The meeting took place as part of preparations for the Government’s annual report to the State Duma.
Opening remarks by Mikhail Mishustin
Speech by Leader of the CPRF parliamentary party Gennady Zyuganov
Excerpts from the transcript:
Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with deputies from the CPRF parliamentary party in the State Duma
Leader of the CPRF parliamentary party Gennady Zyuganov
Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with deputies from the CPRF parliamentary party in the State Duma
Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with deputies from the CPRF parliamentary party in the State Duma
Mikhail Mishustin: Mr Zyuganov, colleagues.
The Government will deliver a report to the State Duma soon. Following tradition, we meet with the State Duma deputies to discuss important issues and common agenda.
We interact fairly constructively. You consistently uphold your positions, and the Government always carefully reviews legislative initiatives put forward by the CPRF.
The President spoke about your party’s contribution to the State Duma as highly professional, including in areas such as parliamentary diplomacy, preservation of historical memory, and establishment of partner ties with your friends around the world.
Last year, we focused on social support, the agro-industrial complex and priority development areas. We also worked in detail on the industrial policy. The party widely participated in a dialogue with ministries and agencies during government hours in the State Duma, parliamentary hearings, and meetings of committees and commissions.
We look forward to continuing cooperation with you in order to identify solutions in the interests of our people.
I believe supporting participants in the special military operation and their families is one of the most effective examples of this approach.
Over the past year, dozens of draft laws addressing this area have been adopted and entered into force. The parliamentary corps adopting a consolidated position on this issue is vastly important for society as a whole and, first and foremost, for our defenders, the participants in the special military operation.
Thank you for this approach. On a separate note, the Government supported the CPRF deputies’ initiative to expand housing guarantees for orphans serving in the SMO zone.
Our citizens in the border regions also need help and care. The Government provided a favourable opinion on the Land Code amendments that were prepared with the involvement of parliamentarians from other parliamentary groups. As a result, a special procedure governing free transfer of land plots into ownership or for gratuitous use will be preserved for residents of the Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk regions until January 1, 2028. This is not merely about updating existing regulations, but is a form of social protection for the people who have found themselves in difficult life circumstances.
Your party is also doing a great deal in the State Duma to promote the well-being of the younger generation.
With the assistance of CPRF deputies, an electronic format for submitting applications for Russian citizenship for children by right of birth was introduced, relieving families from the new regions, among others, of unnecessary hassle, waiting lines, and other inconveniences.
We teamed up with our colleagues from other parliamentary parties to establish liability for violating the ban on selling energy drinks and other tonic beverages to minors. A decision was taken the necessity of which had been highlighted by medical professionals and parents.
Communists closely monitor the state of the economy, providing fairly high-quality analysis and their own proposals to expand the agro-industrial complex.
We saw this last week, when the Duma debated two agro-industrial draft laws on first reading. One of them was prepared by deputies and senators and is aimed at creating a complete and reliable data base on the state of fertility of agricultural land.
The other, a government draft regulatory act, concerned the use of digital services in the agro-industrial sector as a whole. Discussion of these documents was conducted in a balanced manner, with utmost consideration given to the needs of the industry.
Building up the capacity of the strategic macro-region of the Far East is another area for effective interaction. You, Mr Zyuganov, spoke about this in detail during our meeting last year, as did Mr Kharitonov.
I would like to thank the parliamentary party for supporting the government draft law on an international priority development area which provides sizable benefits for investors. We expect that these measures will help us launch new production facilities and create new jobs in the Far Eastern constituent entities.
Colleagues, I am confident that we have everything necessary for cooperation across all priority areas. Constructive criticism, which we occasionally hear from the CPRF party in the State Duma, allows us to make well-considered decisions. The Government remains ready for such substantive and professional dialogue.
Mr Zyuganov, the floor is yours. Please go ahead.
