www.Kremlin.ru
April 9, 2009
[Medvedev] Opening Remarks at the Reception of Russian citizens
Presidential Reception Office, Moscow
PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Good afternoon colleagues!
As you know a large number of people turn to the President for help with various issues, sometimes with very serious problems, problems that cry out to be resolved. Some of these are collected by you and some go directly to the Presidential Executive Office, to the Presidential Reception Office, to the Kremlin.
What do I want to say as we get down to work? I think that it is essential for any leader, including the President, to be able to supervise the implementation of his instructions. This is not only his right but his duty – to examine how his orders are carried out. Of course as President I am responsible for an extremely varied collection of instructions, some of which are related to appeals of the citizens.
Today in this video conference session, with the participation of governors and some applicants who have come forward with various concerns, we can talk about what has been done in the light of previous instructions from my office. In other words, the point of today's meeting is to find out what has been done on previous presidential instructions. I think that this is of fundamental importance, in the same way that I think it necessary to use modern technology to look at the way the instructions are carried out.
Our today’s meeting is a live video conference session. In this way I can call on ministers responsible for certain areas of activity, and people will also be able to express their views in the same mode. This can be done swiftly and expeditiously, it does not require a visit to Moscow, or some kind of paperwork, especially since the work on these messages has already been done. Once again let me emphasise that the point of today's work is to see how previous instructions have been carried out.
I think that we will use this sort of control mechanism regularly, because it does not involve any significant organisational costs and at the same time is very, very effective. So be ready for this, tell your employees about it, give out information about this in the regions, discuss it with the governors and arrange for my reception offices to operate in the federal districts in order to gather the relevant information. And make sure that the requests made by our citizens, as well as those from non-governmental organisations or others, are examined promptly, so that you can give them the necessary guidance. And if such guidance is still not enough, if they require direct intervention by the President, then the relevant materials can be sent to Moscow.
Let's get down to work. I think that you understand the importance of what we are engaged in. Communicating with people is one of the most important things we do on a day-to-day basis, especially at a time when we are in a difficult economic situation, and unfortunately the number of problems is increasing rather than decreasing.
Let's get to work, let’s start the video conference session.