News agencies have translated differently what Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his televised meeting with members of a newly formed Coordination Council, which was set up to improve support (production and delivery of weapons) for the invasion of Ukraine.
Below is the full text transcript of his speech independently translated from the original speech in Russian (Russia refers to the Russia-Ukraine War as a special military operation):
Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, good afternoon!
As you know, on October 21, a Decree on the establishment of a coordination council under the Government of Russia was signed.
Colleagues have spoken many times and on various occasions, both in connection with the well-known restrictions in the economic sphere and in connection with the conduct of the special military operation, about the need to update procedures and the regulatory framework in decision-making in various areas of our activity. This also applies to the economy as a whole, individual industries, the Armed Forces, the provision of the special military operation with everything necessary, and so on.
We have faced certain difficulties, and the need to modernize our work, give it a new impetus and a new character even during the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. And then we managed to do a lot in terms of updating this very regulatory framework, getting rid of archaic procedures that prevent us from moving forward at the pace that the country needs.
Now, when we are also faced with the need to resolve more rapidly issues related to the provision of the special military operation and related to the fight against those restrictions in the economic sphere that we have encountered, unprecedented without any exaggeration, you know, we have many times with many of You, who are now taking part in this meeting, discussed issues related to the need, I repeat once again, updating all of our work to improve administrative procedures, approaching these problems from many different angles.
And now the situation is such that life itself is pushing us to look at all this work once again in the most careful way and develop common approaches to updating all procedures, all administrative procedures, everything related to what is called "management" in in the broadest sense of the word. And this, of course, cannot be done without broad and deep coordination between all areas of activity, all structures, all ministries, departments, and of very different directions: the power bloc, the economic bloc, and the regions of the Russian Federation. It is precisely for this, in my own words, that the coordination council was created.
Let me remind you that by today the coordination council was supposed to form targets for certain areas of activity. There are no such targets yet, but I have no doubt that they will do so in the near future.
The Coordination Council included Deputy Prime Ministers, heads of departments, including the power bloc, representatives of the Administration and regions of the Russian Federation. It is headed, as you know, by the Prime Minister, to whom I now want to give the floor.
Mikhail Vladimirovich, I would like to ask you to tell us how you plan to organize this work in the very near future and what you consider to be the main, highest priority in this work.
Please, Mikhail Vladimirovich.
Mikhail Mishustin: Thank you.
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Dear colleagues!
On your instruction, Vladimir Vladimirovich, a special (ad hoc) Coordination Council has been set up to meet the needs of the Armed Forces. Yesterday was its first meeting. First of all, the structure was formed, the main blocks of tasks and the vice-premiers supervising them were determined.
As Deputy Chairman of the Council, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Yuryevich Grigorenko will deal with financing and regulatory issues , and the supply of weapons, clothing, necessary food for our military personnel, respectively, will be handled by Deputy Prime Minister Denis Valentinovich Manturov , who will simultaneously head the working group.
Two more vice-premiers will lead the same council groups in other key areas of activity. Marat Shakirzyanovich Khusnullin will be responsible for creating the infrastructure. These are not only barracks or training bases, but also social facilities, transport, and logistics issues. Tatyana Alekseevna Golikova will oversee the issues of medical support, including the provision of specialized and high-tech assistance and rehabilitation to our defenders. And of course, she will oversee the most important topic - the payment of monetary allowances.
There are other areas in which systematic work will be built. First of all, this concerns fuel supplies, energy issues, communications, informatization, databases, analytical support and, of course, building feedback with mobilized people and their families.
In accordance with your instruction, such an information system has already been established. There is a support hotline at 122, where people receive the information they need: about one and a half million calls have been received there, and their number is systematically decreasing and has already decreased from 170 [thousand] to 20 thousand a day. There are more than 600 answers in the database of this line, it expands as questions come in. Most of the answers to them are posted on the “Explain.RF” portal. Since the beginning of the mobilization, the resource has been visited by almost 18 million people.
We work with life situations, respond to citizens' requests, and use the feedback platform of the single portal of public services for this. We analyze not only typical problems, but also work on each specific case, taking into account the specifics, including regional ones.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, you instructed us to organize the timely provision of monthly funds to our defenders, including those mobilized and those who are still undergoing education and training. As I already said, within the framework of the Coordination Council, this work is being carried out by Tatyana Alekseevna Golikova together with Anton Germanovich Siluanov .
Monetary allowance for ordinary mobilized from the first day is 195 thousand. Increased salaries are also provided in accordance with the rank. All funds were brought to the Ministry of Defense in a timely manner. We keep it under control.
Monitored how such payments are made. This is done by the Ministry of Finance jointly with the Ministry of Defense within the framework of the working group of the Coordination Council.
To control the execution of your order, we are preparing the launch of an appropriate feedback form on a single portal of public services.
We will continue to inform people about federal and regional support measures.
I am sure that the distribution of responsibilities between the members of the Coordination Council will make it possible to quickly establish interaction at all levels in order to deliver everything that our servicemen may need on time.
Separately, Vladimir Vladimirovich, I will dwell on such an important topic as special personal protective equipment and materials for them. It is necessary to intensify work to increase their output, to launch the production of clothing items on a full scale to fully staff the mobilized citizens, to connect all the capacities of light industry, including small enterprises in the regions, to involve the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in this, to organize uninterrupted supplies of raw materials, materials, fabrics.
