Meeting with Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko and State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Ms Matviyenko, Mr Volodin, I know that the parliamentary session has come to an end, and the Federation Council has completed its work…

Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko Matviyenko ValentinaChairwoman of the Council of Federation: Indeed, we have also closed our session.

Vladimir Putin:… and the Duma too. I watched your reports during news conferences, and I also watched the speeches you delivered in your respective chambers.

First of all, I would like to thank the senators and State Duma deputies for all the enormous work they have carried out. Moreover, they were very responsive in their efforts, and worked closely with the Government in everything we do, including specific economic matters and social affairs. This always requires a lot of hard and responsible effort. The parliament adopted 331 laws during the session.

Valentina Matviyenko: Mr President, the session had a very packed agenda, and it was also very effective. Moreover, this was the longest session ever, so that we can even call it spring-and-summer session, rather than simply the spring session.

We, I mean the Government, the Federation Council and the State Duma, worked as a single team under your leadership in these challenging times. And we were effective in coordinating our efforts. Quite often we disagreed and had intense debates on draft laws, introducing amendments. At the end of the day, however, we always succeeded in reaching common ground for the sake of making these laws even better.

You have already mentioned the 331 figure. Of course, the main priority guiding our efforts was to fulfil the provisions of the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, as well as your May executive orders regarding the national development goals until 2030, or until 2036, in some cases.

The Federation Council approved its plan for carrying out the provisions from this Address. Not only have we fulfilled it but went even further by supplementing it with new initiatives. In this context, we focused on addressing the challenges you highlighted in your Address and the May executive orders.

We adopted a series of laws dealing with social affairs. In fact, there were over 150 of them, which amounts to just under half of all the laws we adopted. I am referring to social laws, primarily those designed to support families with children. I know how much you care about this topic, on a personal level, and that you always set a very high standard in this domain. In fact, we enacted several meaningful support measures to improve the well-being of families with children. Four million families raising ten million children benefited from these measures.

Second, of course, is the strengthening of our defence capability, security and laws to support participants in the special military operation and their families.

Together we have paid much attention to changes in the taxation system. We made very many amendments and, actually, our proposals as well as others have been adopted. The Finance Ministry was highly responsive. I would say that this was a social contract between the authorities and society, and it was very calmly received, because the instructions you gave - a fairer taxation system - certainly did not affect the bulk of families. Moreover, as part of these tax changes, families with children and other categories of low-income citizens received additional privileges and additional support.

As for the legislative support for the special military operation, since its beginning we have adopted 238 laws, with 15 during this session. Most of the laws we adopted in dialogue with the Defence Ministry, with the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation, with the commanders and soldiers. Nevertheless, I think that this work should be continued and finely tuned.

I will give just one example. I had a meeting in a Defence Ministry sanatorium in Kislovodsk, where participants in the special military operation undergo rehabilitation. The conversation was very substantive, they liked everything. But they said: "You know, we need not just medical and physical rehabilitation, but psychological, too. Let our wives be with us in the sanatorium."

Vladimir Putin: They are the best psychologists.

Valentina Matviyenko: Exactly so. And the hospital management said: "Ms Matviyenko, discipline will improve, they will comply with all medical advice." And, of course, they have not seen their families for a long time. We now want to prepare proposals together with the Defence Ministry and submit them to you. I think this is the right thing to do.

The Federation Council has fully exercised its new constitutional powers to hold consultations with the heads of security and law enforcement agencies of the so-called presidential bloc. This is the first time that the powers of the upper house have been extended so much. We have worked out this procedure, made changes to the regulations, and it is now clear how we will continue this work from now on, when necessary.

As the Federation Council represents Russia's regions - the upper house of parliament comprises representatives of the regions, so we have been naturally focusing on interacting with the regions. We are always in touch with regional governors as well as local legislatures. In fact, the Federation Council has truly become a regional platform - a very important fixture in a federal state, I believe - where we discuss any requests from regions, any proposals or changes to legislation, and work out system-wide solutions. A great deal has been achieved in this respect - I will not list all the solutions now, but each of them has been formalised as a law.

