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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Ms Matviyenko, Mr Volodin, colleagues,

We traditionally meet at the end of the year to look at what has been done over the past twelve months and decide on our priorities for next year.

But first, I would like to thank you all, all members of the lower house and the upper house alike, and all your colleagues in the regions for their constructive and substantive work in the outgoing year 2019.

The laws and regulatory acts adopted this year concerned, in fact, all the key segments of life in our country – social issues, demographics, politics, the economy, security, and protection of the country's sovereignty.

Constructive work has been done on the federal budget law, which is very important. Further funding was secured for national projects. Resources were earmarked for launching primary healthcare modernisation programmes. That work was important and largely unexpected for parliamentarians. They had to examine, analyse and review all these documents quickly, cover to cover, and make corresponding, crucial decisions, calmly and competently. I think the capabilities of the Council of Legislators should be generously employed here. And, it is important to pay attention to feedback – I mean keep control of how our decisions will be implemented.

Among next year’s priorities on the legislative agenda, I would like to highlight improving the business climate and the creation of effective tools to attract and protect investment that help create new jobs for our citizens.

We also need to revise and update the rules and procedures for control and supervision to be able to apply the so-called regulatory guillotine – we have discussed this many times.

An open, broad and vigorous debate is necessary when discussing key draft laws that are important to the people, society, business and the regions. It is necessary to consider all opinions and nuances, to guarantee a system-wide approach and the unity of legal regulation and, of course, consistency in achieving national development goals which are primarily about the well-being of individuals and families in our country.

These goals should unite all constructive and responsible political forces regardless of ideological or fleeting disagreements. There are disagreements, and always will be, but the interests of Russia and our people must always be above fleeting political circumstances.

People expect from each of you, parliamentarians, an honest and effective representation of their interests, adoption of smart and fair laws aimed at positive and tangible changes in the life of every person.

People evaluate the parliament and the Government, and the governance system in general, its ability to hear and to listen to them and make the necessary decisions, by specific results.

Colleagues,

Next year marks the 75^th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. We need to come up with ways to provide additional support to our veterans. Please see to this. As you know, things get done much better and faster when a deputy or a senior regional or federal official is personally involved in dealing with a particular issue. We need to think what else we can do for the veterans.

In the international parliamentary dialogue, it is imperative to be decisive and firm when upholding the truth about the war, the victories, the grave losses and trials of our people and the sacrifices that our people put on the altar of victory over Nazism.

I am aware that the Russian parliament always acts in a tough and uncompromising manner when it comes to sacred historical memory, and I want to thank you all for this.

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