www.Kremlin.ru
July 4, 2009
Russian president holds videoconference with youth education forum
On 4 July, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held a videoconference with participants in the 2009 Seliger Youth Education forum, organized by the Kremlin-backed Nashi youth movement.
The forum outlined some projects being worked on by participants in the field of innovation and Medvedev responded to questions on a number of topical issues facing young people in Russia today.
As well as speaking about the role of young people in the innovative development of society, Russia's economic modernisation and educational issues, Medvedev also spoke in depth about several other key issues.
His comments on energy efficiency, ethnic tolerance, drink, drugs, smoking and gambling follow:
Energy efficiency
After one of the participants in the forum brought up the topic of alternative, "green" types of energy, Medvedev said, "This is very fashionable now, a popular topic. In a few days I will travel to Italy for the G8 (summit) and one of the very first projects which will be discussed there is the 'green' economy and alternative energy. Why is this important for us? It would seem that we are the largest energy state where both gas and oil will still last for rather a lot of generations in the future. But we understand that life does not stand still, that in a number of cases gas and other traditional sources of electricity, energy as a whole, do not work or are rather expensive. Finally, at the moment - incidentally, both our major enterprises are working on this and foreign enterprises - new types of energy are being developed such as energy based on hydrogen fuel, thermonuclear reaction."
"We have even created a special commission which will be engaged in the modernization of the Russian economy and will concentrate its efforts on several priority areas, such as energy efficiency and energy conservation, including the creation of new types of fuel, nuclear energy, the pharmaceutical industry and the medical industry and some other priorities," Medvedev continued.
Medvedev continued the topic of energy efficiency, speaking about the need to stop the production of filament bulbs to switch to alternative light sources such as fluorescent lighting and about the young people's role in conserving energy and working to improve energy efficiency.
Ethnic tolerance
Another participant raised the issue of nationalistic violence and asked President Medvedev to introduce lessons in schools dedicated to interethnic tolerance and Russia's cultural diversity to take place on 1 September (the first day of the academic year).
Medvedev supported the proposal. "I can say that it is a good idea that lessons take place on 1 September dedicated to our national diversity, dedicated to tolerance It is a very good, correct topic."
Medvedev noted that the problem of ethnic violence has emerged relatively recently and that it was almost non-existent during Soviet times.
"Now, everything has become a lot more difficult, and we should work so that eventually all ethnic relations in our country - and we have a huge number of peoples, nationalities, various faiths, religions - become harmonious. All of this is very complex, a very large task for decades in the future. But this task is absolutely in our society's power. Otherwise, we could come to a very sad conclusion, as our country will not be able to develop in different conditions."
Medvedev then cited the example of the USA which successfully managed such a task.
When the subject of interethnic conflict was raised by another participant in the forum, Medvedev replied that the issue of conflict on interethnic and inter-confessional grounds "is complex but nevertheless it can be resolved all the same".
Drink, drugs and smoking
Concerning the problems of drunkenness, smoking and drug addiction among young people, Medvedev said: "We have a whole 'package' of unhealthy national habits; 40 per cent of our young people from the age of 15-20 smoke. It would seem that it is not really such a terrible habit, we've all indulged at some time. But the fact is that this is 40 per cent of people - almost half, and in fact, I think that really the figure is even greater - who have made the conscious choice to ruin their health. That is the first.
"Second is drunkenness. We know what the historical roots of this are, to what extent this addiction is widespread in Russia. As in a country where, in general, the climate is rather cold, people generally consume spirits. This, of course, results in a quicker addiction to them, more shocking doses of alcohol which are consumed by people and, as a result, this simply creates alcoholization."
Medvedev gave detailed figures of the worrying scale of alcohol consumption in Russia. "Let us consider this figure: around 18 litres of neat alcohol a year for every resident of our country, that is for 142.5m people. What is 18 litres of neat alcohol? It is approximately 50 bottles of vodka for every resident of our country, including infants who've only just been born. This is a monstrous figure! And we know that, from the point of view of medical approaches somewhere after 9-10 litres of pure alcohol a year per capita, a big problem with the gene pool starts, degeneration starts. Therefore we need to create a fundamentally different attitude to these issues by the most diverse means."
Medvedev warned the participants in the videoconference, and others watching at Seliger, that drinking and smoking and using drugs is not "cool". He noted that all countries and Russia's partners, such as Kazakhstan, have to fight against the "infection" of such social problems.
However, he warned against trying to solve the issue by introducing "idiotic bans". "We have already run into this more than once; it all ended deplorably both for the state and for people. But it can be resolved by means of a whole package of measures: this is new, normal, modern programmes, this is normal human leisure time and, finally, it is simply a normal income, which allows people to rest decently and not simply go to a shop, buy a bottle and sit dully in the kitchen watching the television with red eyes."
Gambling
The topic of gambling was raised by another participant in the forum following the recent controversial closure of all casinos in Russia which will have to move to specially designated "gambling zones" in Maritime Territory, Altay Territory, Kaliningrad Region and on the border of Krasnodar Territory and Rostov Region. Asked how he would assess the situation and what he thought the state should do, Medvedev replied that, despite all of the negative scenarios, the law has been successfully implemented.
"Legally, I emphasize, legally, all gambling establishments are closed at the present time, and the new ones which we should create in the gambling zones are not yet open. A vacuum has formed. Of course it will be filled by something. It is in human nature both to gamble and to play in general, it is interesting. The main thing is that such a game be carried out according to the rules and not to the detriment of health and a family's financial situation. We should be concerned with precisely this."
Medvedev likened addiction to gambling to alcohol and drug addiction and emphasized that the Russian government's task is "simply to create modern conditions so that such business exists only in limited places, set aside for this". He acknowledged that there will be attempts to hide behind those form of gambling which are not currently regulated by law and warned that, if these attempts become widespread, then the authorities will be prepared to react to them, including by introducing bans on certain activities.
Medvedev also warned businessmen involved in the gambling industry not to get their hopes up as "there will be nothing other than that established by law". However, he spoke of the positive outlook for the industry in the designated gambling zones, whilst emphasizing the Russian authorities' steadfast position on the issue.
"In those places in which it is possible to do it (gamble), it can be a flourishing, strong, developed business where a rather significant number of people will work. And those who want will go there and gamble. But we have four such zones and we will not do anything additional in this respect. This is what we have decided and all of this we will implement right to the end," he said.
Medvedev stressed the need for organizations to monitor the situation with underground gambling and urged forum participants to help the state on the matter.
"Concerning all sorts of private clubs - in essence (gambling) dens - then, if such information emerges, the law-enforcement agencies simply must react to it. I believe that our public structures, public associations should also keep an eye on this. And if it is known that underground establishments of this sort are functioning in some town or other, they must be shut, they must be clamped down on, the public should also help here; this is nothing to write home about. This is an issue of obeying the law. It is possible to live without this (gambling). It is not such a need as drinking, playing sport. It is possible to live without this. We are not closing this possibility, but it will be realized only in strictly allotted limits. And I would ask you as well to proceed from this. Help the state," he said.