Dmitry Medvedev

Recall that in his interview last year Dmitry Medvedev said that in 2016 Russian agricultural producers grew a record harvest of 118 million tons. This, according to him, was the highest harvest in the entire history of modern Russia. The Russian Federation has also made great strides in terms of industrial development. According to Medvedev, over the past (at the time of the interview) two years, about 250 billion rubles have been invested in import substitution in industry, of which 120 billion through the industry fund.

Medvedev noted the growth of a number of industries, among which he named the chemical, woodworking, and pulp and paper industries. In 2016, they, according to the prime minister, grew overwhelmingly - by 10-15%.

In addition, the head of government then noted that the needs of the Russian Federation in transport engineering are met by domestic production - approximately by 98%.

“That is, we do not buy anything abroad. - said the prime minister then. - If we move in this direction, we will be able to increase the growth rate of our economy to four percent per year or similar, comparable values, that is, higher than the rate of development of the world economy. "

The economy in 2017, according to Medvedev, was supposed to begin the transition to growth.

Shine. Medvedev

The interview has begun.

The Prime Minister is asked by the host of Channel One Valery Fadeev, host of VGTRK Sergey Brilev, host of NTV Irada Zeynalova, host of "Rain" Mikhail Fishman and the host of RBC Igor Poletaev.

Sergey Brilev asked the first question - about the results of the outgoing year.

“In my opinion, today we can testify that the economy has entered a stage of growth and, in general, the changes that have taken place are quite favorable” - said Medvedev.

Medvedev recalled Putin's words that the economy had come out of recession. Last year there was a “negative growth” of - 0.2%.

“This year the situation is different. There are also a lot of forecasts, but analysts all agree that by the end of this year we will get about 2% of GDP growth. , - he stated.

“This is not a huge figure, but it corresponds to the world average in developed countries,” he added.

This year, a record low inflation will be recorded - less than 3%, the prime minister said.

“A huge achievement for the entire post-Soviet era. Inflation never fell so low. This has a direct bearing on both the economy and ordinary citizens " , - stated Medvedev.

This year we can state that real wages are growing.

"By the end of the year it will grow by about 3%" - pointed out Medvedev.

The nominal growth, in turn, is 7%.

"Not the most outstanding result, but an important change in trend" , - stated the prime minister.

Medvedev noted that investments in fixed assets by the end of the year will grow by more than 4% - this has not happened in recent years either.

"Not to mention a balanced budget, foreign exchange reserves, which are also growing this year." - pointed out Medvedev.

It is extremely important that the ruble exchange rate is stable and predictable, the prime minister also added.

Medvedev stressed that despite the gloomy forecasts and political pressure, the government is fully fulfilling its social obligations.

“We did everything that we planned. This is a good result. " - pointed out Medvedev.

Iraida Zeynalova asked to clarify. She asked - what is the cost of keeping funds today.

Dmitry Medvedev: It depends on what goals the citizen pursues, whether he is ready for risks. The second question is what it keeps and what it pays for - since most Russians receive, store and spend in rubles, it is worth keeping in rubles.

Medvedev replied that not a single indicator can be an end in itself.

“The goal in itself is the well-being of citizens. The exchange rate is stable. The exchange rate is influenced by a number of parameters, the world financial system, this is the internal state of the economy. It is dictated by hydrocarbon prices. Plus other factors. Including external shocks like sanctions. All these parameters, although they have an impact on the ruble exchange rate, are not so volatile as several years ago. Look at what happened to oil prices. Oil fluctuated up to 50%, from $ 43 to $ 65. The spread is huge. Earlier, when we saw such volatility, the ruble followed the oil in the same way. He got loose. During the same time, the rate in grants is 56-64 rubles per dollar. And the dollar rate also moved. The economy has entered a different phase. "

Medvedev is asked about the quality of economic growth - the Central Bank's adjustments for the year, growth according to the bank's forecasts was 1.8% Why is there such weak growth? Are Structural Reforms Needed? Is the ceiling so high?

“2% is not stagnation. Some countries would envy this 2%. The question is what is the basis of this growth. She is not as significant as we would like " - said Medvedev.

