Meeting with LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky

Vladimir Putin: Mr Slutsky, MPs from your parliamentary group chair three State Duma committees, and the chair of the Sports Committee used to belong to your party too. Still, sport has remained on your radar, since Mikhail Degtyarev, your former MP, who went on to serve as Governor of the Khabarovsk Territory after leaving parliament, has become Minister of Sport. This means that your party is in charge, to an extent, of this sector as well.

What has come out of your efforts?

Leonid Slutsky Slutsky Leonidhead of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia faction in the State Duma : Mr Putin, this has been an important year, and a challenging one too.

The election cycle has ended, and our party's performance was quite honourable. In fact, it was even better than we expected since our results exceeded our projections by about 20 percent.

For the first time, we made it into the Moscow City Duma by winning two mandates. We took second place in the elections of regional heads across 18 regions of the Russian Federation. It was really gratifying for us to take second place in the gubernatorial election in St Petersburg, your hometown. I am not a stranger to this city either, you know.

In addition to this, we elected 1,087 legislators to municipal councils, leaving our closest rival, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, far behind.

That said, outcompeting rivals is not our priority today. Last year, I called on the people of Russia to close ranks and to stand shoulder to shoulder. Thank you very much for referring to these words in your statements, including the Address to the Federal Assembly. At this point, we must stand shoulder to shoulder for our country, its President, and for achieving victory as quickly as possible. This is what we are trying to achieve in our work.

As for the regional legislative assemblies, we won mandates in all of them. Let me reiterate that we had good results in Moscow, Altai, Chelyabinsk, as well as in other Russian regions. This is a good starting point.

For two and a half years, we have navigated life without Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and it has been challenging. This marks the third electoral cycle without Mr Zhirinovsky, yet it has been our most successful one, prompting us to continue our efforts. Undoubtedly, this strong outcome is attributable to our increased engagement with voters and the public. Social support remains a focal point in the draft federal budget, which I will elaborate on shortly.

The LDPR's Honest Plan has been crafted based on the needs of the people. Here is a record book detailing this comprehensively. With your permission, I will briefly present our recent accomplishments: our key projects and the outcomes of the election campaign that concluded on September 8.

Naturally, people raise complex issues, such as labour migration. We proposed an initiative, endorsed by the United Russia party as the parliamentary majority and other colleagues, to restrict low-skilled migrants from bringing large families with them. This aims to prevent social tension, mitigate overcrowding in healthcare facilities, address the challenging behaviour of migrant children in schools, and other issues that do not align with our societal traditions and principles.

From our perspective, there is a necessity to foster more knowledge-intensive and automated industries, reducing the need for unskilled labour migration. However, those who are already here must adhere to our traditions and rules. Upon completing their employment, they should return to their home countries. Bringing large families contributes to tensions in society, a delicate matter that requires careful collaboration with the Government, with whom we maintain an ongoing dialogue.

Another recurring concern is the so-called fair pricing law. Many, particularly the older generation, are accustomed to seeing prices per kilogram or litre on packaging, yet often encounter quantities such as "910 millilitres" instead. This is a national issue we are committed to addressing. We maintain continuous dialogue with the Government, and many issues are being effectively resolved.

During the spring session of 2023, 41 bills proposed by the LDPR were passed, with an additional 19 in the autumn session. Sixty bills from an opposition party in a single year is unprecedented, demonstrating our collaborative efforts. Working in any other manner is not feasible today.

Vladimir Putin: Sixty bills is indeed a commendable achievement.

Leonid Slutsky: Indeed, we will continue our efforts. However, our focus is not merely on quantity; we aim to sustain this approach by remaining closely connected to the people. It is this commitment that I hope would make Vladimir Zhirinovsky proud.

To be continued.

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