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Excerpts from transcript of meeting with We Are Together campaign participants

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends, good afternoon. I am delighted to see all of you – everyone who is present here at the Kremlin, as well as our colleagues on screen, and your associates who come from around our vast country, as I understand it.

I would like to congratulate you on a whole year of your joint work in this wonderful, noble and highly appreciated field of supporting those who badly need a helping hand. It is especially gratifying that someone has been doing this during the most difficult time in recent years, one of the most challenging periods of our time – during the pandemic. It has been almost a year since you teamed up and began working. It is especially pleasing that the unification was actually prompted by a call from the heart, as I understand it.

When I watched what and how you were doing everything, who was joining you and in what formats, you know, it was impossible to look at it without strong emotions. It was a drive that united people with very different views – politics no longer matter here – different ages and professions.

I was happy to see how business representatives have radically changed their agenda over the past ten to fifteen years, their attitude to civic engagement. After all, as far as I remember, 10,000 companies have joined your campaign and helped you. And many of them are not large corporations, not even medium-sized, but small enterprises that have also encountered a difficult situation. Nevertheless, they both provided hands-on assistance – to be honest, that part made me especially happy – helped with driving and other things, as well as donating money although they, too, needed support.

The state also provided support, maybe not that much, but still, it did. I hope that it was effective, in any case, we were constantly working with those people. But all this together has helped to reach out to such a large group of people, 5 million people in need. That was a lot. There were many people who needed support, and they received it from you. Directly from your soul, I might say. As they say in such cases, it is worth its weight in gold. As many as 10,000 companies, and 5 million people. And the movement itself united 200,000 people – it was a huge army, an army of people who voluntarily, at the call of their hearts, joined in this work.

I congratulate you all on a year of joint work. I want to express my hope that, although the pandemic is slowly subsiding, as you can see – we will probably talk more about it today –nevertheless, we still have many challenges, and they are quite dangerous. This means your work is going to be in demand, and your support is needed. I hope that you will continue doing this.

And I think that you will agree with me, I just know this both from experience and from talking to people engaged in this type of activity – I think you will speak about it yourself – it always enriches those who do it, enriches you. This work is one of the most effective and vibrant ways of self-realisation, of self-expression, and self-affirmation in the best sense of the word. It is great that you have reinvented yourself this way. I congratulate you on this and wish you all the best.

Now, let us get down to work.

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Vladimir Putin: Last night, as I was working late at the Kremlin, an acquaintance of mine, a colleague from another country who was in Russia on business, came to see me. He shared some impressions with me, “You know, Moscow surprised me,” he said. I asked why. “Moscow is alive.” I said “What do you mean? Of course, it is.” “In our big cities, the largest European cities, there are almost no cars or people in the streets, and everything is closed,” he told me.

We believe we can achieve the final victory over COVID only if we join efforts, including in the international arena. Clearly, we still have many problems to deal with, and we will discuss them later, but the fact is we have managed to overcome the challenges at hand far more effectively than many other countries with fairly well developed healthcare systems. This is clearly so. Some expected us to get hit hard or even fail, but thanks to medical workers, thanks to people like you, we ended up where we are now.

Look, the numbers are constantly decreasing which is the result of the joint efforts of the state, the volunteer movement, specialists, medical workers, nurses and ambulance teams. All of that taken together produced a certain anticipated result. So, once again, I want to thank you all – everyone whom I just mentioned, or maybe forgot to mention, but who have taken and are still taking part in this work.

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Vladimir Putin: We discussed certain internet restrictions extensively. The internet has become part of our everyday lives. By and large, it must comply not only with laws and formal legal regulations, but also the moral laws of our society, otherwise society will implode.

Unfortunately, we have to deal with more than just calls to take part in unauthorised rallies. We are all adults here, and we are aware of it, why not face it? What can be found in cyberspace is child pornography, child prostitution, and the promotion and distribution of drugs among children and adolescents. They are encouraged to take to the streets and brawl with the police, and then hide behind children thus putting them on the spot.

