Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Dmitry Medvedev: I’d like to say a few words at the beginning of our traditional meeting, which concern issues that are currently at the centre of our attention. One of these issues, which is, unfortunately, not new but very important, concerns orphans. It is a complicated issue and not as straightforward as it was perceived in the Soviet period. It calls for Government measures and ordinary human concern on the part of the overwhelming majority of people.
It is very important that we deal with the issue of social orphans and family problems. We have only begun doing this. As for ordinary orphans, we are trying to find foster and adoptive families for them and are otherwise creating the right conditions for their development and upbringing. But the situation differs from one place to another. We adopted several programmes for supporting adoptive families in the past few years. Many regions are implementing their own programmes, some of them more comprehensive than others, but all of them are helping to find new families for children, which is what matters most. More families are adopting children or becoming their guardians. However, there are still quite a few serious problems, including moral, economic and legal problems.
Children’s services need to choose foster families more carefully, help them to prepare for this important and responsible step and subsequently monitor post-placement progress in adoptive families. Ms Golodets, as far as I know, we have a number of programmes in this area that are being implemented. Can you tell us how things stand?
Olga Golodets: Yes, the issue of orphans is one of the most serious problems in Russia, because it is socially painful. A child left without parental care is probably the biggest possible tragedy.
At the moment, we can say that the number of children left without parental care has been falling. There were 699,000 of these children in 2006 and 633,000 in 2011, and the number of children who could not find a foster or adoptive family has decreased from 117,000 in 2006 to 79,000 this year.
On the other hand, there are some alarming trends, because taking care of a child, an orphan, is very difficult psychologically and financially. Unfortunately, we have to admit that the number of children that are returned to government care by foster or adoptive families has not decreased; there are about 4,600 such children, which is too many. It is a heavy trauma for the children, because they in actual fact become orphans for a second time. That is why on September 1 we adopted a new programme, The School for Adoptive Parents, and we now provide special training to families planning to take care of an orphan. Those families which have already done this share their experience and tell prospective adoptive/foster parents about the problems they may encounter. Special social services help people to adjust to the new situation and to more easily cover the difficult path at the end of which the adopted child will become their own, welcome and long-awaited child.
The national creative family assembly of substitutive families, which ended on November 9, convened adoptive and foster families from all over Russia. They shared their views on what makes a family, what problems you may encounter and the things which you should be aware of. Leading Russian psychologists and teachers took part in the work of the assembly. I hope that this project, which should involve our civil society as a whole, will help us to revert the negative trends in the field of adoption and also to support those families and those people who have embraced the idea of adoption and are ready to adopt or take care of foster children, because there should not be any orphans in Russia.
Dmitry Medvedev: You know, when you mentioned that orphans are given up … This is a very delicate moral issue. Circumstances may differ, yet you are right that adoptive or foster families must be prepared for their new responsibility and for the problems that may arise if they adopt or assume custody of a child. Therefore, the agencies that help such prospective families and monitor post-placement progress should be established in all Russian regions. Not all regions have them now. This goal has to be achieved by 2015 at the latest; these agencies must be created and must provide post-placement support. I hope we are agreed on this.
Let’s talk about the food market now. The global market situation is bad, as we have mentioned more than once. The past summer was very dry, and not only in this country, which is why food prices are rising around the world. But the Government has a set of instruments for correcting and possibly slowing price rises, such as the sale of grain from the state intervention fund. As we agreed, commercial interventions began in October, and two weeks later even companies located in the Urals, in Siberia and the Far East were taking part in exchange trading, and their geographical range further increased at the beginning of this month, if I’m not mistaken. We need to carefully monitor the impact of this process on current prices on the grain market. I hope that this will help stabilise the agricultural products market or at least slow price rises, which is a vital task in the year of a bad harvest.
I’d like to say that I have signed a special document, the draft of a targeted federal programme for the sustainable development of farmland in 2014-2017 and up to 2020. It is aimed at creating decent living conditions in rural areas, which is actually a continuation of what we have been doing since 2006, also for young families, young specialists who are in great demand in rural areas. So, this programme addresses these problems as well as other problems to do with utilities infrastructure and social facilities. Federal funding for this programme will be rather generous in 2014-2017, 90 billion roubles. On the other hand, the problems of rural Russia cannot be solved without co-financing. What is the situation like, Mr Dvorkovich?
Arkady Dvorkovich: Interventions on the grain market began on October 23. Over this time, around 350,000 tonnes of grain was put on the market, namely 3rd and 4th grade wheat; 313,500 tonnes have been sold. Prices at auctions remained 10%-15% below the market rate (I am referring mainly to the Siberian, Urals and Far Eastern Federal Districts).
