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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: I would like to discuss the preparation of a number of draft bills. I will say a few words about one of them now, but we will exchange views later on concerning the others. First and foremost I am referring to the package of anti-corruption laws that was prepared according to my instructions. As far as I understand this package is already undergoing its second reading, the second reading will take place.

I would like the Executive Office and our colleagues, the State Duma deputies, to pay the closest possible attention to this work, to make sure that all that we agreed on and my proposals remain unchanged, except for those provisions on which I have reached a separate agreement with the State Duma leadership. Everything else should be left exactly as is because it is the result of work done by experts, and contains the proposals that we worked on together for a long time within the Anti-Corruption Council. Along with this, of course we expect that the law will take effect almost from the moment of its publication, and this will already happen in the immediate future.

Some of its norms will be applicable immediately, and a number of rules will work after a certain interval perhaps, but in any case all these rules shall be executed as of the law’s entry into force. And if we are referring to the reportable income for new categories of citizens who must declare it, for example, then they should start preparing such an announcement as from the moment the law enters into force, in other words the beginning of next year. But as far as administration is concerned such a declaration is made for a full year that is 2009 – the forthcoming year that is now upon us. You need to pay attention to this.

Once again I repeat that our task consists in making sure that the draft bill and the entire anti-corruption package of laws are adopted and published as soon as possible, and implemented as of the beginning of next year.