percent. For the first time, we registered more than 1,000 new products.
Effective state support measures are of primary importance for the development of industries and companies.
Last year, we launched a cluster investment platform in an effort to expand the production of priority products. In simple terms, the cluster investment platform will provide easy-term loans to companies involved in large-scale priority projects. Thirty-six projects worth 800 billion roubles in total have been approved via the platform. Ten projects have already been launched.
There has been enormous demand for industrial mortgages. More than 800 easy-term loans worth around 80 billion roubles in total have been issued.
The funds were used to purchase or build millions of square metres of factory space.
The Industrial Development Fund provided tangible aid to industrial enterprises. The fund’s resources supported the development of high-technology products; necessary equipment was supplied on lease. Production facilities were launched, including component manufacturing. More than 300 applications for more than 250 billion roubles were approved during the year. Around 600 applications have been approved in the past three years.
The fourth task set by the President is to strengthen our technological sovereignty.
We are completing the development of several major projects to organise our own production of the most important types of knowledge-intensive products, including microelectronic components, smart machine-tools, gas turbines, medical equipment, and more.
Ten initiatives have been launched to promote end-to-end technologies. Agreements have been signed with leading companies. We have managed to start cooperating with them effectively in AI, quantum computation, software, hydrogen energy, advanced materials, and a number of crucial innovative areas.
The overall amount of funding for these projects is about 137 billion roubles, of which almost three-fourths has been contributed by private businesses.
The Concept of National Technological Development was approved in May 2023 for us to achieve the lead in all priority sectors.
A law on the development of technological companies has been approved thanks to you, Messrs deputies, which defines their criteria. This status has been assigned to 1,700 organisations. This means that they have obtained the right to receive targeted assistance.
We also rendered support to over 8,000 high-technology startups within a year, something that resulted in creating over 100,000 new jobs in, what is particularly important, innovative areas.
The important thing is that last year, a considerable part of all funds, both public and private, raised to finance technological sovereignty projects, was invested in R&D.
High-quality digital solutions are needed to help their implementation. We have issued grants to support domestic IT projects. The Russian National Software Register list got enlarged by another 5,000 entries within last year alone.
The share of their use by public companies increased three times over. Five years ago, quite recently, this share hardly exceeded a quarter. According to the President’s instructions, these companies should go over entirely to Russian products in certain classes of software not later than December. We have been monitoring these matters.
Colleagues,
We have a strong scientific basis with infrastructure throughout our country for building up our own competences in critically important areas. To quote the President, this is our powerful competitive advantage.
There are about 600 research equipment sharing centres and nearly 400 unique installations used to conduct fundamental and applied research. Seven megascience projects are also ongoing.
We have renovated about a half of the instrument infrastructure at leading research organizations and opened over 700 laboratories supervised by young scientists, the cream of the crop in Russian science. We have succeeded in creating a situation where almost a half of all researchers in Russia are under 39 years of age. This is a very important achievement.
We are encouraging universities, the research community, and the real sector to build up cooperation. The 15 global-level scientific and educational centres developed nearly 4,000 technologies within two years, which are ready for introduction.
All these trends have found a reflection in the Strategy for Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation which was approved by the President.
The Russian economy must become an economy of skilled personnel, if we want to achieve technological sovereignty.
Accordingly, we have revised our approaches to vocational-school training so that 3.7 million vocational-school students currently enrolled should get knowledge and skills which best fit labour market requirements.
For this, we are prioritising facilities and equipment upgrades, and not entirely at the expense of federal budget funding. Last year, the regions created over 1,000 workshops of their own at 400-odd educational institutions.
As a result, all graduates find an employment in their line after completing the training.
The Professionalism project covering about 900 vocational schools is in an extremely high demand. Russian regions run over 200 centres training specialists for more than 20 priority sectors. The importance of this was stressed during our visits to manufacturers in the regions. Governors constantly discuss this with me as well.
Last year, we created another 60 educational clusters to train specialists in medicine, teaching, tourism, arts, and creative industries. Russian businesses have invested nearly 4 billion roubles in this project because they know that this is their future.
