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Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.

Colleagues, I convened this meeting to discuss a number of pressing issues.

As you are aware, the Government has just been formed. We need to pool our efforts in order to meet the needs of the Armed Forces for them to be able to operate effectively in the area of contact as part of the special military operation.

Considering this, we need – without any exaggeration – to do even more than we have already done. A lot has been accomplished, but even more needs to be done to expand the defence industries, keeping in mind that these enterprises should also continue to focus on diversification. Without exaggeration, we must be ready at any moment for the these enterprises, which have done a lot and accomplished a lot in accordance with our plans, to take additional steps towards this end. They must be ready to switch to the production of even greater volumes of civilian output.

You and I are well aware of the plans to achieve the national development goals. These plans have not been scaled back even though the special military operation is underway. We have many tasks to address in this regard, including in the social sphere.

I am going to say a very important thing now: we must accomplish all of that while unconditionally abiding by sound economic and macroeconomic principles. This is vitally important. We must not allow any distortions affect the economy or the industry.

To address these objectives, several new appointments have been made. Mr Shoigu is aware of the needs of the Armed Forces like no one else. He will use the office of the Security Council Secretary to engage in this work as part of the Military-Industrial Commission and work with our international partners to fulfill our contractual obligations to supply weapons to our partners in foreign countries, and, I hope, more broadly, will contribute to coordinating the security agencies’ activities.

Mr Manturov, who is in charge of the industry, was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister with that purpose in mind. This was done to demonstrate the importance of the field that he has been engaged in over the past several years.

We must concentrate financial and administrative resources to achieve the goals that I mentioned earlier. This must be done in a wise and prudent manner. The funds – quite substantial – that are being allocated for improving the military organisation of the state must be used in the most efficient way.

I have just mentioned that Mr Manturov has been appointed First Deputy Prime Minister.

The newly appointed Defence Minister, Andrei Belousov, has been working in this role until recently, I mean as First Deputy Prime Minister. This may go beyond the formal procedures we have, but as Defence Minister he will still keep track of the economic aspects since he has been doing this all his life. This is a very important point.

It is essential for me, and for all of you, that you continue the work started back in the day by Mr Shoigu. What I mean is that we need to make the Defence Ministry as outward looking, responsive and receptive as possible, considering, of course, the special nature of this agency. This way, it will be able to adopt the best and the latest practices it can use to enable our men, our fighters – the heroes of the special military operation – to succeed on the battlefield.

We know that, the more effective our weapons, the higher precision they have, the more powerful they are, the fewer casualties we suffer, and this is what matters most in an armed conflict. It matters to us, anyway. I very much expect such products to be used in action.

We have said this many times: those who are first to deploy the latest weapons and hardware will win. We must be one step ahead. We have everything we need for this, and we have put a considerable effort into this in recent years. But we need to double or triple our efforts now.

The newly appointed Minister of Industry and Trade is not new to the sector he will oversee. Mr Alikhanov, you worked in the Ministry of Industry in the past, and now with all the experience you acquired working on the ground in your previous role, you developed a keen insight into ways of making your work even more effective. I hope that you will use all these skills and knowledge to succeed in this mission.

The same goes for Alexei Dyumin who became a Presidential Aide. One of his main missions will consist of assisting the Government and our companies, including Rostec, in delivering on the objectives they face in terms of ensuring that our Armed Forces have all the means and assets they need for combat action.

I will not elaborate on Mr Medvedev. He used to serve as Prime Minister and President, and you know him, one way or another. He holds a special mandate and has been doing all this work I mentioned earlier ex officio.

I do hope that all these appointments and all this personnel reshuffle go beyond formal announcements. Let me reiterate that we must engage all our management know-how and resources as best we can to deliver on our main objective, which consists of our military units succeeding along the line of contact of the special military operation. Our men are waging this struggle and have been quite successful in advancing their positions along the entire line of contact every day. We must as much as we can to ensure that they have everything they need to be able to continue fulfilling their tasks.

I suggest that we discuss all these matters. This is why I convened this meeting.

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