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Dmitry Medvedev announced that he had signed an Executive Order on the first session of the sixth convocation of the State Duma, which will be held on December 21, 2011.

Participants in the meeting included the leaders of United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, A Just Russia, and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.

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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Colleagues,

This is our first meeting after the State Duma elections and the results are finalised. I congratulate all of you on your victory.

United Russia received a majority. The opposition strengthened its influence in the State Duma significantly. This is a new situation. I must also mention that not everyone is satisfied with the election results. But the fact is, this is normal. People also have complaints concerning voting at certain polling stations. The election commissions and corresponding judicial authorities will have to thoroughly examine all complaints and relevant claims. And in places where real violations of the law are detected, we will need to make just decisions. There were 117 such complaints on the elections day.

Furthermore, the State Duma must begin its work. Members of parliament always have a great deal to do. Today, I signed the Executive Order on the first session of the State Duma of the sixth convocation, proposed to be held on December 21.

Clearly, we must urgently continue working on our legislation, since that is the whole point of creating a parliament. Modernising the economy and public life, resolving pressing social problems, improving citizens’ living standards, strengthening our defence capacity – all these issues remain at the centre of attention for every party present here, and naturally, must be resolved jointly, taking into account all parties’ points of view.

In order to guarantee the rights of all the parties present in the new convocation of the State Duma, we need a significant proportion of the committees to be controlled not just by the majority party, but the opposition as well. As the head of the United Russia party list, I’d like to ask you to keep this in mind.

I also feel it is imperative to continue all our efforts not just on the economic front, but in reforming our political system as well. I have worked on this in recent years – in some cases, it went more slowly, in other cases, more quickly, but what’s certain is that nobody can blame me of failing to create laws aimed at improving the political system. We must therefore make new decisions and truly take more decisive steps toward removing the accumulated restrictions concerning political activity – this, too, is an obvious fact, and is particularly important for our nation, to ensure we don’t allow a social rupture or a divide between particular social groups, or between particular institutions. We will talk about this today.

These are our common goals, regardless of what position you hold or what party you represent today. And I am certain that these positions are dictated by one thing: our common desire to ensure that our nation develops, that it will be prosperous, and that its citizens will have good lives.

In conclusion, I also want to let you know that on December 22, I plan to make my Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly.

Let’s discuss all these issues, as well as others. And then, the heads of the different parties can express their views to the media, as they always do.

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