Ms Matvienko, Mr Volodin,
You have been focusing on training blue-collar workers. It is thanks to your support that the funding for the project envisaged by the three-year budget has been increased.
2023 was the second year in the Decade of Science and Technologies implemented at the President’s initiative.
We increasingly recruit talented young people to conduct university research, while young scientists are encouraged to participate in solving key problems which concern our country’s development.
The Priority-2030 project is also helping to achieve this. Based on this project, universities, mostly regional ones, along with academic centres and major companies, conduct fundamental and applied research, including in materials science, microbiology, medicine, quantum physics, etc.
Three years ago, the programme at its inception included 106 universities. Now their number has reached 132.
Nearly 20,000 R&D projects have been implemented, with major industrial companies alone investing about 18 billion roubles in almost a half of them last year. Importantly, several thousand innovations have been introduced into production.
The Advanced Engineering Schools project is intended to provide high-technology and knowledge-intensive sectors of the economy with trained personnel. With this aim in view, our leading universities create platforms with the most advanced laboratories and experimental production facilities with the state’s grant support. There are 30 such platforms in operation right now, and their number will rise to 50 before the end of this year.
A network of campuses is also being built, with 17 projects approved. More than a dozen facilities have recently been opened, including in Moscow's Bauman University and IQ Park in Ufa. Several more were opened just last week.
The fifth task is to achieve financial sovereignty. The key areas here are ensuring macroeconomic stability, sustainability, and budget balance, increasing our own long-term financial resource tools, as well as investor confidence in the Russian market, and restoring the influx of foreign capital.
New tools have emerged, including those that help attract long—term funding.
Recently you have adopted a law drafted by the Government that determines the procedure for tax deductions for such investments. Of course, this should increase the interest of domestic investors, on whose activity we count.
The most important thing is that today all payments in Russia are being effected despite any external pressure.
Colleagues, you see and know that the West continues to do everything possible to restrict the Russian economy’s access to the international settlement and payment infrastructure and, of course, to global finance as a consequence, to hold back Russia’s progress.
The Bank of Russia is actively working to solve this problem. And the Government, for its part, provides full support. Here we work together to ensure that our companies’ trade and investment transactions are protected.
The sixth priority task is to expand foreign economic cooperation with promising partners from friendly countries.
Above all let me note that we have succeeded in preventing the West’s attempts to block the Russian foreign trade. The trade with friendly countries has not only grown, but can be compared today with Russia’s total global trade of four years ago.
In line with the President’s instruction, the Government has approved the Strategy for Promoting Foreign Economic Activity. It considers all the recent trends in the global economy and will be in effect up to end of the decade.
The support system for non-resource, non-energy exports of industrial and agricultural goods was rebuilt, and entrepreneurs were helped to redirect cargo flows.
The decrease in trade with the European Union was largely offset by increased trade with China, India, Turkiye, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, Africa and Latin America. The share of friendly countries has increased to 77 percent.
And, of course, in this context it is necessary to address the tasks of developing international corridors to these friendly countries, such as North – South and West – East, as well as creating infrastructure including ports in the Azov-Black Sea area, the northwest and east. Last year, we launched bypasses in Anapa, Aksai and Krasnodar, which helped speed up traffic along the most congested sections of the M-4 Don motorway.
In line with the President’s instruction, we continued to expand the Eastern Operating Domain. Its throughput capacity reached 173 million tonnes.
Special focus was placed on enhancing the Northern Sea Route capabilities, the shortest route between Europe and Asia. Over 36 million tonnes have been transported via the Arctic waters which is an all-time high.
Speaking about international cooperation, I am bound to mention migration.
We discussed this during consultations before the report. All parliamentary parties spoke about this, primarily in the context of the monstrous crime committed in Crocus City Hall near Moscow in late March.
Terrorists killed people. I am confident that those to blame for this will be punished.
I share your desire of revenge when it comes to terrorists. I understand numerous proposals on migration issues in the context of the recent tragedy. A striving to make additional decisions is understandable and fair.