According to Medvedev, Russia has not exhausted opportunities for growth. However, the country is under the influence of economic shocks - both external and internal.

External prices include hydrocarbon prices, which are still not as high as we would like, as well as Western sanctions.

“But no less important, and perhaps more significant, is the structure of our economy, which is still focused on hydrocarbon growth. It is changing, more than half of the income, about 60% we do not get from oil and gas trade. But it is desirable that there are 80-85% of them (other sources) " - said Medvedev.

In some cases, both the exit of the state and the entry of the state into certain segments of the economy are needed, Medvedev emphasized. Structural reforms are needed so that “we do not freeze by 2%,” the prime minister added.

Premier. Medvedev

Fadeev continued the topic of sanctions. There are complex industries (machine tools and others). In connection with the sanctions, what measures are taken to develop these industries?

Medvedev:

“These industries are complex and important, and this is the essence of non-resource growth. The measures are clear. We started to implement. These are investments in machine building and so on. We recently purchased 87% of machines for export. Now this figure will be around 70. That's a lot. Purely Russian players have appeared. Despite the fact that we all the same must receive technology and create business with foreign partners. "

If we talk about IT. This is not to say that we did not deal with this industry. Zelenograd was created as a center for the development of microelectronics. The main thing is that it corresponds to the level dictated by the current situation. These are subtle sensitive things. Some of these technologies have been sanctioned. We must develop and use in everyday life. We didn't have our own internal payment system quite recently. The world is very vulnerable. There are a lot of gavrik who harm making decisions and influencing the network. We have created our own payment system. We must have our chips and cards. That was done. The task is to ensure that all this is at a high level.

The idea of \u200b\u200bproduct traceability and electronic tags. It is important to know how the goods got to us and what stages they went through. To put a barrier to counterfeit and gray imports. And tax evasion. This is the future of the economy. The digital economy program has just been adopted.

The prime minister is asked about the working poor - there are about 12 million of them today. Will we be able to defeat poverty by increasing GDP growth in the coming years?

“Poverty is, of course, one of the most glaring problems in our modern economy. Naturally, poverty itself is the flip side of the underdeveloped economy. Because there can be no situation when the economy is in a weak state, and there are no poor at all " - said Medvedev.

“Over the past few years, the number of such people has grown in our country. It is less significant than what we started with at the beginning of this century, 10-15 years ago. Then there were about 30 million such people " - pointed out Medvedev.

According to the prime minister, this issue requires "systematic, concrete work." The problem with the current Russian social system is that it "smears everything with a thin layer." Therefore, the idea of \u200b\u200btargeting is extremely important.

“Pensioners, people with disabilities and large families. It is in these categories that decisions are made " , - Medvedev listed the social groups to which targeted assistance should be directed.

Supporting families is a key task.

“This is our future, and it’s very bad when people who make decisions about family planning are faced with material problems. This is the main limiter " , - stated Medvedev.

Medvedev recalled that the maternity capital program turned out to be working, and the president proposed to extend it until 2021. Other important steps were also announced.

“These are allowances for those families who have decided to have their first child. We are convinced that now is the time to stimulate not the birth of second children, but already the first children. For this, manuals are introduced, this targeting, which I spoke about " - said the prime minister.

“Another idea is to subsidize mortgage loans in excess of 6% - and by all accounts, 6% is the mortgage that most families can easily pull out - so the difference between 6% and the current mortgage rate will be compensated for federal funds account. This will apply to those who have a second and third child - for 3 years and five years. This significantly motivates people and stimulates the mortgage program. " - pointed out Medvedev.

Iraida Zeynalova has a question about pensions. I would not like to stay in old age without help, now there are statements that the Pension Fund is empty and there is nothing to pay with.

"Is there anything to pay pensions?" She asks.

Medvedev:

It is clear that negative information always leaves a wound in the soul. The sediment remains. It seems they have denied it. I want to say officially - everything is in order, there is money to pay pensions, there will be no problems.

Another thing is what you need to think about, how to properly optimize money savings, how to manage them.

