Live with President Vladimir Putin – Hot Line (excerpts)Part 7
December 24, 2001
Moscow, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, village of Kazache-Malevany (Krasnodar Region), Kaliningrad, Novosibirsk, Murmansk, Rostov-on-Don, St Petersburg
Прямая линия с Президентом России
24 декабря 2001 года
Москва, Владивосток, Екатеринбург, Казань, хутор Казаче-Малеваный (Краснодарский край), Калининград, Новосибирск, Мурманск, Ростов-на-Дону, Санкт-Петербург
At present the Government is grappling with two issues in this sphere. On the one hand, it is drafting additional legislation and on the other hand, economic validation is being provided. We are looking for sources of funding to create the necessary start-up capital for the insurance system. It is insufficiently developed today. Regarding schools. It is a separate topic which is even more important for the state. Insurance has no place here. We can use only direct financing. This is particularly true of the secondary school, more than of higher education. The school is in a difficult situation, just like the housing and utilities sector because it is in the hands of municipal authorities, which dont have sufficient budget revenues to maintain schools in proper conditions.Was it Sverdlovsk?
YEKATERINA ANDREYEVA: Yekaterinburg.
VLADIMIR PUTIN: I think the Yekaterinburg Region has the only school in Russia which is on strike. And yet Yekaterinburg is a high-revenue region, it is a net contributor to the federal budget. Why does it happen? Because there are certain problems in bringing support from the national and regional level to the municipal level, including support of schools.I think that problem can and must be solved. And I have prepared a decree, which I am going to sign before the end of the year. It is a very soft decree, but it recommends the heads of the Russian regions to introduce targeted subsidies for schools to maintain their facilities and material resources and the salaries of teachers. The federal budget will help the regions for its part.
PAVEL GAMOV (Orenburg): My name is Pavel Grigoryevich Gamov, I am a pensioner and I live in Orenburg. I have a question that worries me very much. How do you account for the fact that the courts pass long prison sentences for minor crimes while not using other means of punishment envisaged by the criminal law?
VLADIMIR PUTIN: Pavel Grigoryevich, you have touched a sore spot, you put your finger on it. The problem is there: it is a distortion of the governments crime control policy. The policy is set forth in the Criminal Code and we should see how to change it.Nothing like it happens in other democratic countries. Minor crimes of course can be punished in ways that do not involve imprisonment. At the same time court rulings regarding people who have committed serious crimes must be enforced. And the state must be consistent. The government has been given this task and we will tackle it.
YEKATERINA ANDREYEVA (reads out a question online): Petrov, an entrepreneur in Moscow, and Andrei Cherkashin, a journalist: are you aware that there is a popular new phrase, the cover market and that representatives of the law enforcement bodies are in the top spot in this criminal rating? What is the national government going to do to conquer the most powerful mafia in the land?
VLADIMIR PUTIN: I am aware of the problem, and there are no easy solutions. I am sure there are many questions on this topic, which is very close to the topic of corruption. In general, corruption and abuse of power, especially in the law enforcement sphere, is not unique to Russia. It is a scourge of many countries. But in Russia it has acquired a certain scale that the government cannot ignore.In order to solve this problem the situation in society as a whole must be changed, in economics and in the education sphere. But meaningful administrative decisions are also needed.One way to tackle this problem is to strengthen the law enforcement agencies and reform the courts. This is the aim of the package of laws on the reform of the judiciary which seeks to strengthen the courts, to make them more independent, on the one hand, and more accountable to society and the government, on the other hand. As you know, the Criminal Procedural Code is due to come into force next year, and under its provisions no citizen can be interrogated even when detained, not arrested, but simply detained, in the absence of a lawyer. So, if beginning from July 1 next year somebody detains you in the street, he has no right to interrogate you in the absence of your lawyer if you demand that a lawyer be present.
Duration : 0:9:52