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Shortly upon arrival in Rostov-on-Don the Russian President had a working meeting with the Governor of the Stavropol Region, Alexander Chernogorov. The head of state asked the Governor to personally attend to the issue of bringing relief to the victims and the families of the victims who died in the explosion on a Kislovodsk-Mineralnye Vody commuter train today.

The President looked at the purification plants in Rostov-on-Don and visited an exhibition devoted to the prospects of the development of water management in Russia. He acquainted himself with the information on the overall state of the water management complex in the country, the load on the country’s water resources, the level of their pollution and the state of hydro-engineering facilities.

After visiting the exhibition the President boarded the MV Kazan where a visiting meeting of the State Council Presidium discussed the problems of water management.

During the course of the discussion Vladimir Putin singled out three areas of modernising the water management complex in Russia. The first priority, in his opinion, is to develop a modern approach to the entire water management structure, analyze the mechanism of government control of water resources and discuss the mechanisms for introducing water-saving and environment-friendly technologies.

Vladimir Putin also urged the members of the State Council to pay attention to the problems of developing flood-prone areas, consider the system of ensuring civil liability for damage caused to the water and the environment and to think about legal regulation of transborder water bodies.

The President instructed the Government to step up work on the Water Code and other water management legislation.

Talking with journalists after the meeting of the State Council Presidium the head of state expressed satisfaction with the discussion he had with the governors. He said that the discussion today gave the finishing touches to the draft programme of the development of Russia’s water resources prepared by the State Council’s working group led by Rostov Governor Vladimir Chub. The draft will soon be submitted to the Russian Government. Although the final decision on the document has yet to be made, the President thinks the plans of financing the sector in the next fiscal year can already be adjusted accordingly.

At the end of his trip to the Rostov Region Vladimir Putin visited Taganrog. He laid flowers at the moment to the city’s founder, Peter I, visited the Taganrog Automobile Plant and looked at new planes at the city airport.