What does it mean? It means using children as an object, it means using children as a tool for achieving someone’s selfish objectives, and it is always a source for using children to earn profit. Strange as it is, including by urging a minor to commit suicide. And there they find a way to profit off it too. It is amazing. I see that my colleague opened his eyes in surprise and made an understandable gesture with his hands. These were exactly my feelings when I learnt about it.

And when the police catch up to these monsters, can you imagine, they turn into totally different people. They surf the internet, pretending to be tough like Rambo, and urge a girl or a boy to jump off a roof, – and they concoct a whole story to entice him or her to do it. But as soon as the police arrive, they literally crap their pants. Such bastards sitting there, you know. Like an insect no one feels sorry about crushing. They urge girls and boys to commit suicide. And in doing all this they also earn money by posting ads and doing other things.

We cannot let anybody do this. I really hope that the overwhelming majority of our people understand this danger for the future of the country. If not, we will always be rocked from the inside.

A scientist, so well-known to all of us, whom we are proud of, Dmitry Mendeleyev, could make calculations, as we know, quite well. In the early 20^th century, he calculated that if Russia went on developing at the same rate and in the same way as it developed in the early 20^th century, then its population would reach 600 million people by the year 2000. And how many people do we have now? Upheavals, revolutions and wars.

This is why your movement that you called We Are Together is, in fact, extremely important. Yes, it is a lofty, specific and highly relevant cause, and the very idea of coming together will create a favourable foundation for Russia’s future development.

And when we are talking about children, of course to some they are an object for exploitation, to some they are a tool for achieving selfish goals, to some they are a source of earning money and making profit, but to us they are an absolute treasure. That is the truth.

It is always a problem if a young person, a teenager, cannot find his or her place, cannot understand where he or she is, what he or she is doing or should do, what the real values are. However, this is not his or her problem, as a rule; it is a problem of the adults and society. It means that we have failed somewhere.

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Vladimir Putin: You have just mentioned the vaccine. As of late, we have been actively discussing this, and we are rightfully proud of our researchers who have developed these medications. According to specialists, it would be impossible to cope with the national and global COVID-19 pandemic without them. Indeed, we have every reason to be proud because our vaccines are the safest and most effective in the world.

I have already mentioned this data: AstraZeneca is a very good company whose vaccine is 61 percent effective, and our vaccine has an efficiency of 91.6 percent. Pfizer is being used. To the best of my knowledge, 16 people died in Switzerland following vaccination. Some European countries have stopped administering Pfizer vaccines, due to fatalities.

Thank God, we have not recorded a single grave case here. Ten percent of people who have been vaccinated may suffer from high fever on the second day, but protection and safety levels are high. We have developed the second and third vaccines. And the medicines are very good and meet world standards and levels. Avifavir and some others are rather expensive, but everything is issued free of charge.

Of course, I know that we have problems with this – it can’t be otherwise in such large-scale work. But we have to give credit to regional and federal authorities because our colleagues respond rather quickly and rectify the situation.

Far from all countries, even those with a well-developed medical system, issue these medicines free of charge.

Regarding the vaccination campaign, over two million people have already received the first and second vaccine components having had two jabs. And approximately the same number, a little less, but also more than two million have received their first jabs. We will continue to expand this campaign. It goes without saying that this is the key way of combating the pandemic.

Some matters are not linked with production, although I have repeatedly noted this publicly. There is nothing to be ashamed of, and we need to expand production volumes. We simply never had the required amount of equipment for manufacturing vaccines in such huge volumes. We are expanding production, and we will continue to do so, we will manufacture the vaccines. Production has already been launched outside the Russian Federation, that is, at idle facilities that are available there.

But there is also a problem with logistics, with distribution. Our vaccine does not need to be stored and transported at minus 70 like Pfizer – it is very difficult to transport and difficult to store, at minus 70. But we cannot use an ordinary refrigerator either, we also need minus 18, I think, although it is much easier to ensure than minus 70. Nevertheless, there are issues with logistics and with the deployment of vaccination centres. Some of the regions – nine, I think – have not even started vaccination yet. I know about all this, and the Government knows, and the Healthcare Ministry is quite active in this field. We will continue to do this.