The technical requirements of the Ministry of Defense for equipment and, accordingly, control measures for their observance were brought to each performer.
The government promptly allocated additional funds for the purchase of all necessary types of uniforms, contracting is in full swing. We need to make sure that our defenders do not have a lack of equipment.
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, the Coordination Council will work on a regular basis, and we will report to you on the decisions made, as indicated in the Decree, on a weekly basis.
Thank you for your attention.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you.
Please, Sobyanin Sergei Semyonovich.
Sergei Sobyanin: Good afternoon, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, dear colleagues!
Vladimir Vladimirovich, on your instruction, a working group of the State Council has been created, which includes all the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, representatives of the Government and special services.
We are working in four main areas.
The first direction is the presidential decrees on working out levels of response to emerging threats. There is a rather complex technical and organizational work going on with the involvement of all law enforcement agencies and the Government. In most subjects, this work is carried out in a calm, planned mode, without any emergency measures. Nevertheless, in a number of regions, especially border regions such as Belgorod, additional response measures are required, which we are working out both with the regions and with the Government of the Russian Federation.
The second direction is, in accordance with your instructions, assisting the Ministry of Defense in deploying places for accommodation and training of mobilized citizens. At present, with the help of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, about 60,000 places have been equipped to accommodate the mobilized. This is a big job, it will be continued. Today we also spoke with the Ministry of Defense in order to coordinate these efforts, already taking into account the existing experience.
A number of entities are working to provide assistance to the Ministry of Defense in terms of logistics. We also spoke today at the government commission with the Ministry of Defense about the need to coordinate this work so that it is more effective.
The third area, perhaps the most important, is social support for the families of the mobilized. We are talking about targeted support: this is material, legal, psychological assistance, the placement of children in kindergartens and schools that are most convenient for military families. If necessary, this is a job search, advanced training of wives called for mobilization. These are also systemic measures: exemption from payment in kindergartens, extensions, circles, sections, and so on, this is the practical zeroing of the criteria for need in the payment of child benefits, and a number of other benefits.
We will systematically conduct all this work with the Government of the Russian Federation and with the regions. The vast majority of subjects are already taking or have taken these measures.
The fourth area, which Mikhail Vladimirovich just spoke about, is joint actions to support the military-industrial complex, assisting in deploying additional production volumes for the production of everything the army needs.
Another area is the construction of military installations, assistance to the Ministry of Defense. A number of subjects have also been involved in this work.
Thank you. That concludes my report.
Vladimir Putin: In conclusion, I have a few words to say.
What I would like to say is that work in this format, which we are now talking about and within the framework of which we have gathered, has been going on for a week. This is a short time, and, of course, the draft target task of the Coordination Council may not be ready yet for objective reasons, but I still ask you to do it as soon as possible.
It is clear that not so much time has passed, as I said. But what would you like to focus on?
We need a faster pace of work in all areas and an extremely realistic assessment of the situation, the state of affairs as a whole. As I said at the very beginning, in my opening remarks, this concerns not only the special military operation itself, it concerns all of our work in almost all areas.
We are trying to do this, to organize this work in a new way, to administer all areas of activity more efficiently since the period of the fight against the coronavirus infection. Now there are new challenges, they are serious and significant. This also applies, I repeat, to the activities of law enforcement agencies, the power bloc (security agencies), the Ministry of Defense, but this also applies to the entire civilian component. Therefore, I ask everyone to tune in to meaningful work in the new format.
If we work within the framework of standard bureaucratic procedures, hiding behind formalities, we will not get the desired result in any direction. It is in order to resolve all issues faster and more efficiently that we have created such a mechanism as a coordination council.
Further. In work, of course, one cannot simply proceed from some previously established standards. They were created in unknown times and in completely different conditions. Therefore, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that standards are standards, but we need to either change them or adapt them quickly in this way - of course, without any violation of the law, of course, but nevertheless we must focus on the real situation, on real needs in one direction or another.
As for the special military operation itself: equipment, special means, and other special equipment should not only be available, they should be modern, convenient and efficient, and a clear, specific work plan should be defined for each area.
By the way, manufacturers should also - many do this, I know - get feedback on the spot about what they are doing and what effect it has on real life in one area or another. We need to know the opinion of those for whom our factories and design bureaus work. This applies not only to enterprises, their managers and specialists, but this also applies, dear colleagues, and members of your council, you should also receive first-hand information. I know that some of you, of course, are already doing this. I would ask this practice to be continued and expanded.
In order to achieve a qualitatively different result, a qualitatively new result, it is not enough to follow the beaten path - I have already said this several times - interacting only with a narrow circle of familiar performers. It is necessary to intensify competition: new manufacturers must appear here - efficient, modernly equipped and ready to work in the required new format and produce the required quality of a particular product. This also applies to medicine, this applies to the construction sector in the broadest sense of the word.
And of course, a separate issue is the issue of supporting the regions. I ask the Ministry of Finance, together with the State Council Commission headed by Sergei Semyonovich Sobyanin, to determine the necessary level of such support for those regions that especially need it in modern conditions. And I very much hope that the work will be organized, just as we have been able to do so far. I have no doubts that it will be organized in the best possible way and will give a positive result.
Thank you. We will be in constant contact with you in the areas for which we have gathered today to discuss.
Thank you.
