CIS

Home page

CIS

Program â€œTalk with Vladimir Putinâ€ receives 1.31 million phone calls and 550,000 SMS â€“ PHOTOSESSION

Program â€œTalk with Vladimir Putinâ€ receives 1.31 million phone calls and 550,000 SMS â€“ <font color=red>PHOTOSESSION </font>

04 December 2008 15:58 (UTC +04:00)

Moscow â€“ APA. Russiaâ€™s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin once again answered questions of citizens in the live program broadcasted on radio and television. APA reports quoting Russian websites that 1.31 million phone calls and 550,000 SMS were received during the program â€œTalk with Vladimir Putinâ€. Answering questions in various themes Prime Minister blamed the United States for the world financial crisis. He said that the United States infected the whole world with the crisis. Despite this Putin said they would not reduce their social promises and investment plans, and stated they would increase salary, pensions and allowances.
â€œRussia has enough reserves to overcome the negative consequences of the financial crisis. Russia is the third country in the world for its gold and currency reserves. We have collected these reserves to use in critical situations,â€ he said.
The head of the government said the prices of houses in the country, as well as in Moscow and St. Petersburg would fall, measures would continue to reduce the price of gasoline in the internal market in 2009.

Vladimir Putin underlined that as from the following year it would be impossible to sell natural gas to Ukraine with the current prices. He said that Ukraine was paying for gas much less than other European countries.
â€œWe are having a complicated dialogue, our Ukrainian partners have not paid their debts yet. $2.5 billion is not a small amount for Gazprom and generally for the whole country.

Russian Prime Minister said they hoped for positive changes in the relations with the US after election of Barack Obama.
â€œWe receive such signals,â€ he said.
Putin praised NATO for not setting out a firm timetable for Georgia and Ukraine to join. He said there were signs also that Obama’s team was reconsidering the deployment of an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe.
"We hear that one should build relations with Russia, taking into account its interests. If these are not just words, if they get transformed into a practical policy, then of course our reaction will be appropriate and our American partners will feel this at once,â€ Putin said.