But the verification work, both on the part of the Russian Popular Front and on your part, I mean the We Are Together movement, is highly appreciated and is badly needed, bearing in mind that we certainly need feedback on what is really happening, what exactly is happening where, how this work is organised, how it is going and what results we already have. I ask you to keep doing this, to make further efforts.

When I said that our colleagues had some problems with other vaccines, that was not gloating, not at all. On the contrary, we wish them success. Pfizer is a global company with a remarkable scientific research base, and it will address this for sure, one hundred percent sure, they will be improving their product.

We work with AstraZeneca; you have probably heard about this. They have proposed a joint project with our Gamaleya Institute to develop a joint product and improve the level of protection ensured by their vaccine. We welcome this joint work.

Only by combining efforts, I am saying this for the second time at this meeting, can we achieve the desired result around the globe. The result we need is of a truly global nature, a global result. Bearing in mind the modern means of travel and the number of people who move beyond the borders of their national territories, we must be sure that population immunity has been formed in just about every country.

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Vladimir Putin: You have just mentioned the vaccine. As of late, we have been actively discussing this, and we are rightfully proud of our researchers who have developed these medications. According to specialists, it would be impossible to cope with the national and global COVID-19 pandemic without them. Indeed, we have every reason to be proud because our vaccines are the safest and most effective in the world.

I have already mentioned this data: AstraZeneca is a very good company whose vaccine is 61 percent effective, and our vaccine has an efficiency of 91.6 percent. Pfizer is being used. To the best of my knowledge, 16 people died in Switzerland following vaccination. Some European countries have stopped administering Pfizer vaccines, due to fatalities.

Thank God, we have not recorded a single grave case here. Ten percent of people who have been vaccinated may suffer from high fever on the second day, but protection and safety levels are high. We have developed the second and third vaccines. And the medicines are very good and meet world standards and levels. Avifavir and some others are rather expensive, but everything is issued free of charge.

Of course, I know that we have problems with this – it can’t be otherwise in such large-scale work. But we have to give credit to regional and federal authorities because our colleagues respond rather quickly and rectify the situation.

Far from all countries, even those with a well-developed medical system, issue these medicines free of charge.

Regarding the vaccination campaign, over two million people have already received the first and second vaccine components having had two jabs. And approximately the same number, a little less, but also more than two million have received their first jabs. We will continue to expand this campaign. It goes without saying that this is the key way of combating the pandemic.

Some matters are not linked with production, although I have repeatedly noted this publicly. There is nothing to be ashamed of, and we need to expand production volumes. We simply never had the required amount of equipment for manufacturing vaccines in such huge volumes. We are expanding production, and we will continue to do so, we will manufacture the vaccines. Production has already been launched outside the Russian Federation, that is, at idle facilities that are available there.

But there is also a problem with logistics, with distribution. Our vaccine does not need to be stored and transported at minus 70 like Pfizer – it is very difficult to transport and difficult to store, at minus 70. But we cannot use an ordinary refrigerator either, we also need minus 18, I think, although it is much easier to ensure than minus 70. Nevertheless, there are issues with logistics and with the deployment of vaccination centres. Some of the regions – nine, I think – have not even started vaccination yet. I know about all this, and the Government knows, and the Healthcare Ministry is quite active in this field. We will continue to do this.

But the verification work, both on the part of the Russian Popular Front and on your part, I mean the We Are Together movement, is highly appreciated and is badly needed, bearing in mind that we certainly need feedback on what is really happening, what exactly is happening where, how this work is organised, how it is going and what results we already have. I ask you to keep doing this, to make further efforts.

When I said that our colleagues had some problems with other vaccines, that was not gloating, not at all. On the contrary, we wish them success. Pfizer is a global company with a remarkable scientific research base, and it will address this for sure, one hundred percent sure, they will be improving their product.

We work with AstraZeneca; you have probably heard about this. They have proposed a joint project with our Gamaleya Institute to develop a joint product and improve the level of protection ensured by their vaccine. We welcome this joint work.