But, colleagues, I’d like to draw your attention to a very important fact. The drafting, discussion and especially endorsement of all initiatives should take place with the account of the positions of law-enforcement agencies. Their competences include security of citizens and the state as a whole. They implement adopted decisions and are responsible for their results.
Therefore, it is necessary to coordinate work. Only in this case, it will be effective.
As the President said, terrorists have no ethnicity or religion. Representatives of many ethnicities and religions live in peace in our country. We have a truly multi-ethnic state.
Esteemed colleagues,
In conditions of unprecedented sanctions, we have focused on developing cooperation with Russia’s strategic partners.
Belarus is our closest neighbour and ally. We are building together our Union State. We have laid a legal foundation for a uniform macroeconomic, industrial and agrarian policy and for the formation of common energy and transport markets. We have agreed on uniform standards in protecting consumer rights.
Our Eurasian Economic Union is making steady headway. Last year, its aggregate GDP increased by 3.8 percent in real terms.
In 2023, Russia chaired the Union’s bodies. Our heads of state endorsed a declaration on developing integration in perspective. It was named the Eurasian Economic Road. It is a guide for further strengthening our strategic interaction in all areas.
Our country is expanding cooperation with the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Russia’s trade with them grew by almost 6 percent last year.
Russia has preserved and strengthened its presence in key regional associations as well. This primarily applies to BRICS that Russia chairs this year and the SCO. We are also planning to promote dialogue with other constructive organisations, in part, as regards the humanitarian agenda in education, science and culture. Sport is an important area in this respect.
Unfortunately, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other sports organisations are under serious political pressure. They are preventing the participation of Russian athletes in global and European competitions.
Under the circumstances, we are actively developing new formats of competitions. We hold the Games of the CIS Countries, Russia-China Games and Children of Asia International Sports Games. Yekaterinburg hosted a festival of student sports.
The Games of the Future were, of course, the brightest event. They are a unique multi-sports tournament. As the President noted, it is free from political considerations of expediency, any types of discrimination and double standards. We planned much for the current year, including the Friendship Games. We will continue creating conditions to enable our athletes to show the best results in competing against strong rivals.
Esteemed colleagues,
The adopted decisions I mentioned previously ensured serious success in a number of economic sectors. Most important, these achievements have become part of people’s everyday life – from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok.
Issues related to the development of the Russian regions are always on the Government’s agenda. Last year, we visited all regions of the country together with my deputies and other cabinet members. I went to 55 regions since 2020.
We have a very beautiful country with many interesting sights and wonderful people. They are devoted to their native places and engaged in active work. And, of course, there is progress.
Over the past four years, the regions increased their consolidated revenue by 50 percent, while investment grew by almost two thirds. These are the main indicators when it comes to assessing the way we work with the regions. Deputy prime ministers oversee four indicators for every region: gross regional product growth, number of jobs, investment, real disposable income and job creation. We track these indicators on a permanent basis.
By the way, Valentina Matviyenko and Vyacheslav Volodin initiated an effort to improve the mechanism enabling regional budgets to receive their share of income tax. They are now receiving these funds much quicker than they used to. This will make our regional finances even more resilient.
At the same time, many of them have a serious debt burden. As instructed by the President, we will write off two thirds of their budget loans, which amounts to about 1 trillion roubles. This would offer them a pathway to delivering on their local infrastructure development agenda, including in terms of construction, upgrading the utilities infrastructure, expanding the gas distribution network and transport routes. These are all major priorities for our regions.
Infrastructure budget loans are another important tool. We earmarked 1 trillion roubles for the nest six-year cycle to this effect. Over a half of this amount has already been sent to the regions, which helped them finish 252 projects.
We provided another 190 billion roubles as special treasury loans. Almost all regions benefited from them last year. We also allocate funding to ensure a level playing field in terms.
Special economic zones have retained their effectiveness as a support mechanism. Over the past three years, we created 20 zones of this kind. They benefited from preferential treatment to reach an all-time high in terms of investment.