These are all tasks for the coming years. But they have nothing to do with payments. Moreover, 43 million people are affected by pensions. This is a third of the population of our country. This is an extremely sensitive topic on which there can be no ambiguity. We proceed from the need to index pensions in January. This indexation will be higher than inflation.

Indexation is already planned - 3.7%.

We are back to normal when indexing goes to the inflation rate or higher.

A question from Sergey Brilyov (VGTRK) about taxes: a new circle of talks about the tax burden has begun, will personal income tax remain flat?

“We have promised that during the current period - the president said, the government - the basis of the tax system will not change. And we did it! No matter what they say and no matter how they reproach us for quasi-tax payments. The tax rates are all the same. Name a country where it would be the same as ours - so that it does not change for 5-7 years? " - answered Medvedev.

“There are no eternal taxes. The flat scale of personal income tax was very successful for our country, we pulled a huge amount of income out of the shadows. The very rich are also not afraid to pay. We collect up to 3 trillion personal income tax per year - this is a huge amount! And when deciding which direction we are going, we must think about who will pay how much " - pointed out Medvedev.

The prime minister urged to take into account the possibility of returning to "gray payments".

“I believe that the easy-to-calculate, understandable scale of taxes (PIT) has justified itself. And then we'll see " - finished Medvedev, speaking about the possibility of reforming the taxation system in the future.

Poletaev's question: What do you think about the financial crisis?

Medvedev replied:

“I believe that today our financial system is in a stable and balanced normal state. This system was balanced due to the successful decisions made by the Central Bank. The government, in its part, made and supported these decisions. The Central Bank continues to put things in order in the financial world. "

“Some of our banks did not have capital to develop. For such banks, the Central Bank decided to revoke licenses. Lawsuits, disputes. But this is clearing the financial field. When there are many such banks, they can put the whole system down. It seems to me that the Central Bank is coping. "

According to him, indicators and liquidity issues are important for banks.

“The Central Bank monitors and will follow all these positions. There is no reason to believe that these measures will lead to the opposite effect. Our financial system has become stronger. This is reflected in the quotes of our currency " - added the prime minister.

Valery Fadeev (Channel One) asks: Deceived equity holders - have they become smaller and what is being done to solve the problem?

"Certain decisions made, in my opinion, are long-awaited" - said Medvedev.

The question is divided into two parts: in order to prevent further manipulation of money by equity holders. For this, a law has been adopted, a fund for the protection of participants in shared construction - by placing the accumulated funds in completion or paying compensation.

“They should be included in the contracts themselves ... there are only 1.2% - this will not affect the cost of services and contract work. It didn’t affect prices, construction market ” , - the prime minister pointed out.

The second part of the problem is to help those who have already found themselves in a problem situation.

“This is a piece work. The region is very different from the region - somewhere there are many of them, somewhere there are few of them. Somewhere the queue is measured in tens of thousands, all this must be untied and done with the utmost care and tact to those who are in such a situation. " - explained the Prime Minister.

“For the future, it is necessary to completely abandon shared construction contracts. These are all rudiments of a previous era, an underdeveloped housing market. No other countries have such shared construction contracts. Mortgage - yes. And here, due to the fact that the financial system worked "so-so", construction technologies were not up to par - we got this model here. For the future, it is necessary to gradually leave shared construction in a normal civilized mortgage " - pointed out Medvedev.

Iraida Zeynalova: Health care reform - how does it include the very problem of the availability of medical services and the quality of services in the social sphere, otherwise they will get bogged down in papers.

Medvedev stressed that reporting as a whole is needed, it cannot be abandoned, otherwise we will go to the other extreme, when it is impossible to track how a person was taught and treated. But reporting, he says, should be reasonable:

“The heap of reporting bloated. Everyone points to this. Both doctors and teachers. What to do? Introduce modern forms of control and reporting - electronic forms. There is nothing supernatural here. "

The second side, Medvedev stressed, is to provide better accessibility:

“I think doctors already know how to use computers. 10 years ago, the transition of our schools to the Internet began. Then I went to schools and saw that teachers longingly looked at computers. Now everyone has learned. It is important that accessibility has been ensured. It is not necessary to take the patient from the area for the consultation. Sometimes it is hundreds of kilometers. The person may feel unwell. But if there is communication over the network, then you can show everything on the Internet and get a qualified consultation in a regional center or even in Moscow. "

Now we are discussing how to use additional money to create an electronic communications system, he added.