Only by combining efforts, I am saying this for the second time at this meeting, can we achieve the desired result around the globe. The result we need is of a truly global nature, a global result. Bearing in mind the modern means of travel and the number of people who move beyond the borders of their national territories, we must be sure that population immunity has been formed in just about every country.

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Liza Alert search squad coordinator Oleg Leonov: Last year the Liza Alert search and rescue squad marked its 10^th anniversary. For ten years now, our volunteers dressed in orange have been searching for people in the forests. We are happy that we can be seen and that our shade of orange has become the colour of the We Are Together joint volunteer movement.

Of course, it became more difficult for us to work during the pandemic. We worked in permanent groups and avoided mixing with each other, wore PPE and limited contacts between the team members as much as possible. Restrictions were introduced for the entire country, but as for us it meant an early forest season. People went to their dachas earlier and went for walks in the forests. The number of requests grew a lot over 2020. We processed 31,988 requests, which is 26.6 percent higher than in 2019.

Moreover, in 2020 we worked to fulfil your instructions that we had initiated. The first instruction was about creating a common federal base of ‘John Doe’ patients. Today such a base has been created at the Main Information and Analytical Centre of the Interior Ministry and the trials of it were launched on March 1.

The second instruction was on determining the location of lost people who have mobile phones on them. Today the draft law on this is in the State Duma in the second reading. The work on it continues with hiccups, but it is progressing. This is a very important topic, because it is very important to pass the law with our amendments: then it will become a truly effective tool for saving people. If the draft law is adopted, we will be able to save about 6,000 human lives in Russia per year.

Vladimir Putin: I would like to comment on this, Oleg, briefly. First of all, about the second reading of the draft law you have mentioned. Of course, I will speak with the head of the United Russia party fraction as the leading political force in the parliament and I am ready to speak with my colleagues from other party fractions as well. I am sure that if there are no hidden problems there that I know nothing of, then, of course, the deputies will support this law you have mentioned in the second reading as well as its amendments, because the job you do is without doubt very important.

Do you know what I have been thinking? Doctors will understand me, and not just doctors. During the pandemic, especially its acute phase, a lot of spheres related to current routine medical care have been suspended slightly due to the fact that many medical workers and institutions have switched to countering COVID-19.

Your case is not directly related to medicine, but there are still problems that are not related to COVID-19 but are also very important; searching for lost people being one of them. Of course, during the pandemic we could simply say: no, it is dangerous, we should not do this, we will not do this during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we’d better stay at home. Of course, we should wear masks and comply with certain requirements of public health physicians, which is clear. But people who get lost in the forest cannot wait. This is an extraordinary situation. The fact that you have not abandoned your job and continued to help people is, of course, very good and is worth a lot. I would like to thank you for this, especially on behalf of the people you have saved and whom you have helped. Thank you very much.

I would also like to go back to your request. The issue you have raised: amendments in the second reading. I understand, I will be speaking with my colleagues at the State Duma today.

Thank you very much.

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Tomsk City Duma Deputy Vladimir Samokish: By and large, it is impossible to understand what volunteering is all about by taking a detached look at it. What you really need to do is immerse yourself, participate and spend your time and energy doing this and only then will you understand what is volunteering. For me, this is the discovery of this year. Of course, you can do charity work, be involved in social work, or help people in any other way. But the moment you come across volunteers, you understand how wonderful these people are, how united they are and how they understand the needs and aspirations of people, how cool they are, and you want to admire them.

I believe that volunteers are our discovery of the last year, and I am absolutely convinced that for all of us they can be an example to follow, no matter who you are: a student, a businessman, a pensioner, and so on.

As a deputy, and one with a fair bit of experience, I believe that there should be more active volunteers in all government bodies, at all levels of government, both in the State Duma and in the legislative assemblies of the Russian regions. Because it is precisely their personal involvement, it is their active position that leads to the idea that in power they will also be effective and useful.