Of course, we will make sure to align all infrastructure support measures with development programmes for 2,000 communities and master plans for 200 cities. The President shared his detailed vision on this matter in his Address. We will work with the regions to decide on it soon.
We will also work on this agenda across eight federal districts. Let me reiterate that there is a system in which deputy prime ministers oversee specific districts, and this mechanism remains quite effective.
They oversee everything that is happening in the regions today in the four areas of focus I have already mentioned. And they deliver results in all these endeavours.
There is also a comprehensive effort to develop our rural territories. Last year alone, we allocated about 64 billion roubles to this effect from the federal budget so that we can continue to build roads, improve territories and housing in rural area.
Offering households free connections to the gas distribution network is essential for our regions. As part of this initiative, we focused on supporting families with many children, participants in the special military operation and their families, as well as low-income households. We helped them buy equipment by covering part of their expenses in the amount of at least 100,000 roubles per property.
Last year, almost 40 percent more households were connected to the public gas supply system than a year earlier, which means that we made the lives of tens of thousands of people more comfortable.
In line with the President’s instruction, the programme will be expanded to include out-of-town gardening communities in areas with public gas systems in place. This, I think, is also an important improvement.
A package of policies was implemented in the North Caucasus, the Far East, the Arctic, Crimea and Sevastopol, and the Kaliningrad Region, where it is of the essence to stimulate the local industries, remove infrastructure restrictions and improve the investment climate and investment appeal.
Last year, due to various state programmes, more than 400 new social, engineering and transport facilities became available to residents in the North Caucasus.
We have significantly increased the reliability of the energy infrastructure in the Caucasus. A year ago, during a working trip to Karachayevo-Circassia, we launched the Krasnogorsk hydroelectric complex with two small hydroelectric power plants. In addition, a wind farm was put into operation in the Stavropol Territory last autumn.
Significant results have been achieved in Russia’s Far East. Recently, about 3,000 investment projects were launched there, bolstered by state support. Almost a quarter of them have already been completed. Business is also quite active in the Arctic zone. Over the past year, more than 3 trillion roubles have been invested in the economy and social facilities in the Far Eastern regions.
A variety of tools are used there to attract private funds. There are priority development areas. The free port of Vladivostok also offers special conditions, which helped to put into operation about 110 facilities last year.
Almost three years ago, following a trip to Iturup, we decided to grant preferential treatment to businesses on the Kuril Islands. By now, as many as 24 resident companies (24 may not sound like too many, but still) have started new projects with a total investment of about 5 billion roubles and created more than 400 jobs there.
The mechanisms that are used in the macro-region have also shown good results. Among them are the Far Eastern concession, a single presidential subsidy and, of course, the Far Eastern Hectare. Due to this programme, about 1,000 social and engineering facilities were built there in four years, and more than 120,000 people received land plots. Now a similar programme is available to residents of Russia’s Arctic zone.
Another important tool is the Far Eastern Quarter programme. It will contribute to the comprehensive development of the area in line with modern standards and people’s needs.
Transport connectivity across the federal district is improving fast. In three years, the integrated Far Eastern airline transported more than 800,000 passengers at subsidised fares.
I will talk separately about the integration of the new regions of the Federation into the legal framework of Russia. To achieve this, it was necessary to adopt about 60 laws. I would like to thank Ms Matvienko, Mr Volodin, other colleagues and all deputies and senators for their enormous work.
The experience and practices received in Crimea were very helpful in speeding up these steps. Over 60 facilities of the social, transport and engineering infrastructure, including those for reliable water supplies to the peninsula, were built or repaired last year alone. Sixteen kindergartens and schools and three sports complexes were opened there.
All these changes are taking place literally before the eyes of Crimeans, who are already using these new opportunities. People in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions will have access to the same living standards. In 2023, we launched the implementation of their socio-economic development programme.
In the past, nobody invested into the Crimean infrastructure on such a scale. Over 18,000 facilities have been restored or built there in the past two years. Those include kindergartens and schools, medical institutions, fire stations, philharmonic societies, libraries, engineer and utility networks, and motor roads.