A question about the "demonstrative act of intimidation" against theaters, Kirill Serebryanikov and others: how does the prime minister look at this situation.

“Our representatives of the creative professions are right that the legislation applicable to theaters, film production and a number of other creative professions is extremely imperfect. Change is not as quick as we would like it to be. Everything revolves around government procurement and government services. This is the 44 so-called law. He dictates clear competitive requirements, but as soon as we move into the creative world, this criterion fails. " - said Medvedev.

“The directors have contacted me, they say that everything belongs to the control and administration system through the Treasury. But how can we pay off a carpenter who creates decorations in a distant Siberian town? We need cash. He has no account, he cannot be paid with a card. " , - Medvedev gave an example.

“We are meeting halfway - so that the system in relation to theaters and other creative activities becomes more loyal. Here you need to create a working model " , - stressed the prime minister.

In addition, all these actions must be adequately reflected in the accounting department, he added:

“The task of those involved in this is to follow the existing rules to the maximum. It is difficult, but you need to pay attention to it. "

“Therefore, the movement should be counter - to create an understandable, workable frame of creative activity for creative professions. On the other hand, the very representatives of creative professions, organizations themselves should monitor as much as possible what is happening with them.

Commenting on high-profile recent cases with theatrical figures, Medvedev stressed that "all processes have different sides" and noted that such issues should be approached with the utmost delicacy.

“There are also plaintiffs who believe that the actions of certain persons, including creative ones, contain elements of offenses. This is in their right. The state can do the same, and other participants can do the same, ”he added.

Medvedev replied that this is a very important topic, it concerns all people in our country. Everybody takes medications one way or another.

“In this area, state control must be constant. This is the responsibility of the Federal Antimonopoly Service. We currently do not fully regulate the prices of medicines, but we are monitoring the balance of these prices. How to achieve balance? "

“There is a lot of money circulating there. I called the minister in the morning and asked what I was counting on regarding the financing of drugs. " - Medvedev emphasized.

“Approximately half a trillion annually. Through the budget and the CHI system. You need to make sure that the money goes to business. For the purchase of important medicines. This VED list consists of almost 700 items. The broader the list, the higher the availability of drugs. It is important to keep track of the assortment in pharmacies. So that it does not happen that there is an expensive drug, but no cheap one. This must be followed. "

“It is very important that the drugs themselves are of high quality and reasonably cheap, and that they are sold at affordable prices for people. How can this be achieved?

A number of manufacturers did not act very nicely. We need to bring order to the pharmaceutical market. 70% of drugs are purchased from abroad and only 30% domestically. If you take the list of essential drugs, 85% of them are already purchased domestically. It is objectively cheaper. It does not depend on fluctuations in foreign exchange. This is the import substitution to which we must pay close attention. That all participants in this market behave responsibly. We have made decisions to label medicines differently.

There were immediately questions that this would lead to higher prices. But we need quality drugs and a normal pharmaceutical industry. We need to put things in order there so that the drugs are no worse than imported ones. "

Igor Poletaev (RBK) asks about the record grain harvests. For farmers, the problem is the fall in prices on the world market. Does the state plan to regulate the market more tightly?

"We have achieved outstanding results - here I want to praise all the farmers and praise the measures that we have applied." - said Medvedev.

140 million tons of grain is a result that our country has never known in any century or under any system, he stressed.

“We have become the largest net exporter of wheat and grains. This is capital. This is the currency. If we reach the level of about 50 million tons - and the harvest allows us to do this, with the provision of all norms and reserves - this will solve many problems " - said Medvedev.

Secondly, it is necessary to invest in deep processing of grain, he stressed.

