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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Reshetnikov, how much time has passed since you began?

Acting Governor of the Perm Territory Maxim Reshetnikov: Mr President, it has been seven months, fairly intense ones at that. These months have been busy. During this time, I visited all the 48 districts of the Region. I held meetings with local residents in each district in Perm and worked out a development programme. Moreover, the development programme was drawn up based on the questions posed by the residents.

Actually, citizens of the region do not expect anything from the authorities other than what they can and should provide. Therefore, they raised issues concerning health, education, roads, gasification, communications, the internet, promoting sports and jobs, of course. This is exactly what we can and should provide. We developed a programme based on these requests, presented it to the people and discussed it with them.

In each district, I tried to visit a central district hospital, a school, agricultural and industrial enterprises. I spoke to war veterans a lot, because, firstly, they have a lot of energy, and secondly, they have a very clear, sensitive take on things, and are very professional too. It really is a great support. And, of course, I talked a lot with young people.

As a result, a programme was developed, and there is an understanding of what to do. The programme has enough funding for the long term; we analysed everything so as not to make empty promises. And now there is an understanding of what to do, a team is being formed, and I am sure that we are able to provide what people expect from us, from the region, from the authorities.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Reshetnikov, you are local, you know about everything first-hand, both the strengths and weaknesses. There are still a great many issues to be worked out and solved. You and I have just spoken about it.

You are a young man but fairly experienced. You also used to work in the Russian Government. Which department did you work in?

Maxim Reshetnikov: I worked in the Department of State Administration, Regional Development and Local Self-government. It dealt with reforms and inter-budgetary relations.

Vladimir Putin: And that was when I was Prime Minister.

Then you were a Minister in the Moscow Government, which is also considerable experience. It is a megacity of 12 million people. Yet Perm is a special place, a major economic cluster with industry: chemical, petrochemical, you name it, metallurgy. We are now witnessing an IT boom, such interesting professional people; we see how fast it is progressing. There are a lot of things to deal with here, and I would like to wish you success.

Maxim Reshetnikov: Thank you very much, Mr President.

Thank you for your support and your visit. It matters a lot for the residents here.

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