Russia has launched multifunctional centres in which the residents of our new regions can promptly process the necessary documents, including papers for very important social payments, pensions and allowances. Last year, they were received by about 2.5 millions of our citizens.
The territories of all four regions have been turned into a free economic zone. We offer investors coming there a preferential equipment-leasing programme, among other benefits.
We are rendering additional assistance to the neighbouring regions. On the President’s instructions, we transferred 1 billion roubles to the Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk regions, and to the Republic of Crimea. These funds were spent on grants for industrial facilities and financing on preferential terms.
We will also use a preferential regime of a free economic zone in these regions with a view to reducing the load on companies, preserving jobs, and, most importantly, restoring the economy. Incidentally, we will discuss a relevant draft law at a Government meeting and submit it to the State Duma the day after tomorrow.
We will continue supporting people and businesses in these regions.
Esteemed colleagues,
Support for the conduct of the special military operation remained a top priority last year. The Coordinating Council established on the President’s executive order continued its work.
To provide our defenders with everything they need we have substantially built up production. We involved in this work hundreds of industrial facilities, research institutes, and design bureaus, whose researchers and engineers were developing innovative technology. We increased the production of combat hardware and arms, protective devices and means of electronic warfare, packages of medical gear for use in the field and other conditions, and military gear. We increased them many times in very many positions. The manufacture of vehicles and armour went up by three times, weapons by seven times, and means of communication, radio-electronic warfare and reconnaissance by nine times.
I would like to say special thanks for those that are taking an active part in the production of everything our heroes, our army and navy need. Thank you!
Defenders of the Fatherland State Fund was established for resolving social issues of fighters and their families. In every region, its employees help them restore documents, receive medications and medical devices, undergo professional education and get a job, if need be.
We laid special emphasis on the need to provide benefits promptly. The procedure for issuing a combat veteran's certificate was simplified. Now departments are doing everything independently, without personal applications. Due support by the state is also provided without red tape.
Following the President’s instruction, we will reduce the financial burden on our defenders by relieving them of the property tax. It is important to make sure that those that are fulfilling their combat duty should receive the state’s assistance fully and on time. We are closely monitoring this.
Incidentally, owing to you, esteemed Mr Volodin and esteemed deputies, special military operation participants now have advantages in applying to universities.
It is beyond doubt that the Government has always focused on the support of our fighters, their families and friends. Of course, we will fulfil all decisions by the head of state, which form the foundation of this work.
Esteemed colleagues,
You personally contributed to the implementation of many measures I mentioned today. We have managed to alleviate the most complicated period of adaptation, create a durable foundation for the further economic growth, improving the living standards of our citizens and performing new tasks.
In his address, the President instructed us to think through approaches to modernising our fiscal system for a fairer distribution of the tax burden. It should be borne by high-income earners. At the same time, it is necessary to reduce the burden on families with children and encourage businesses to invest in national development.
It is important to consider every detail. Importantly, the tax system should not only provide resources for reaching national and regional goals. It should also reduce inequality and not only in society but also in the socio-economic development of our regions. It should consider the level of incomes made by individuals and companies. The head of state made a special point about this in his address.
Esteemed colleagues, esteemed deputies, we must resolve this problem together.
You know well the interests and requirements of your voters, the processes taking part in the regions, and the requirements of businesses and public institutions.
The forthcoming changes in the tax sector should primarily work for the benefit of people, our economy and the country as a whole.
Friends,
The President has formulated our goals for 2024 following the meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects, held last December. They include strengthening our economic, technological and financial sovereignty, with a focus on meeting the growing domestic demand for goods and services produced in Russia and in cooperation with friendly countries; increasing the real incomes of our citizens, and prioritising infrastructure modernisation. Another task is to create a digital governance platform for the comprehensive socioeconomic and spatial development of our population centres.
All this has crucial significance for attaining our national development goals by 2030.