Vladimir Putin: What I would like to say about this is that first of all, I still disagree with one of your theses. You said that the volunteer movement, volunteers is the discovery of the last year. Volunteers have manifested themselves most vividly, perhaps, last year, bearing in mind that the task that the volunteers dealt with turned out to be very acute, extremely in demand for the country's life in a literal sense of the word. Still, the volunteer movement appeared a little earlier, this was associated with major international events, including sports, where people of different ages, mostly young people, of course, did their best. I mean the Olympics, the 2018 World Cup, and some other events of a political nature. But during this period of time, during the fight against COVID, the fight for the lives of people – here, of course, it manifested itself especially clearly and was most in demand, this is most definitely the case.

As for the fact that volunteers should take a greater part in political life, I am in favour of this, I already mentioned this. I think that the point is also that the volunteer movement includes people of different views and different convictions, therefore, when they get into political organisations, they can and will be carriers of different approaches to solving problems faced by the country or a region. This, in my opinion, is very important. It is necessary to give people of different views and different convictions the opportunity to be in power, so that in the course of an open, not destructive, but open, honest struggle of opinions, the most acceptable solutions for the country to move forward are found. This is extremely important, it is in great demand, and it must be done. This is the first thing.

And second – after all, volunteers do this work answering the call of their hearts, in order to solve those tasks that they consider so important, and in the way that seems to them the most effective. Namely, they have an understanding of what to do and how to get it done. It is with this motivation that people should come to different levels of government.

This year, we will have elections not only to the State Duma, but also to the regional parliaments in 39 regions. Therefore, of course, I strongly support this idea, I will also speak to the leadership of United Russia, and I am ready to approach the leaders of our other leading political forces from different political spectra, so that they pay attention to this. The initiative is really good.

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Clinical psychologist from the Perm Region Alfiya Denisova: From the early days of the pandemic, we began to analyse how people felt. A lot of people began to feel anxiety and fear and needed psychological counselling. In order to help with this, the We Are Together movement launched a counselling hotline and chatbots in Viber, VKontakte and Telegram. Methodological work was carried out by the Centre for Emergency Psychological Aid of the Russian Emergencies Ministry and the Professional Psychotherapeutic League.

As the incidence rate grew we noted that the number of people in need of counselling was also growing. More than 8,000 volunteer psychologists have helped us provide this aid; it was given to over 200,000 people at these websites.

I would like to note the work of all psychologists on other hotlines as well, both federal and regional.

Despite the decline in the number of cases, the demand for counselling remains. This work will continue both at the federal and regional levels. The main tasks of the regional divisions will be psychological education and training volunteer psychologists how to work in emergency situations, because these can arise. We must have human resources of volunteer psychologists to work in such situations.

When analysing the entire range of psychological services and the market for them, we found cases where unqualified aid was provided. Unfortunately, there is a grey zone of services, where people who do not have a basic education in psychology have attended some courses or training and started providing services, which they call psychological. Of course, we cannot regard them as psychological, because they are unqualified. This help will not bear results, but, on the contrary, can harm people.

We are concerned about this situation and believe that it needs to be regulated, so we want to ask you to please take note of this, because our people who ask for psychological support have the right to quality assistance provided by qualified specialists.

Vladimir Putin: We have certain standards in training teachers and in medical psychology. There are retraining courses for those who have got higher education in this profession.

What you have said is, to be honest, somewhat unexpected. There are many charlatans everywhere, there are also those who are not charlatans, but people who think they have achieved a lot and know a thing or two, although they do not have the necessary basic education. What can be done in this respect? Perhaps, to start licencing certain activities, in this case psychological counselling. We should think it over to avoid unreasonable restrictions, but on the other hand, to have certain requirements for this activity, which is undoubtedly very much in demand and growing in terms of the scope of the services provided.

Now, more and more people turn to specialists. It is really very good, it is the right thing, because when a skilled person offers a helping hand and moral support in various life situations, to say nothing amid the pandemic, just in general, it helps. And in the emergency that we faced last year and which is still continuing to our regret, it is especially important.

Of course, if a person is at home during lockdown and the anxieties and problems are growing, we should look at things without bias and we are trying to do so. And people’s income has gone down a bit and living has become harder because of certain types of restrictions and with less communication with their nearest and dearest. All this has a serious impact on anyone’s psychological condition. And, of course, the support of a specialist is highly in demand.