“Third, it is very important that our logistics capabilities are aligned with our grain production capabilities. These are ports and roads. Finally, there is the tariff component. Taking into account the outstanding results this year in harvesting, we decided to support farmers at lower tariffs for railroad transportation " - said Medvedev.

"Are there enough cars?" , - specified Zeynalova.

"Enough is enough" , - the prime minister assured with a smile.

Fishman asked about the change of governors:

“Unprecedented scale. There are many Varangians. What do you think about this? Doesn't these reshuffles mean that the new gubernias are given the status of a local representative of the center? "

Medvedev:

“If we talk about the general trend, then it seems to me to be correct. We have actively begun processes related to the rejuvenation of the governor's corps. Now there was a large detachment of relatively young people who received new appointments, but they are still temporarily acting.

People always, when they vote, look - their own or not. I have been in many regions and have seen how appointees work. Was pleasantly surprised how quickly they immersed themselves in the local stuff. They fit in very well. Everything will depend on their teams and how they will work.

The governor is not the president of a federal subject. The head of a subject is, as a rule, the head of the executive branch, de facto and de jure, who are participants in a large vertical of power headed by the government.

But of course the most important thing is the support of people. Now another group that has received appointments must prove that they are working.

Due to well-known circumstances, I am leading the largest party. I met with each of the candidates. They all said they wanted to be useful to their country. Let's see what they do. "

Sergey Brilev (VGTRK) asks about the governors: rejuvenation has taken place, there is an update. But the systemic problem remains old - we seem to have a federation, and governance is largely unitary, which is especially evident in inter-budgetary relations. If the debts are forgiven to the regions, then should we also give more independence to the subjects of the Russian Federation?

“This is a double-edged sword and you need to keep a balance. All regions are very different. ... All regions have their own projects, and the vast majority of them were created in order to develop economies and help people. In a number of cases, they were not well calculated ... They want to show how their investments are going well, but the public sector is not well monitored ” - said Medvedev.

According to him, the regions will still have to help - despite the federal nature of the state, all responsibility is on the center.

Regions behave differently, the prime minister stated, commenting on Zeynalova's remark that help from the center allows many governors to “behave infantile.” According to Medvedev, you need to look at each specific situation, what kind of loans certain subjects of the Russian Federation have.

“Transfer part of commercial loans to budget - we transferred about 50% of them to budget. We need to think about debt restructuring - restructured for 700 billion " - Medvedev emphasized.

According to him, the subsidy system amounted to about 600 billion rubles.

“All these measures allow (support) the situation. But governors must behave responsibly " - Medvedev emphasized.On expanding powers: “We cannot have an absolutely symmetrical federation. If our territories, lands, states were exactly the same ... it would be very easy. But they are very different! Legally, the powers are the same. But they must be implemented in very different ways. " - said Medvedev.

Fadeev: There is a technological revolution in the world. There are tensions. All key studies are not with us. Do we have a chance to return to the ranks of the leaders?

Medvedev:

“There are chances, but we cannot hesitate. We must hop on the departing train. This train picked up speed without us. For a long time we were in a situation where we had to survive. Only now have we begun to create the basis for our technological development. There are tools that have already been tried out. There are people. We have a lot of talented people. There is no ability to quickly transform new items into working projects.

In this sense, we cannot boast of a great past. But this can be learned. There are countries that cannot invent themselves. We need to learn how to commercialize. Business must invest in modern technology. I had to drive large companies there with a stick. Indeed, this is a task of exceptional importance. "

Irada Zeynalova (NTV) asks about "cybernovae": Hayat our "hackers" for breaking everything in a row. There is such a thing as cyber warfare - now people who are "mired" in the computer world are talking about ensuring cyber sovereignty. How does this compare with talk about building a "digital economy"?

“This is a global challenge. And it is better not cyber war, but cyber cooperation " - said Medvedev.

"If we talk about international legislation, about conventions in the field of cybersecurity, we are at zero level, humanity has not advanced anywhere since the 1970s."

“We must be self-sufficient, but not closed,” the prime minister said. There should be enough technology for development, but closeness will lead to isolation from advanced developments.