The main goal formulated by the President, including for this year, is preserving the population. In 2024, which has been declared by the President as the Year of the Family, we will continue improving measures of assistance for families with children, with priority attention given to large families. Their unified legal status and social guarantees have been approved throughout the country at the federal level.
We will create broad opportunities for young people, who will soon develop Russia’s future.
We will keep working so that our children have modern kindergartens and schools and attend interesting and useful extracurricular activity groups. Our citizens must have access to good, including high-tech, medical services, live in good houses in cities and towns with all modern amenities, use comfortable municipal transport, choose professions to their liking, and engage in self-development.
We have created a solid foundation for this, and we will continue doing everything necessary to make these opportunities available throughout Russia.
I have no doubt that we will achieve these results, jointly and under the President’s guidance, for ourselves, for our families and for the country.
Thank you.
Mikhail Mishustin’s closing remarks:
Colleagues,
We have held a very constructive dialogue today. I would like to thank deputies of all parliamentary parties for their responsible stance and for their proposals.
I would like to particularly emphasise that the results that I mentioned have been achieved solely due to our society consolidating around the President and his programme for the nation’s development. The recent election’s outcome is a testimony to the public’s immense trust in Vladimir Putin and his policy. This is the key to our success.
I will dwell upon the remarks made by the Duma party leaders.
I will start with Gennady Zyuganov. We share a common stance with the Communist Party on many key development issues, in particular, the agro-industrial complex, manufacturing industry, and others; we discussed this in detail at the meeting with the parliamentary parties. I will mention several points.
As regards banks and bank taxes – obviously, in case certain banks have a higher margin, we need to carefully look into addressing it in a fair manner. Yet, there is such a thing as bank dividends. With our banks mostly being state owned, we should carefully consider ways to do it more equitably; it is not all that simple for making drastic changes.
As to the issues mentioned by Mr Zyuganov, personal safety is of primary importance for any person. This is a matter of concern for people in any family. Our joint efforts must be focused on ensuring the safety of every member of our society.
Speaking of wages, Mr Zyuganov, I beg to differ about poverty and the average wage of 20,000 roubles. This is not correct: the average wage in Russia is 73,000 roubles.
This is the correct figure; I can show you calculations that employers provide. We know about every amount paid by employers, as well as payments to defence enterprises and participants in the special military operation – all those are taken into account. Therefore, the average wage is 73,000+ roubles.
Regarding inflation and soaring prices, let me tell you that the overall real income growth is 5.6 percent. The nominal wage increase is 14 percent, while real wages have increased by 7.8 percent. This is my answer. These are the actual statistics that show that the poverty situation is different from what you claim.
Regarding the poverty indicators, there were some 16 million poor people in Russia back in 2021, while the current figure is 13.5 million. And 9.3 percent is a record figure as well. We are addressing this, with unified allowance and other measures all being part of these efforts. But, of course, we are aiming to do more. We are working to resolve many issues you have mentioned, including through the social treasury mechanism, which has proven efficient.
As for housing and utilities, there is also a huge programme with 4.5 trillion roubles to be invested until 2030. The President said this in his Address: 150 billion roubles of corresponding federal budget investments per year. We also have infrastructure budget loans, up to 50 percent of which can be spent on housing and utilities. Plus, related programmes. We do a lot in this respect, including the possibility of writing off funds.
You have also mentioned migrants. This is a very important and multifaceted issue. I said in my report that we have to work on this together with law enforcers. We must think about how to make everything fair, and most importantly, consider the state’s capabilities to provide jobs to those who want to become Russian citizens. This is very important, and must be done carefully. I have spoken about the presidential executive order that is currently in effect.
As for education, I support the areas that we discussed in detail: those related to jobs in the spheres of technologies, industry, and new materials; good doctors must be trained as well. All areas of vocational education are important to develop. However, it is very dangerous to radically change the rules of the Unified State Exam and create other programmes. You know, in line with the President’s instruction, the main engineering professions will now be only under specialist’s degree programmes. This is very important, and we are moving in this direction. Therefore, I hope that together we will not just be able to reform the system of higher education and special vocational training, but also to create the education system that we used to be proud of and that most of us here in this room benefited from.