For example, farmers complained to us about problems with marketing their products. Small and medium-sized agribusinesses were predictably better at manufacturing than at marketing - they said, we know how to produce, but not how to sell. So we started a pilot project in two regions - the Tula and Lipetsk regions, where we connected farmers with retail chains. The trial run turned out well and gave us the opportunity to perfect the mechanism. Eventually we drafted a law, which was supported by the relevant committee of the State Duma, and we passed a law creating new additional mechanisms for the sale of farm products, such as digital aggregators and much more.

I have reported to you separately on the situation with children's health institutions. You supported our plans, and we must give credit to the Government, they are fulfilling your instruction. In two years, we have built 148 new modular centres for children's recreation and health improvement; 34 facilities (canteens, other infrastructure) have been repaired and so, more than 100,000 children have taken advantage of vacations in new and better facilities. All the projects were co-financed by the regions. The Finance Ministry does not allocate much, but nonetheless, this is a good support for the regions.

We will continue this programme to bring the children's recreation infrastructure up to standard by 2030, as you have instructed us. It is important for children to commune with nature, practice sports, and re-energise, while being exposed to educational influences. It is a highly relevant programme involving 54 regions. At the moment, one billion rubles is allocated to the regions, and by the end of the year, 13 more regions will receive additional funds.

We have a forestry council. We have prepared a lot of proposals on how to improve forest management, and so on.

Mr President, I want to thank you separately for your decision to write off two-thirds of the debt owed by the regions by converting the debt to budget loans. It is very helpful. I met with many governors and all of them are happy, because these funds will be used for development, infrastructure upgrades and will provide targeted help to encourage regional growth.

I want to say that this session has set a record with the senators introducing many more legislative initiatives than before (either on their own or jointly with other legislators), with 186 draft laws submitted for further consideration.. This is what the regions are asking for and what they approach us with. This brings positive results as well.

The Federation Council's membership renews every year after the single voting day which is good. Under the Constitution, we are a body that operates uninterruptedly with new senators with new ideas and new experiences coming in non-stop. This year, 38 senators will participate in gubernatorial and legislative assembly election campaigns. This is less than half [of the entire membership]. This means new senators will come aboard. This helps a lot in our work.

We have approved the work plan for the autumn session. The autumn session will be no less eventful than the spring session. Everyone is primed to put in hard work. As you said, everyone must have a front of their own. We plan to continue our work with the same persistence and dedication our military demonstrate on the battlefield.

Vladimir Putin: Good.

Please.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin Volodin VyacheslavChairman of the State Duma: Mr President, this session was particularly significant for us as it is the first time in modern Russia that the State Duma took part in forming the Government. You initiated the transfer of the authority to approve ministers, deputy prime ministers, and the Prime Minister to our citizens, who, through their deputies, endorse these appointments.

This process was challenging. We spent eight hours discussing and evaluating the candidacies for ministers, six hours on deputy prime ministers, and four hours considering the Prime Minister's candidacy, including reviewing programmes and engaging in dialogue. However, this was ultimately beneficial. Previously, when issues arose, deputies often blamed the Government. Now, with the decision made in accordance with the constitutional amendments approved by our citizens, we are more directly responsible and accountable.

Now everyone understands that if we are not performing our duties properly, we must hold ourselves accountable in the first place, not just those in the Government. By endorsing these decisions, we assume responsibility ourselves. I must say that many of our work practices have evolved, marking a new phase in our development. This represents a new stage in parliamentary evolution and democratic practices, as this approach necessitates the development of more transparent and public solutions, along with the establishment of a relevant system.

The Government presents its perspective on how certain draft laws should be considered. At the outset, we request a list of priority laws that the Government wishes the State Duma to review. Simultaneously, we collaborate with the Government on the laws they plan to introduce, as well as any bills we propose. During this session, we enacted 331 laws. While this number is not as high as in some previous sessions, it is important to highlight that these laws are highly significant.

To be continued.

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