The Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedevgave a big interview to the program “Vesti on Saturday” withSergey BRILYOV, in which he spoke about the state of the Russian economy, the may decrees of the President, the upcoming elections to the state Duma of Russia and provision of pensions of Russians.
The situation in the Russian economy is still difficult, but she is starting to recover, said in an interview with Dmitry Medvedev.
“Of course, I can’t say that we can all be happy with how the economy works. The situation is complicated, is not very stable. Still, the economy begins to recover,” – said the Russian Prime Minister, RIA Novosti reported.
Answering the question whether the Cabinet of Ministers to “pull” the execution of the may decrees with the changes of recent years and the fall in energy prices, the Prime Minister said: “of Course. I say this with confidence because we and so all that is required, try to do, even in these very unpleasant economic circumstances”, – said Medvedev.
“In relation to the presidential Executive orders of may 7, 2012 – it is certainly the most important, fundamental for the country things. They must perform just to make our country developed, people felt better, and the economy was showing the correct results. Do not very easy, but we try to do it. And if we talk about what happened over the years – and it was different, but we have quite a powerful and, in my opinion, serious results,” – said the Prime Minister.
As a result it has caused an increase in life expectancy of Russians to 71 years and increasing the birth rate.
“This is an important result of our work on the presidential decrees because they are aimed at the improvement of health on a number of specific tasks. Therefore, even in such difficult conditions, if we concentrate forces, energy and money, of course, in certain directions, it is possible to achieve quite significant results”, – said Medvedev.
The Russian head of government noted that it gives a chance to return to the rules of indexation of pensions that had operated previously. We are talking about the indexation in 2017 of pensions according to inflation in 2016.
“Moreover, this decision is taken, it is declared, and, naturally, we’re sticking to it”, – he said.
Speaking of pensions of Russians, the Prime Minister expressed confidence that the authorities should not conceal the truth, even if it sometimes does not cause positive emotions. The head of government noted that in 15 years of pension in the nominal value increased by almost 15 times.
“Real growth, of course, is not as big although he is very, very noticeable if to compare with 2000. Power is always obliged to speak the truth – this is my position, I’m sticking to it – even if that truth is not always brings positive emotions. Indeed, this year we are faced with very serious problems in the financial sector. The reasons are known, they are associated with low prices for oil, gas”, – said Medvedev, noting that, despite this, at the end of 2015 was held the indexation of pensions by 4%.
“I told our seniors that we will make an additional adjustment for economic performance in the first half of this year. The first six months passed, the economy worked mediocre, frankly. Although there is no longer falling, but revenue is still not very significant. And despite this, despite the fact that some of my colleagues convinced me that it is better to abandon the indexation, it was another decision,” – said Medvedev, explaining that we are talking about the decision on lump sum payments to both employees and retirees in the amount of 5 thousand rubles.
“It is absolutely comparable with the indexation for the majority of pensioners. For those pensioners who do not receive large pensions, who live very modestly, and their significant number in our country, for them it is fully comparable with the indexing, which they received, and some categories even higher than this index,” he said.
Speaking about the upcoming Duma elections, in an interview with Sergei Brilev, Dmitry Medvedev, who initiated a few years ago the liberalization of the political system, said he believes it’s the right decision, noting that it helped to increase political competition.
“First, of course, I do not regret. It was the right decision, which, incidentally, was supported by our party, and other participants in the political process,” – said Medvedev, noting that the parties became more and simplified their participation in the electoral process.
The leader of the party “United Russia” expects that the results of the September elections to the state Duma for the EP will be favorable.
“We, in fact, reached out to our voters and said, choose who you think is more suitable to participate in the elections. People trusted us, voted in advance in the party elections. It is very valuable. And it is, in fact, so if you want to, natural selection of the strongest political players,” – said Medvedev, noting that it gives hope and support during elections.
The Prime Minister does not exclude that after the elections to the state Duma a number of parties in it may increase.
“I think that the forecasts – it is absolutely ungrateful and wrong. But perhaps there are players who have a chance to survive in the new State Duma. Obviously. Mean those political parties that are already present there precisely because they rely still on a fairly strong support,” – said Medvedev, adding that the Duma can be extended and new parties.
“Maybe. It depends on how convincing are the programs of other parties. How convincing they tell the voters. How in General they seem to voters to be credible. Therefore on September 18 to determine the people,” – said Medvedev.
We will remind, elections of the state Duma will pass in the uniform voting day on September 18 according to the mixed system: 225 deputies are elected on party lists (proportional system) and 225 in single – mandate constituencies (majoritarian system).
