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Taking part in the meeting were Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino, Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin, and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Dmitry Kozak.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Unfortunately, I have to begin today’s meeting with a tragedy that happened in Kuzbass. Before we begin discussing the topics on today’s agenda, I would like us to observe a minute of silence in memory of all the victims in Kuzbass, both miners and rescuers.

(A minute of silence.)

Thank you.

I want to once again express condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to all those injured.

We are in constant contact with Governor Tsivilev; the Emergencies Minister has also reported to me. I ask the Government of the Russian Federation and the regional authorities to do everything to support the injured and the victims’ families. The Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee have also been instructed to determine the causes of the tragedy.

Whenever such tragic events occur, we immediately start investigating what had caused them. We must make sure that nothing like this happens in the future, and to achieve that we need system-wide efforts and control over the execution of previous decisions. We will speak about that separately and in detail.

Meanwhile, let us return to the topic we have gathered to discuss. I will brief you on the outcome of my talks with President of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister of Armenia on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement and on the agreements we reached during our meeting today.

As planned, we will have an in-depth discussion on the entire range of relations with our closest partners and neighbours. I am referring to relations with the CIS countries. Mr Kozak will make a report today, so I give him the floor. Go ahead, please.

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