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The President also announced during the meeting that he has submitted to the State Duma a draft law on monitoring whether state officials’ spending is in line with their incomes.

Taking part in the meeting were Chairman of United Russia’s Supreme Council Boris Gryzlov, Secretary of United Russia’s General Council Presidium and Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Sergei Neverov, Head of United Russia’s faction in the State Duma and Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Andrei Vorobyev, and First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Vyacheslav Volodin.

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Excerpts from transcript of meeting with United Russia party leaders

President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Colleagues,

We are here to examine personnel matters today, specifically, the candidates for the position of governor in three regions, Saratov, Moscow, and Omsk regions. I would like to hear United Russia’s proposals on the possible candidates for these regional governorships.

But before you do this, I want to inform you, as the leaders of United Russia, about one important matter that concerns the big anti-corruption programme we launched several years ago and have been pursuing over this time. We discussed the question of improving anti-corruption legislation a little back during the Open Government meetings, and as we agreed then, I am today sending to the State Duma a draft federal law on monitoring whether state officials’ spending is in keeping with their incomes.

I ask United Russia to give this draft law its fullest attention, so that it emerges from the State Duma as a thoroughly prepared and effective piece of legislation, and to make sure that work on it gets priority, given that it is part of the package of anti-corruption legislation we are implementing. 

I therefore inform you that I am submitting this draft law to the State Duma. I ask you to start working on it together with the other Duma factions, which I hope will also support it as part of the effort to combat corruption. In any event, this draft law must be discussed and passed without delay.

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I want to stress a point that I commented on only recently, but it is an important matter and so I want to make it clear to everyone.

We have already begun the process that will change the way regional governors are vested with their powers. But this does not mean that while the legislative work needed for this to happen is underway everything should stay frozen for a time. In some cases governors’ mandates are coming to an end, while in others it is a case of the governor stepping down ahead of term. Until the new law on regional governor elections officially comes into force, all procedures in this area will continue to follow the laws in force. This is the only option we have and there is nothing unusual here. Therefore, I will decide on the candidates in these three regions in accordance with the current procedures for vesting powers in the regional governors.