Leader of the CPRF parliamentary party Gennady Zyuganov
Gennady Zyuganov: Mr Mishustin, members of the Government, meetings that bring together top Government officials and parliamentary parties from the State Duma is an excellent tradition particularly now when the time is extremely difficult and dangerous and calls for responsible solutions. For four years now, the Anglo-Saxons and NATO have been waging war against the Russian world, against our great history, culture, and traditions. We, all of us, have only one solution which is to move confidently, achieve sustainable victory, and consolidate it by pursuing proper financial, economic, and spiritual policies. In this regard, we understand perfectly well that the formula for victory set out by President Putin in his Address — to reach global growth rates, to do everything we can to master the state-of-the-art technologies and to consolidate society as much as we can and thus prevail and establish sovereignty on the basis of self-sufficiency — is the key one. Our team is working hard on it all the time.
I would like to thank the Government leaders, the ministers and your deputies who responded favourably to many of our requests. In this regard, the dialogue has grown stronger over the past year.
We believe our team is setting an example of how to unite our allies in the international arena. The anti-fascist forum that we hosted in the middle of last year was attended by 165 delegations from 91 countries, including representatives of NATO countries, but everyone, without exception, supported our position.
We are grateful to you for your congratulatory message and greetings. We have reached an agreement with them after the Americans unleashed a new war against our allies and friends and revealed their barbaric nature from the point of view of world politics, and even abducted the president of a sovereign country, a UN member.
We set up a committee to defend and secure the release of the main political prisoner, Nicolas Maduro, and his spouse, as well as our friends and allies who are being persecuted in Armenia, Moldova, and other countries.
I must inform you that we have sent 150 convoys to support the front most recently. We will send another 150 convoys one of these days. That amounts to over 30,000 tonnes of everything the SMO participants need. Light industry products and food make up two-thirds of this shipment.
Recently, we initiated major hearings in the Duma on these sectors and drafted a programme to support small and medium-sized businesses. Light industry comprises almost 22,000 enterprises, and 9 out of 10 of them are small and medium-sized enterprises.
In this respect, our proposals (I would like you to get familiar with them) provide maximum support to those who have set up their own small-scale production facility. They need protection from criminals and excessive levies. I hope you have received these materials and recommendations. We have agreed with your deputies to review them in specific detail.
I’m thankful to Tatyana Golikova, who is helping us. The Snegiri holiday centre has received 25,000 children so far. We have built a special military and sports camp to train our servicemen, volunteers and commanders.
War is cruel in its very nature. We have laid to rest 183 commissars, volunteers, and commanders. We know they are not dying for nothing, because without victory on this front there will be no peace or happiness in any home or any country. Nazism, fascism, and Banderism are the main threat to the security of every human being.
Your Government has operated in unusually hard conditions in recent years, and we take this fully into account in our practical work.
You overcame the Covid pandemic, which was a hard and challenging time. Over two years you reached global growth rates of over 4 percent, which pleased and inspired us.
You have done a great deal to designate key sectors as priorities, starting with aviation, machine-tool building, the automotive industry, robotics, and artificial intelligence, to name a few. We support this, and our team is implementing this programme in the regions headed by our governors, such as the Ulyanovsk Region. There is Governor Russkikh, who has served for five years: while average growth rates across the country have slipped below 1 per cent, he has around 6 per cent with 500 enterprises operating sustainably. We used to barely assemble one aircraft at Aviastar, but last year we assembled seven, this year nine, and we are actively developing a new model. We believe this kind of experience needs to be studied, generalized, and energetically promoted.
At the same time, though, and this reflects our shared point of view, recently at a large rally with 50,000 participants from the Patriotic Union led by the Communist Party, we said that an interest rate of 20 percent, now 16 percent, is choking and distorting the economy. If things stay that way, we will not be able to consolidate victory, to support basic sectors, or implement what joint plans of the Government, ministries, and agencies.
