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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Has the session ended?

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin: Yes, it has.

Actually, it was the longest session. The fourth session of this State Duma lasted from January to July, almost until August, and meetings were held with hardly any interruption. We began by identifying several priorities.

One of them had to do with concern for participants in the special military operation and their families, something you mentioned more than once when formulating the goal of adopting laws to protect our military personnel and their families and ensuring that our soldiers and officers do not lack anything.

Based on your instructions, we have created a system that rests on 77 laws, or as many laws as we have adopted in this sphere, aimed at shaping comprehensive legislation because we have not encountered such challenges before and did not have to address these issues.

In addition, it would be correct to mention another priority. It is a very serious issue for us; it has to do with creating a legal environment in the new constituent entities of the Russian Federation. However, we accumulated some experience in this sphere when Crimea and Sevastopol were integrated in the common legal space.

It should be said that we have almost completed tasks which previously took us up to five years; there are only three more laws to be adopted. We will do this during the autumn session. Overall, we have adopted 54 laws, which regulate all issues from healthcare, social protection and pension support to business and the creation of conditions for economic performance in the new regions. In fact, we almost completed work on this block of issues during the spring session. We have fulfilled the tasks you set for the parliament jointly with the Government.

One more issue that we have been working on since the beginning of the special military operation has to do with countering sanctions. It was no easy matter, of course, considering that over 16,000 sanctions have been imposed on Russia. Over that period, we have adopted 192 laws and worked with the Government to take more than 300 measures to support our people, enterprises and regions. We did this in accordance with Presidential instructions, and we can see the effect of this work now.

In general, if we speak about challenges, of course, they are unprecedented, but the political system built by the President and the economic model have shown their resilience. Today we can confidently say this because to date, our country has already been through many different challenges. It is clearly obvious that the entire State Duma, regardless of members’ political views, has consolidated around the country. And again, despite their party-specific programmes, everybody understands that achieving the goals of the special military operation will ensure the future of our state, Russia.

I want to thank you, Mr President, on behalf of all members of the State Duma. We all support you, as we have said repeatedly, during the most difficult times when the country is facing challenges. We all understand that as long as there is our Motherland, our people, our children and grandchildren have a future. We know this and build our work around the country’s current agenda.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Volodin, on my part, I want to thank you, senior officials of the State Duma and all parliament members for their collaboration during this session.

I want to thank you for supporting the key aspects of the country’s development and especially its foreign policy. I can see that there is a consensus here among all the political parties, despite their different approaches to social and economic issues and our domestic policy, which is natural. But when it comes to key issues, life-changing aspects of the further existence of the Russian state, I always feel the support of the parliament. And I want to thank you all for that.

I also hope that this intense work together that you spoke about will continue in the key sectors, including the support for our military personnel taking part in the special military operation, and for their family members, as well as for the integration of the new territories into the Russian Federation. We do have the experience of Sevastopol and Crimea, we have the specific practices, and these practices should be used, of course.

Although in this case, there are significant nuances. For example, people in Donbass have been living in war-time conditions since 2014, and even today, tragic events occur in those territories caused by hostilities. We must certainly take this into consideration when developing our strategy.

When it comes to social issues, economic development and the economy, which is the basis for solving all other issues in the country, I hope that, as before, in a dialogue with the Government, you will always be able to find mutually acceptable solutions for the benefit of Russia’s development.

Thank you very much. I hope that we will follow this course during the next session.

Vyacheslav Volodin: Thank you, Mr President.

Of course, we have many plans especially as the new session will bring new opportunities. We plan to hold expanded parliamentary hearings on the development of small and medium-sized businesses. We want to meet with as many business representatives as out halls could sit and discuss these issues together with the Government. You set a task for us to create conditions for businesses to develop more effectively. We will try to find the right words that will allow us to come up with solutions, and then we will present our proposals to you.

Vladimir Putin: Sounds good.

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