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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Ms Matviyenko, how is the year ending?

Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko: Mr President, I would like to present my report. Thank you for meeting with me.

The Federation Council has completed its autumn session. Obviously, the year has been very difficult yet very productive.

We have fulfilled all our plans. We have approved nearly 560 laws and rejected one creating a conciliation commission; the Duma agreed with this.

This year, our senators showed a record activity. They developed 316 bills; 140 of them have been adopted. Importantly, senators travel to the regions to get an understanding of local problems, receive citizens, and communicate with regional authorities. That is, all the laws are practical.

Our main aim was to implement the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly and, of course, your Executive Order on the National Development Goals. We had 88 items of the plan for implementing the Address, with 81 of them now fully implemented, while 7 are still in progress as they require time and additional revision.

Mr President, as regards priorities that you set, nearly 40 percent of the approved laws concern social issues. Obviously, the main focus has been on the efforts to provide support for participants in the special military operation and their families; we met with them. For the first time, we have three senators in the Federation Council who have participated in the special military operation, Heroes of Russia.

We will continue this work, as you instructed. There are issues to be addressed, including employment, education, and rehabilitation. The fighters in the special military operation are involved in this work; they know what is necessary and how it needs to be done like no one else. We are actively engaging them in these efforts.

The second priority is supporting families with children. Actually, Mr President, we have had a proper and thorough conversation at the State Council today about the well-structured system of support for families with children that you created and initiated; it envisages measures for everyone, from a pregnant woman to a grown-up seventeen-year-old adolescent.

And obviously, we are all concerned about demography. But it cannot be handled straightforwardly; this is a truly complex problem. You mentioned objective factors. You signed the Executive Order on Establishing the Presidential Council for the Implementation of State Demographic and Family Policy, and appointed me as its chairperson. We are now taking active efforts and seeking to engage specialists, demographers involved in this work, as well as researchers and experts, in order to look into the issue, rather than attracting those with high status or position. We provide benefits and support, but not everything is efficient. We need to find out what is ineffective and what is required beyond just the material aspect of the matter. We need a family-oriented approach, with everyone being aware of their responsibility for improving the demographic situation: not only the authorities, but also the business community and the society. The importance of the institution of the family should be part of mentality; there are a lot of details and nuances.

As an example, we held extensive parliamentary hearings on children’s nutrition. Mr President, sadly, just over 50 percent of infants are breastfed, while the rest receive breast-milk substitutes. There are children with health problems who need special nutrition. We produce some of such baby nutrition products; however, 80–90 percent are imported ingredients. And obviously, we must reduce our reliance on imports. We have prepared a number of comprehensive proposals jointly with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Agriculture and others, and will actively promote them in order to ultimately reduce import dependence in the critical field of child nutrition.

I should also mention prices. One imported baby formula tin costs up to 4,000–5,000 rubles, and one tin lasts per week, meaning that families face additional expenses.

Third. Previously, we used to have infant-feeding centres in our regions, while now those operate in only several territories. We need to create a comprehensive system.

In general, as the chamber that represents regions, we are not engaged solely in legislative efforts, obviously. We address sensitive matters and seek practical solutions.

In your Address, you directly instructed the Federation Council to focus on preservation of our historical, cultural, and architectural heritage. We have also worked comprehensively to analyse how many sites we have and which regions they are located in, and look into existing laws as well as obstacles to attracting investors. You said the barriers must be lifted; it is fair. For an investor that seeks to restore an architectural or cultural landmark, the process can take up to two years to agree on all the steps, which results in them simply losing interest in it. The legislative base should be improved and updated to become more transparent.

We have already worked on certain bills jointly with the Government, which were adopted at our initiative. For instance, there is an issue of residential buildings placed in architectural landmarks. The problem is that there are protected elements, with some buildings having a protected façade and some having only a staircase – but the entire apartment building was subject to restoration work. Such work is typically expensive, while there are no protected items inside as this is a standard building. There were many difficulties regarding the process, but now we have removed these obstacles, and extensive repairs of these buildings are underway.

The second problem we are addressing involves ruined and run-down buildings we can see in regions. You have set a task to gentrify Russia, restore order, and create comfortable conditions for citizens. Jointly with Rosimushchestvo, we submitted a corresponding proposal to the Government, with all regions joining in, because they are interested in these efforts. All senators conducted a national audit of abandoned buildings, land plots, and property. The initial results revealed that more than 6,000 facilities are in unsatisfactory condition.

A roadmap is now being developed on every such building. For federal property required by the federation, the repair deadlines and the responsible party are set. Then this property is transferred to the regions, put up for auction via дом.рф, or handed over to municipalities. The main task is to integrate such facilities into economic activity and get rid of the devastation. This is an opportunity for both small and medium-sized businesses.

There are many other areas as well, such as the waste management reform. We are pressing on. I must give credit to Deputy Prime Minister [Dmitry] Patrushev, who engaged in this work and is doing an impressive job. This reform has been underway for six years. The headquarters set up under Mr Patrushev’s supervision have been operational over the past six months, sorting out the management structure. Overall, there are countless issues; I won’t overwhelm you with the details, but it is evident today what actions need to be taken and what direction we should head in to get everything in order.

Vladimir Putin: Ms Matviyenko, I congratulate you on the upcoming New Year. Please convey my best wishes and words of appreciation to all the senators for their work.

Valentina Matviyenko: Thank you.

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