I told Volodin… The State Duma approved the Banking Board, and we bear direct responsibility for the fact that this rate is distorting the economy and does not allow us to develop normally. I believe we must do everything to bring it back to normal. I recently explained this in the State Duma to the governing party — you met with them — here are the latest findings by leading economists and financiers. With the rate above 12 percent, investment will fall by 30–40 percent next year. With the oil and gas complex worn out by 60 percent and not being renewed, you are laying a mine under all other sectors tomorrow. We need to take these measures immediately, because people feel the pinch of growing prices across almost all categories of goods.
I looked up public opinion poll results and how it was assessed. I understand, war is underway. But last year 62 percent, according to VTsIOM, assessed it as a bad and difficult year. And we need to change the mood in favour of, above all, cohesion, without which it is impossible to achieve the victory that we need.
As a politician and a scholar, I admit – and I even said this to the President (we met recently to discuss issues at hand) — that I have fallen twice: together with the country that was betrayed, and then after Yeltsin, in fact, drove us into semi-underground existence. But now we must do everything to prevent duality in power. This is a historically compound disease which gave rise to three periods of turmoil, and it led to the loss of the empire, and it did not allow us to consolidate our successes in 1991, when we were all betrayed. It is now critically important for us to move away from this duality, above all in the sphere of the economy and finance.
Growth rates above 4 percent are absolutely achievable, and you have shown how this can be done. So, let us now bring everything to normal, including the financial and economic bloc.
I’m also addressing Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. Of course, “There is no money” can be an answer to everything, but this is a biased picture. The country does have money; a great deal is being taken outside of the country, and gold and foreign exchange reserves are quite large. Those who have grown fabulously rich are unwilling to pay their fair share of taxes. Recently, I heard a reproach, “Here you go again — take everything away and split.” I said I was categorically against that. During the First World War, wealthy Americans paid a 75 percent income tax. This is an example to follow. During the Second World War they paid even more. So let them pay. Look at the enormous, insane resources they own. They were obliged to send money to the victory fund, a fund to support our army and large families. A CPRF member Nina Ostanina has introduced a package covering large families, but it must be properly funded.
War is, above all, a war of capabilities. We have prepared a development budget. I must say it has been very well calculated by Academician Kashin. He will speak about it today. We coordinated it with the academic community. We invited business people. We carried out a whole set of consultations and hearings. And I must say these are entirely realistic goals.
We must do everything to attract resources to the maximum, because without resources this problem will not be solved, if we want to solve it. Here is what the US National Defence Strategy says, “Restoring peace through strength for a new golden age of America.” A golden age means $1.5 trillion for war, $900 billion for the Golden Dome, and $500 billion for artificial intelligence. The enemies are designated: China, Russia, and more down the list. In this respect, we need to pay attention to a report from the Davos Forum. You always take interest in new developments. Take a look at the Oxfam report. They circulated a report among billionaires. It argues that the power of the wealthy must be limited. It is a very engaging report.
To support this report, 400 richest people of the planet — dollar billionaires and millionaires – came up with a request to substantially raise taxes, because the most affluent 1 percent possesses 95 percent of global wealth. They believe this system will inevitably fall apart. In order to give it stability, everything must be done to help the poor and the hungry and to stabilise the governance system. I must say, this report has come at a very timely moment.
However, no Russian names are on that list of 400, but we have over 140 of them. Not a single Russian name. It is long past time for them to show initiative, just as it is for the Central Bank to lower the interest rate and, at the same time, to invest in the growth and renewal of our country.
BRICS and the SCO are of exceptional importance to us. I consider this a brilliant creation of President Putin (I thank him) and President Xi Jinping. We teamed up with the Chinese side to draft a new memorandum.
We are doing everything we can to strengthen ties with the Communist Party of Vietnam. Recently our friend To Lam was elected new General Secretary. He is a very strong person. We have been friends for a long time now. Before him, Nguyen Phu Trong was in office. We went to the same academy. I congratulated him right away.