Dmitry Medvedev: Are we monitoring how this has affected the market situation?
Arkady Dvorkovich: This has definitely slowed the growth of bread and fodder prices – the most important result we wanted to achieve with these interventions: we have only been selling grain to flour, bread and fodder producers. I mean we are selling grain to designated customers, not just putting it on the market because otherwise it could end up being exported along with the grain currently available on the market. Last week we also allowed customers from other regions to participate in the grain auctions. They accounted for 10% of the amount sold because they naturally cannot afford to buy more at this price, with added shipment costs. Still, we did this deliberately, to allow other regions to buy grain at these auctions. Experts believe we should for now refrain from including the European part of Russia (the regions already supplied with grain) because this may cause problems next spring. Forecasts for the next harvest are still unclear. We need to wait another two or three weeks to see if we can expect a good harvest of winter crops. Otherwise, we might face a deficit of grain next spring. We cannot allow this.
So we can assert that grain prices have actually stabilised in three districts. Prices slowed in other regions where there are no interventions to their lowest in two weeks, which is also good. We expect grain prices in European Russia to stop climbing in the next two or three weeks.
Dmitry Medvedev: How long will this programme go on?
Arkady Dvorkovich: Definitely until the end of this year. We expect to sell about 1.2 million tonnes from the intervention fund, which leaves more than 3 million tonnes for next year.
Dmitry Medvedev: Please keep an eye on this because this is a very sensitive issue.
Arkady Dvorkovich: Yes. In general, food prices went up by 6% at the end of October, which is about the average inflation rate, but meat and grain prices were rising more quickly, so we need to stabilise them.
Dmitry Medvedev: Certainly. You know that people rarely care about prices “in general.”
Arkady Dvorkovich: I know.
Dmitry Medvedev: Prices are fine for statistics “in general”. When we discuss statistics, we often say that they are good “in general” and “on average”, but when you take a specific product, you frequently see faster growth. I remember in 2010 when buckwheat prices shot up. Statistics were fine “in general”, but when you walked into a shop, prices were two or three times higher. We need to keep an eye on this. Agreed.
There is another issue as well that concerns military technical cooperation. Despite certain tensions in our ties with a number of countries, Russia continues to fulfil its military contracts. On November 9, Russian shipbuilders in Kaliningrad delivered a new frigate to a customer – in fact, to the Indian Navy. This is the fifth warship built specially for their needs, as far as I know. This is excellent, and I hope that the construction quality is sufficiently high. How many do we plan to build at the Kaliningrad shipyards? (addressing Dmitry Rogozin).
Dmitry Rogozin: We plan to build six warships under the Indian contract. There is also an option to order another three, bringing the total to nine.
Dmitry Medvedev: But the contracts have not yet been signed...
Dmitry Rogozin: They are in talks now. Since the Indian side is satisfied with the ship's quality – it is a very good ship that is equipped with a missile produced under the BrahMos Russian-Indian project, in which the Russian NPO Mashinostroyenie was involved – a third contract for three ships is presently being discussed.
We are also building six warships of the same class for the Russian Navy. We plan to complete two of the last three ships in 2014 and the last ship in 2015 under the State Armaments Programme for 2011-2020.
Dmitry Medvedev: Could you comment on its progress? The programme is being implemented for a second year. I think that the programme is proceeding quickly enough. The Government funding is generous, but it also must be spent efficiently. As far as I know, approximately 100% of this year’s state contracts were signed by October. This is much better than before. Roughly 90% of the financing has been transferred to the major contractors. What is your assessment of the situation?
Dmitry Rogozin: This year’s state orders have been executed by 94.3%, or 10% more than last year, which is a sound trend. This year, we improved the planning quality and efficiency of state contracts. We hold weekly meetings in the Government, and the Rosoboronzakaz regulator is supervising the state contracts. There are other policies that help improve the quality and planning of state contracts and reduce the discrepancy between planned and actual spending under specific state contracts.
Mr Medvedev, we have already started working on the 2016-2025 state armaments programme. These programmes actually overlap every five years. We have presidential orders to begin working on each programme three years and three months before it actually begins. However, the 2016-2025 programme will differ, as it will be regulated by the so-called “Rules of State Armament Programme”. These rules call for every project under the programme to be appraised in terms of its technological feasibility and the availability of the required materials – raw feed and so on. Thus, on the whole, we hope that we will see more stable planning now rather than pinpoint interventions aimed at resolving price issues between the contractors and the customers.
Dmitry Medvedev: Good. I expect you to make sure that the reshuffling at the Ministry of Defence will not affect the execution of state defence contracts, as this is crucial for many people working in the defence industry, as well as for the rearmament programme’s success. Thank you.
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