“Hackers, Kremlin agents ... This is already a separate mature market. Everyone climbs to everyone. Everyone is watching each other. It's ridiculous to blame one of our countries, everyone understands this very well. But Russia's accusations have turned into an instrument of internal squabbles in other countries " - said Medvedev.

According to him, terrorists are actively using modern technologies, and instead of "shouting about hackers" states need to consolidate conditions in the fight against this threat.

“Let's face it, there is no absolute protection that will last for decades or even years. For every cyber defense measure, there is a trick. This is a competition that will go on constantly. We just have to be ready for this " - said Medvedev.

“Conversation with Dmitry Medvedev”. About pension reform and not only

Olga Skopina © IA Krasnaya Vesna

Traditional interview of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev about the results of the outgoing year to five Russian TV channels. The Prime Minister of the Russian Federation sums up the results of the year and answers questions from journalists.

Let us remind you that 2018 was very full of various unpopular decisions by the Russian government, which led to a significant deterioration in the socio-economic situation in the country.

06.12.2018:

"Conversation with Dmitry Medvedev" ended on the Prime Minister's New Year plans. He will celebrate the New Year, like everyone else, with the chimes and the address of the President of Russia. And then he plans, if possible, to go to Sochi and go skiing.

Speaking about the dangers and benefits of the digital economy, Medvedev reported a record low unemployment rate. According to him, it was 4.7%.

For 10 months of 2018 they amounted to 1.7%. He stressed that growth continues. And the government has achieved stable inflation - allowing people to plan their income and expenses.

Here for the first time in many years. Which suggests that the Russian government has properly disposed of the income, Medvedev said.

As a rule, Medvedev evaluates the events of the outgoing year. Topics are usually very different: from sanctions to domestic politics. Usually a conversation lasts about 1.5 hours.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has already arrived at the studio of Channel One. This will be the eleventh conversation in a similar format. The head of government will be interviewed by Pyotr Tolstoy (Channel One), Sergei Brilev (Russia-1), Irada Zeynalova (NTV) and Ilya Doronov (RBK), as well as Irita Minina, author of the Personal Znak program on Tomskoe Vremya TV channel. ...

During the program "Conversation with Dmitry Medvedev," the Russian Prime Minister summed up the results of 2018 and announced forecasts for 2019. The program went on the air today at noon on 5 TV channels, as well as on social networks. The Prime Minister answered questions from TV presenters Pyotr Tolstoy (Channel One), Sergei Brilev (Russia 1), Irada Zeynalova (NTV), Ilya Doronov (RBK) and Irita Minina (Tomsk Vremya).

The outgoing year, despite the well-known "difficulties and costs", has become quite positive for the Russian economy, the head of government said. “The growth rate for 10 months of this year is approximately 1.7%. We were counting on this figure. Yes, it is not large, nevertheless, growth continues, and this growth, plus or minus, corresponds to what exists, for example, in European countries, ”the Prime Minister said. Despite the sanctions pressure, Russia increased its foreign exchange reserves in 2018, which increased by about $ 30 billion, Medvedev said.

The Prime Minister of the Russian Federation noted the high growth rates of agriculture, which ensured food security in the country and an increase in product exports.

“Agriculture, which all the time in the 90s was called a" black hole "... now feeds our entire country, we have decided the main positions on food security, and we supply grain, supply other types of goods to world markets. Our country, indeed, the sky itself, as they say, is intended to feed the entire planet, and we will try to do this, because it is a good export product, not to mention our own capabilities, ”Dmitry Medvedev said.

The final annual inflation will be about 3.5%, the chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers said.

“Apart from the surplus, I cannot but note low inflation. This is generally a recent achievement. And this year, in all likelihood, we will reach the figure of 3.5%. In any case, we fit into the 4% control, which we defined for ourselves a few years ago, ”said the Russian Prime Minister.

“Targeting inflation, that is, setting a target for inflation, we have achieved this. And this allows people to simply plan their expenses, ”said the head of government.