Vietnam and China are among the top three dynamically developing economies. We have close ties with them; our entire team has undergone training there, and we will do everything to strengthen these ties. But when the political system is, under various pretexts, being broken instead of strengthening the popular and patriotic front, our friends often have questions as to why this is happening, even though we are now uniting to achieve the results we need.
In a war, support coming from power is important. The popular and patriotic forces, our friends and allies, have created a committee to defend those who are being persecuted. Together with foreign students — 400,000 of them — a major council has been created. Our allies and friends are ready to apply every effort to achieve victory and to attain global growth rates.
I want everyone, including the Government, to be aware of the following. I have the right to do this: I have studied all global processes and spoken at leading universities and parliaments. Humanity today has only two choices left: socialisation, or big capital, fascism, and Nazism. We’ve been down all other roads. In order to organise socialisation, a very careful study of unique experience is required.
In this regard, I urge you to… Khusnullin has come up with an engaging programme that includes building population centres, renovations, and small towns which are home to most of the Russian people.
In Mari El, we have created an unmatched complex, the top-notch agro-industrial association. We started out with a small farm; last year it produced output worth 33 billion rubles, 150 product types. Price hikes do not exceed 3–5 percent. We created this complex together with Minnikhanov and built something outstanding. I will leave this material with you, please take a look.
I invite you to the Uyav festival of the Chuvash people. For three years now, around 20,000 people come each time, all the folk ensembles, even from Moldova, Ukraine, and even from the Baltic states. Look how it works. We never ask for a single kopeck of financing. You will see what can be achieved with people getting salaries of 100,000 roubles and a full set of employee benefits.
I invite you once again to visit our unparalleled state farm. The best school, the best kindergartens, and salaries of 150,000 roubles. Every second family is a large family. All schoolchildren study free of charge. Full medical care. Please come and see. Ten classes, and ten children went to first grade. You will see it for yourself. Moreover, demanding Sobyanin rated this school number one. It is the best educational institution. I think Manturov was there. He saw what a school of the future looks like.
I propose holding a joint meeting, a workshop, there all the more so as Mr Manturov has extensive experience of working with us. Even in the most difficult times, he held joint boards, and we reviewed results. And it is no coincidence that we achieved enormous growth in tractor and combine harvester production.
Unfortunately, last year, because they did not want to support the farmers, the purchase of tractors and combine harvesters fell by almost a third.
And lastly, I invite you to the Oryol Region. This is my native land. I am proud of it. There are 800 mass graves there. You have been there and know that it is a heroic land. There is little black soil there, but last year we obtained the best wheat yield in the world at 185 centnres per hectare. On a large field, Yermolovka yielded 140. We will share our experience. Today our agro-industrial complex leads the industry. Kashin and the heads of the delegation has returned from world markets. We will be able to add and obtain what will make our country feel confident in the future, because wheat can be used to make 200 types of goods and, simply through mass production, we can reduce prices for them by 20–30 percent.
Overall, we believe that the existing dialogue is important and useful. Our team, in this regard, has adopted an absolutely constructive and creative position. But it will be necessary to steer to the left, to change the financial and economic course, and to do everything so that the country is healthy and intelligent, and to deploy the maximum effort against poverty and depopulation. Unfortunately, the country has so far been unable to overcome this.
All of us are working as a team for victory. Thank you.
Mikhail Mishustin: Thank you, Mr Zyuganov.
I have a remark regarding your invitation to the Oryol Region. I promised you we would go there.
Gennady Zyuganov: We are completing all your projects there.
Mikhail Mishustin: Oh, you knew I was about to ask you about it.
Gennady Zyuganov: Both the bypass road, and the Titanic, and the airfield are being completed successfully.
Mikhail Mishustin: Andrei Klychkov promised personally to complete the construction of the hospital that everyone there is waiting for. When the hospital is completed, we will definitely come with a visit. It is a critically important project. I would ask your party to look at what else can be done to finish the construction of the hospital.