As for Leonid Slutsky’s remarks, I would like to thank him for his assessment of the Government’s efforts and say that we know that your party is in permanent contact with the Government on the most important areas of activity.
I especially would like to thank you personally for strengthening Russia’s position on the world stage as part of parliamentary diplomacy. In general, the LDPR takes consistent action on the entire range of social issues. I would like to mention that Yaroslav Nilov is in constant constructive communication with the Ministry of Labor, being the head of the respective State Duma committee.
Thank you very much for your attention to senior citizens. The programmes proposed by this parliamentary party made it possible to expand the federal long-term care programme. At a meeting with the party, we discussed effective cooperation with the Ministry of Sports and activities related to the Games of the Future. You and Dmitry Chernyshenko did a great job. In this connection, I would like to say that this event brought together more than 300 teams from 116 countries and demonstrated the unifying power of sports, science and technology, which is great indeed.
Mr Slutsky, you are certainly right about disproportionate development of the regions. But a rouble has different values in Moscow, Kamchatka or Bryansk. The dynamics of the food basket’s cost is different everywhere. The difference may be three times over throughout the country – the logistics is different, and, say, it is impossible to grow vegetables in Kamchatka.
When a businesswoman, I think her name is Natalya, received the President, she told him what they had built. I remember her well. We talked with her. And she looked so happy because she believed what we had promised. But this will not resolve the problem of the food basket’s cost. It will still be different in different regions. However, you are absolutely right. It is necessary to even out opportunities for people in medicine, education, access to good services, and, of course in consumption, the diet and the quality of products. This is a very important issue and we will approach it from all sides, in part, by stimulating the development programmes of the ten regions with big disproportions.
As for taxes and justice, I agree with you completely. The point is not that we who worked in the tax service are specialists. Tax administration is a different thing. Taxes primarily concern justice, as the President said in his Address, and we will rely on your opinion on how to approach it in the best way. Of course, the Government will certainly do this work with the account of the opinions of all parliamentary parties, the public and those that depend on these decisions in this or other way.
Now some points regarding remarks by esteemed Alexander Babakov. I would also like to thank him for his assessment of our work. We maintain active dialogue with Sergei Mironov and our colleagues from a Just Russia parliamentary party. I fully agree with your views on large families. They are the foundation for the development of society. The President emphasised that support for the families with children is our fundamental and, if you will, moral choice.
From 2020 to 2023, the number of large families went up by 24.2 percent. This is a wonderful result and this is very important. We are proud of families with many children in this country. We have established the indefinite status of a large family and many other measures of support. Now we will think together on how else we can help families with many children while we are fulfilling the instructions made by the President in his Address.
Now a few words about a state plan. This word combination can be perceived differently but this amounts to planning, and I agree that strategic planning is a foundation of our work. We decomposed all measures that must be taken by federal executive bodies, regions, public institutions and companies with a view to reaching national development goals through 2030.
This better fits in with the modern or digital state plan, if you will. But we must be extremely careful as regards the regulation of prices because it is very important to develop digital platforms for these decisions. You are well aware of what is happening in the world. What companies have become the most marginal and largest in terms of capitalisation? The companies that created digital platforms and brought together a customer of goods or services with those who can do a good job.
I am convinced that at this point the role of the state, the role of the Government lies in becoming such a platform, minimise all expenses in the complicated economy of joint consumption and maximise the benefits for those that are either using or producing services or goods. I will agree that in this context, strategic planning is a very important element in further effective work of any government.
Employees of our Ministry of Economic Development are working on this issue. Our Coordinating Centre, all our colleagues are currently using the most modern instruments of work to produce results in fulfilling state programmes and national projects and all strategic initiatives.
Now about your words on spatial development. As I said earlier, the Government is working hard on this. I agree, this is a foundation of our national development and we will certainly continue working on this.
We will team up with the Bank of Russia, among other institutions, to find correct solutions to all other matters we are debating right now. There is a lot of complexity about all these issues. By coming up with balanced economic solutions we can achieve macroeconomic stability and sustained economic growth.