The authorities managed to reverse the trend of falling incomes of the population. According to objective statistics, the growth in real wages was 7.6%.

“Sometimes this 7% is a small amount ... We understand that it is one thing - 7% for big money, and another thing - 7% for a relatively modest salary. But there is growth, and this is very important for the economy in general and for a particular person in particular. This means that we have reversed the trend of falling income. This was the worst, most dangerous thing for the country. The most socially rocking circumstance, the most unstable circumstance, ”the Prime Minister noted.

The head of government said that the cabinet is now preparing a plan to reduce poverty in the country. There are many positions in this document, including support for those in need, continuation of the rate of increasing salaries for certain categories, support for large families, the Prime Minister noted.

According to Dmitry Medvedev, the national economy can develop primarily through its own investments. The head of government urged to “rely on yourself” in the future. Russia should first of all "focus on its sources of development," Medvedev stressed.

The Prime Minister noted that many European and American companies continue to invest in Russia, but the authorities of the US and some EU countries are trying to limit these investments.

The Prime Minister of the Russian Federation expressed confidence that all 12 national projects will be implemented, noting that there is money for them.

“Ten years ago the first national projects appeared, I really supervised them in the government too, there were four of them. These were also the most important projects. Please pay attention: now there are 12 of them and their lineup covers all areas of our life from roads to housing, medicine, education, social spending. Everything that is relevant for the development of the country got there. I think these are very ambitious goals, as Vladimir Vladimirovich has already said, but at the same time I am absolutely sure that we can do it. There is money, ”Dmitry Medvedev said.

The Prime Minister answered questions from TV presenters Valery Fadeev (Channel One), Sergei Brilyov (Russia), Irada Zeynalova (NTV), Igor Poletaev (RBC) and Mikhail Fishman (Rain).

From the transcript:

S. Brilyov: Hello dear viewers! The annual format "Conversation with Dmitry Medvedev" is on air. Hello, Dmitry Anatolyevich.

Dmitry Medvedev: Hello.

S. Brilyov: Dmitry Anatolyevich, I have already formulated that this program has two constants: you are in the center of attention and the TV channel, the VGTRK radio channel as a permanent broadcaster. Our circle of those who ask you questions is constantly being updated. Clockwise: Irada Zeynalova - NTV, Igor Poletaev joins us this year - represents RBC, Mikhail Fishman - Dozhd TV channel and Valery Fadeev - Channel One.

Dmitry Anatolyevich, as a traditional broadcaster, I will ask the traditional question about the results of the year, but I will outline the following feature of this line: your Government is already a record-breaking government, in new Russia no government has worked for so long. At the same time, the term of the presidency with which your government is the same age is about to expire. More on this later, for now let's talk about the current year.

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How do you assess the results of the work of the Government, how do you assess the state of the economy?

Dmitry Medvedev: We usually start with these questions, and this is the right thing to do, because we need to assess what happened.

In my opinion, today we can testify that the economy has entered a stage of growth and, in general, the changes that have taken place in the economy are quite favorable.

By the way, yesterday Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin just said that the main achievement or, so to speak, the main assessment of the outgoing year is that the economy has emerged from the recession. This is precisely the case, because, as I recall, last year we experienced a decline in economic development, that is, the so-called negative growth, in the amount (including recalculations) 0.2%. Not much at all, but still the growth was practically zero and even negative. This year the situation is different. Now, of course, there are also a lot of forecasts, nevertheless, all analysts - both ours and foreign ones - agree that by the end of this year we will receive approximately 2% of the growth in gross domestic product. This is not a huge figure, but it is still a figure that corresponds to the average world growth rate in developed countries.

Further. Perhaps even more important, this year we will have record low inflation. In all likelihood, it will be below 3%. I am not giving absolute numbers yet. We also need the statistics to work and the year is over. But this will be an absolute achievement for the entire post-Soviet era. That is, for the entire period of development of modern Russia, inflation has never dropped so low. This, of course, has direct implications both for the economy, where such inflation makes it possible to issue cheaper loans, and for ordinary citizens, for whom the depreciation of money and the solvency of the currency are becoming more understandable values.