This is why I want to express my thanks to you and all your colleagues. We are dealing with the problem that you have mentioned. I just do not have a ready-made solution at the moment. I am trying to be careful not to announce anything here that is not ready for a final decision, but we will work on it.

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Chief Physician of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional AIDS Centre Solomon Apoyan: We are in a laboratory that was deployed in just one week when the pandemic began. Its specialists conduct over 3,500 COVID tests daily.

People diagnosing COVID-19 cases are standing behind me. We also study COVID test systems being manufactured worldwide. I am very happy to say that Russian-made test systems are more accurate than most foreign test systems we have studied.

Our facility regularly tests over 1,500 volunteers for the coronavirus.

Mr President, despite the pandemic, no one has told the Russian Popular Front to stop addressing the questions received during your Direct Line. Volunteers from the We Are Together campaign have also joined in to deal with millions of appeals.

For example, over 400 people in the Nizhny Novgorod Region who took part in your Direct Line event have received targeted assistance from our volunteers.

You held your news conference in December 2020. In all, 344,000 questions were received during this news conference. Mr President, all of them have already been sorted out, including 8,000 questions coming from our region.

We provide assistance on all questions whenever possible. If we are unable to help, we refer them to state agencies and address these questions together with them.

Quite recently, I visited an old woman together with district administration officials and helped install electric wiring at her place.

Mr President, you mentioned the call of the heart several times today, and I wrote it down. The We Are Together campaign is a kind of test for gauging our love for humanity. All of us know a lot about test systems, and I can say that our national test system did not let us down once again.

Mr President, summing up my remarks, I can see that everyone is asking for something, and I would also like to make a big request: Please hold your upcoming Direct Line earlier this year because we are already running out of appeals, and we have nothing to work with.

Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: I would like to say something in this connection, Mr Apoyan. First, special words of gratitude go both to you and to all those who are helping me to actually answer the hundreds of thousands of requests and questions sent in during Direct Line.

Here is what I have noted, and I think that you will agree with me: I asked official agencies, quasi-official in fact, to work through those requests received during Direct Line. But that is also volunteering, actually, because it is not so much about helping me, or me at all, but helping those people who sought my help. In this case, I think you could well say thank you to me because these problems have reached you through me.

As far as I can imagine – this is what we are discussing – all volunteers indeed work at the call of their hearts, I will repeat this again, but one needs to figure out what to do. So when real requests come, in this case, to your humble servant, the head of state, it becomes clear where the people are dissatisfied. It is simply unrealistic to answer millions of questions even with the help of my assistants, employees and even the entire Government, but when thousands of people are involved in this work, it becomes quite obvious that we can do it. In fact, first of all, this is not about helping me, but about helping people who ask me for help. This is kind of obvious, but I would still like to point this out to you, Mr Apoyan, and once again thank you very much for your work.

As for the timing, I will also think about it.

Thank you so much.

Solomon Apoyan: Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: As for the test systems, ours are indeed among the best in the world, this is true. At the first stage – as a specialist, you know this better than I do – there were issues with the reagents and with the time patients had to wait for the results, but they are improving. Our test systems, I can say this with confidence, detect almost every strain of the coronavirus. They determine them all, and reliably enough.

<…>

Vladimir Putin: I suggest we move on to the concluding part of our meeting. I would like to thank all of you for today’s joint work and the meeting, and, of course, for everything you have previously done. I want to express hope that this work will continue and, as we say, will not go through bureaucratic channels, but will come from the heart and soul.

Ahead of International Women’s Day, I want to wish all women present here, all women in the audience who are taking part in our work today, and simply all our women, a happy holiday

As a matter of fact, this holiday is not only for women; it is celebrated by everyone like we celebrate February 23, Defender of the Fatherland Day. We, men, also join in the holiday with great pleasure because it is also part of what we discussed today. It gives men an opportunity to present themselves well.

I want to congratulate you and wish you all the best. As bureaucrats say in such cases, by congratulating you, I want to congratulate all our wonderful women.

Thank you again, everyone. Good luck.