Spokesperson outlines priorities in Russian president's work
RIA Novosti
Moscow, 7 May: Fighting corruption, improving the judiciary, developing the economy and new technologies, strengthening Russia's positions on the international arena including the financial sector are the priorities in the further work of Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev. Medvedev marks a year since his official inauguration on 7 May.
"The priorities remained the same. The president repeatedly declared them not only during the presidential campaign but also over the past year," Medvedev's press secretary Natalya Timakova told journalists.
Fighting corruption was one of the main messages of Medvedev's electoral campaign. Two weeks after the inauguration he signed a decree setting up a council under the president of the Russian Federation for fighting corruption. A comprehensive national plan for fighting corruption and the federal law "On fighting corruption" have been adopted. For the first time ever carry the legal definition of corruption. Measures to fight corruption have been developed. Timakova said that work is under way to finalize and adopt appropriate legal acts.
Top officials from the cabinet and the presidential administration have been obliged to submit declarations of income and property not just of their own, but also of the income of their spouses and underage children, which must be published. The Kremlin's official website has first ever published the income declaration of the Russian president and his family members for the past year.
"The president is following the issue of independence of the judiciary," Timakova said. Despite the financial crisis, the issues of investment in humanitarian development and the creation of decent living standards are priorities.
"The progress will probably be a bit slower than all of us would like it to be, but there are objective reasons for that. The president does not intend to give up this priority," Timakova said.
Developing infrastructure and new technologies also remain topical, she said.
As for foreign policy, the president indents to continue to press for strengthening Russia's positions on the international arena in all areas, Timakova said. She noted two global things which seriously influenced Medvedev's first year in office, namely the military conflict with Georgia last August and the global financial crisis. "The military conflict with Georgia has seriously influenced our foreign political activities," she said. Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on 26 August, signed agreements on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with the two republics on 17 September and the agreement on joint efforts for guarding their borders on 30 April.
Medvedev took part in two summits of G20 heads of state and heads of government which focused on tackling the global financial crisis.
Prior to the 15 November summit in Washington, Russia offered its proposals to the world community on reforming the world financial infrastructure, which were largely taken account of in the Washington action plan.
"This is big job which is not done in one day, but there are no reasons to refuse from reforming the world financial system or from the idea to make the rouble a reserve currency," Timakova said. A part of Russia's anti-crisis proposals were incorporated into the joint programme adopted at the G20 second summit in London on 1-2 April. The summit managed to reach a deal on coordinated action by the governments to stabilize the world financial system, overcoming recession and stimulating growth, coordinating macroeconomic policy at the international level, regulating markets, ensuring employment and preventing possible negative social effects, assisting the poorest countries which were most affected by the crisis, the principles of the IMF and World Bank reform [as received].
Timakova said that the main objective of the president's domestic economic policy this year also was the elimination of consequences of the global crisis. In particular, measures were developed to tackle unemployment, the state is delivering and will continue to deliver on its pledges on wages, pensions and construction of homes for citizens.
"In crisis conditions, a number of objectives, namely setting up a world financial centre in Moscow, are not as topical as they used to be, but this does not mean they have been abandoned," Timakova said.
The president also intends to continue to pay attention to the implementation of personnel reform in Russia. "Personnel reform is by all means a priority because it will be impossible to cope with the problems which the country is facing without rotating personnel, without the arrival of a new generation of managers," Timakova said.
Russia is implementing the programme of creating and training the reserve of managers. In particular, the reserve of the country's best managers has been set up. This is the so-called presidential thousand, of which the names of the first hundred were published on the Kremlin's website.