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Mr Putin saw the main tourist attractions of the city—the citadel, the Assumption Cathedral of St Sophia, the Intercession Cathedral and the Art Museum.

Then he met with Tobolsk businesswomen and female community activists to congratulate them on the upcoming Women’s Day, March 8, and answer their questions.

During the talk, Mr Putin said it was necessary to streamline the fiscal system, and acknowledged that Russian tax legislation remained cumbersome and entangled in red tape, and that the Government had failed in its attempts to free it of the bureaucratic burden. He added that the number of papers to be submitted to fiscal bodies had not been reduced, and nor had the tax burden been eased. The President saw a way out in stepping up the reform of consolidated social taxation and forming a simple and understandable fiscal system. He also stressed the importance of reducing the tax burden on commodity manufacturers. That was a way to create new jobs and increase consumer demand as an impetus to national economic development.

As the talk turned to the work of the media during crises and emergencies, Mr Putin stressed that media outlets were to strictly observe moral and ethical standards. The problem became especially relevant with the October 2002 terrorist attack in the theatre on Dubrovka Street in Moscow, when one of the central television companies broadcast live footage of the theatre being taken by storm, thus endangering more than 900 hostages in its hunt for sensation. After that, journalists came to realise the necessity of self-restraint for moral reasons, the President said.

As he referred to the responsibility for general ethical standards of mass media work, Mr Putin stressed that officials could influence only government outlets, while influence on independent printed and electronic outlets could come mainly from the public. If readers and audiences clearly formulated their own opinion of violent and other negative scenes, journalists would certainly have to reckon with the public’s moral choice, he said.