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The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, 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, and Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues,

Today we will be talking about the development of our relations with our closest CIS partners. But before that I would like to say a few words about current matters.

First of all, you are all aware that heavy and quite abnormal rain has damaged a section, or both sections of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the Far East and destroyed a bridge. Thankfully, nobody was injured, but one passenger train and dozens of freight trains on both sides of the bridge, in the eastern and western directions, have been stopped.

In this connection, I would like to ask the Government to look very carefully indeed into this problem. Life support systems in the regions concerned must be relaunched. I am referring to food deliveries and everything else needed for the functioning of enterprises, municipal facilities, and housing and utility services.

The Emergencies Minister [Yevgeny Zinichev] and the head of Russian Railways have reported on this just now. The first section is to be reopened within two or two and a half days, and the second section, within five days.

I would like to ask all our colleagues to take this into account and to ensure, within their particular competencies, coordinated teamwork of all the services that are concerned, one way or another, with normalising the situation and creating the necessary conditions for the specialists’ efforts on the ground. This is my first point.

Second, I know that the Prime Minister [Mikhail Mishustin] will shortly make a working trip to the Far East, to Irkutsk.

Mr Mishustin, I would like to ask you – you have told me that you will have a busy agenda there, including the inspection of dilapidated housing in some regions, healthcare topics, and the like – but nevertheless, I would like to ask you to pay special attention to the situation on the Kuril Islands.

As you are well aware, we have long been working together with our Japanese partners to create the necessary conditions for those involved in economic activities. You and I have discussed this, and I know that you have the knowhow and a few very good ideas.

I would just like to add that the things we discussed are absolutely unique and unprecedented. I am saying this now to arouse the curiosity of the economic operators, and I hope that following your trip, during which you will assess the situation on the ground, we will be able to formulate and certainly implement these proposals.

Let us start working on the items on our agenda today.

Please.

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