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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good evening, Mr Volodin.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin: Good evening, Mr President.

Vladimir Putin: I understand that we wanted to discuss the results of our work during the past period.

Vyacheslav Volodin: Yes, we did.

Mr President, we concluded the autumn session and our entire 12-month tenure as of yesterday. While plenary sessions have wrapped up, deputies will continue working in their electoral districts, meeting with constituents. Until the New Year, the State Duma will operate in the format of the regional outreach week.

Looking at the year’s results, it has been a demanding one, but we can already talk about the outcomes. The autumn session is typically tied to the adoption of the budget, a particularly critical and significant document during such challenging times. In an era of unprecedented challenges, we must ensure that all presidential decisions and commitments to the citizens are fully met.

We also focused on addressing issues related to the country's development and ensuring that all necessary support is provided to participants in the special military operation.

As of today, we can say that all these goals were achieved during the budget review. Guarantees were secured, and the necessary funds were allocated to fulfil the President's instructions, including pension indexation for working retirees. Starting next year, this measure will benefit a significant number of our citizens – 7.8 million working pensioners – who, under your initiative and the corresponding legislation, which we have called the Putin Law, will receive indexed pensions.

Next year, the budget also provides for raising the minimum wage, which will increase to 22,440 rubles. This is a major decision, especially during a period marked by numerous challenges, and we are grateful that this solution was found and reflected in the budget.

When we talk about the autumn session, the budget was one of the most critical documents under discussion. Beginning in August, it underwent extensive review throughout September, October and November, and we adopted it in November.

I would also like to note that we have a high level of consolidation on key issues of all deputies, regardless of their political faction. Deputies of all factions supported 70 percent of all laws adopted. This is very important because we were talking about laws related to the country's security and the development of international policy, because many agreements were adopted and treaties were ratified. Therefore, the Duma has a working atmosphere, and it is primarily aimed at protecting the country's interests in these difficult times by supporting the President's decision to achieve the goals of national development.

I want to make it a point that we pay much attention to implementing the Address realising that it determines the resolution of the key tasks of the country's development. To date, the Address has been implemented by 84.3 percent, that is 75 items out of 89. The work is going on. Just today, the Government received another draft law. Therefore, we hope that this issue, while remaining a priority on our agenda, will be implemented early next year. Everyone is responsible for doing it just as a matter of priority.

And, of course, the issues concerning our guys, who are taking part in the special military operation, the provision of them and their families with all they need. In the course of the Direct Line today you pointed it out and gave instructions with respect to our soldiers and officers fighting to liberate the Kursk Region from Nazis. We, as the Direct Line proceeded, have already initiated the necessary requests to the Government and we will try to do our best to ensure that your decision is implemented in early January, and the guys who are on the front line in the Kursk Region will get all the necessary financial solutions and the status of participant in the special military operation.

The Duma’s agenda was broad, we were looking for new formats that could improve the efficiency of our work. In this regard, we travelled to the regions, considered issues of concern to specific territories, and visited St. Petersburg, the Samara, Chelyabinsk and Moscow regions.

We considered a variety of issues. In Chelyabinsk, these were development of the defence complex, industry based on the example of one of the plants, and also got acquainted with agricultural machine building and developed solutions to improve its quality and efficiency.

At the conclusion of this session we can say that the most important thing is that everyone understands that it is extremely important for us to protect our sovereignty. And this was also reflected in our agenda, because we see that the legislation is not perfect enough. That is why we had to make changes and amendments to the law on foreign agents, doing everything to protect the sovereignty of the country and to ensure that those who betrayed it do not rob our citizens and enrich themselves at the expense of the country by trying to destroy it or by transferring money to our enemies in other countries.

Throughout the year, we adopted 14 laws to improve migration legislation in response to citizens’ appeals. We are talking about combating illegal migration, and you have already supported most of these bills, and they have come into effect. Thank you very much, because without the President’s support we would not have been able to cope with this work. It was not easy yet everything has worked out. The last bill that was passed concerns the children of migrants who arrive and often do not know the language. In addition, there is no system for checking whether they are staying legally in the Russian Federation. As part of the proposed solution, there will now be a rule of law that every child will first be checked for the legality of staying in the country with his/her family, and then he/she will be required to undergo testing before being enrolled in school. Because otherwise it leads to problems both for the child who has arrived and does not have a command of the language, it is stressful, and for the children who study in school since the presence of children who do not know the language in the class leads to problems in teaching them the subject. And of course, teachers are in a difficult situation, they do not know the language of the child who came to school while they have to educate them. This all creates issues. We have paid attention to this issue, and based on your instructions we have developed standards for a solution. Now this draft law has been sent to the Federation Council for further consideration.

Mr President, the year is coming to an end. Although there is still time but we are unlikely to meet in this format again, therefore on behalf of the deputies, I would like to convey everyone’s best wishes of health and happiness. We all had the opportunity to watch the Direct Line today, and it is very useful for us because we will be more active in implementing the country’s development agenda, because the issues you discussed concern exactly this.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Volodin, indeed, 314 bills have been introduced and 233 laws have been adopted. This is a lot of work. And I have looked at the breakdown of how many in which area, on which topic – 66 laws concern state building, and followed by economic policy, the budget, taxes, and finances coming in almost equally close second or third. This is precisely what the entire work of the state and social policy rests on. This is support for our citizens and large families, support for everything that is being done on our demographic projects. Defence capability is a separate issue here, and it is also a very large bulk of work.

I would like to thank you. I have seen that intensive work is ongoing, the State Duma is responding, and it is responding promptly to the demands of the time, to what we need urgently. You and I have discussed this many times. Namely, some things should be left to the representative body of power even in the difficult situation we are in, but they should be left to the representative body of power in the hope that the Duma will also consider these issues promptly. This is what is happening thanks to your efforts as the Speaker and thanks to the responsible policy and approach of the faction leaders. I would like to thank everyone and wish them success.

Meanwhile, we will remain in contact with you as we have been. Despite the holidays, we will maintain this contact.

All the best! Happy New Year!

Vyacheslav Volodin: Thank you very much. We always feel your support, and it is unlikely that we would have been able to do so much without it. So thank you once again, and all the best to you!

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

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