This is what Gennady Nechayev said today. I would also like to thank you for your assessment. You support entrepreneurs very actively by putting forward all these interesting initiatives. The President set the key task of making Russia the world’s top 5 largest economy by 2030; today, Russia is a top 5 global economy.
Of course, this is a challenging task, and we must use five mechanisms for accomplishing it. In fact, you have just touched upon performance. These five mechanisms include ensuring higher labour efficiency, expanding non-commodity exports, active investment, investing in all corresponding sectoral projects, supporting small and medium-sized businesses and the business community as a whole, as well as continuing system-wide import substitution programmes.
Quite possibly, the agenda of the New People parliamentary group also includes these elements. You are doing a lot for this, and you devote great attention to tourism, small and medium-sized companies. By the way, some of your initiatives were included in the federal budget until 2026. We are also carrying out a long-term employment programme for young people until 2030 together with your parliamentary group.
Your statements regarding national projects and efforts to elevate them to a new level for attaining technological sovereignty are very important. Of course, it is necessary to introduce and actively develop AI projects and all elements linked with the new technology and the new economy. This would be impossible without cutting-edge research and unless we score industrial breakthroughs in new fields. Thank you for this support.
Finally,
Andrei Makarov from the United Russia parliamentary group had some kind words
for the Government. This is true: we are working together with United Russia,
and we rely on your parliamentary group. Of course, we are working with
everyone, but with you, we share a common strategic position on national
development. You have also mentioned the new national projects. I agree
completely that we need to work on new national projects together with all
federal executive agencies and specialised committees. This concerns everyone,
including all parliamentary groups. I will certainly instruct our federal
executive agencies to be proactive when working with the parliament on this
agenda.
The six-year planning is an extremely important issue related to long-term planning. Short- and long-term planning form the basis of our development. I do agree with the suggestion that we should pursue this.
But I want to tell you that I am personally engaged in long-term planning every week, if not every day, because our five-hour-long strategic sessions are held at the Coordinating Centre every week.
The latest session was dedicated to the development of shipbuilding. Before that, we discussed industrial sovereignty, robot engineering, and the tool-making industry. I can name long-term planning measures that we address on any issue. We are seeking to approve important strategic decisions jointly with representatives of businesses, public associations, and the legislature, since many of you people attend these strategic sessions.
I also want to tell Mr Makarov that I am well aware of the basic values we have developed to enable the Government’s operation. Most of all I like this one: “The result is more important than the process.” Though a paraphrase, it is still highly important. We have indeed made the Government’s mission utterly transparent. We are striving towards it and we are seeking to be up to the basic values I have mentioned. You said as much in your earlier remarks.
We have repeatedly proved that, with our ranks closed, we can cope with any difficulties. After all, there are people, citizens of Russia behind every our achievement, who, each in his or her place, work to achieve the common goal of making our homeland strong and prosperous.
I am referring to people who work honestly and in good faith for the benefit of our Motherland, who feel responsibility for its future and the future of all its inhabitants, including doctors, who daily save human lives; teachers, who share their knowledge with students and reveal their talents; researchers, who make crucial discoveries; engineers and technologists, who suggest advanced solutions; people, who work to provide residents of Russia with everything they need; and volunteers, people with kind hearts, who, compelled by their desire to help, come to support others at the most difficult moments without a thought of personal gain, and who take care of people in dire need and families with children. And, of course, I am referring to our defenders, the participants in the special military operation. They are true heroes and our pride. They are protecting Russia’s national interests and fighting to ensure that all people in this huge country are safe. They are demonstrating by their courage what true service to our dear Fatherland is all about.
Together, we are the people of Russia, a talented and versatile community, who used to overcome everything, all challenges, in history. We will do so today, too. Our state, of which we are proud, has a huge potential. And it will be tapped in full through our joint efforts. We will do our utmost so that our country, the world’s best, prosper. I have absolutely no doubt that this will be so. Thank you.