Further. Importantly, this year we can state that there is an increase in the real incomes of the population, an increase in real wages. By the end of the year, it is likely to grow by about 3%. If we talk about nominal growth, then this is 7%. This may not be the most outstanding result either, but nevertheless it is an important trend change. This means that we have entered a situation where incomes are no longer falling, but growing. And this is very important, extremely important for all citizens of our country.

There are other very serious macro-indicators that I would like to draw your attention to. For example, investments in fixed assets, which also characterize the general situation in the economy. By the end of the year, they will grow by more than 4%. We have not seen this either in recent years, and this is also a result of economic development this year. I am not talking about such generally important indicators as a balanced budget and foreign exchange reserves, which are also growing this year. Finally, it is extremely important that at the end of the year we can state that the ruble exchange rate is stable and predictable. But we will probably talk about this even today, because this topic is always quite important.

These are macro indicators, indicators of the stability of the economy, and they characterize the past year. But something else is equally important, and I would like to say this right away: despite all the gloomy forecasts, despite the pressure, despite the fact that all the challenges faced by our economy remain in force, we have fully fulfilled our social obligations ... We did everything we planned. And I think that this is a good result that the economy has shown, and, in general, a good result of the activities of all structures that took part in this.

S. Brilyov:I would like to hear the details.

I.Zeynalova: Dmitry Anatolyevich, what if we just focus on the ruble / dollar exchange rate. Of course, we are getting off the oil needle, everything is fine with us, we have historically low inflation, but at the same time, we hear talk that low inflation cannot be an end in itself, that productivity is not growing as fast as we would like, that there is some kind of rescue, bank reorganization, that now corporate debts will be paid, and the like. The end of the year is approaching, and we all remember what happens at the end of the year. Tell me, what will the ruble exchange rate, in your opinion, be in the coming months? And where can you store your savings now, because the end of the year is such a critical period for Russians?

Dmitry Medvedev: Irada, in general, not a single macro-indicator can be an end in itself. The goal in itself is to increase the welfare of the citizens of the Russian Federation. This is the most important goal.

I.Zeynalova: In rubles or dollars?

Dmitry Medvedev: It's good if this happens in both.

Now I am answering your question directly. It is quite obvious that the exchange rate of the national currency is currently stable, while the exchange rate is always influenced by a number of indicators and parameters. This, of course, is the world financial system, the ratio between the rates of the main reserve currencies. This is the internal state of the economy. With regard to our country, it is perfectly clear that the internal state of the economy is largely dictated by the prices of hydrocarbons, that is, oil prices. Plus other factors, including related external shocks or external influences such as sanctions. So now, in aggregate, it can be recognized that all these parameters, although they have an impact on the ruble exchange rate, are still not so volatile as it was several years ago. Look at what happened, for example, with the ruble exchange rate and what happened with oil prices. Over the past year (a little more), our oil has fluctuated within the range of up to 50% - from $ 43 per barrel to $ 65. That is, the spread is huge. Earlier, when we observed such volatility, such dynamics of oil prices, the ruble followed oil in the same way.

I.Zeynalova: And now he got loose.

Dmitry Medvedev:And now he got loose. And this is very good, it means that it is stable. In other words, during the same time, the ruble exchange rate was in the range between 56 rubles per dollar and 64–65. While the dollar rate is naturally not fixed, it also moved and changed during this time. In other words, the economy has entered a different phase.

Now I am answering the second part of your question. Indeed, the national currency is stable. The question arises as to how to keep the money. To this question, in my opinion, there are at least two answers. First, of course, it depends on the goals pursued by a particular citizen or a company that is going to save some money. In other words, is this person ready for risky operations? There are not so many such transactions usually occurring in the market in the share of all market transactions. And the second question is what the citizen keeps his savings and what the citizen pays for in his daily activities. Taking into account the fact that the vast majority of our citizens keep their savings in rubles today, pay in rubles and receive a salary in rubles, the answer is obvious how to store money, what to store stocks.

I.Zeynalova: That is, before the New Year of the traditional collapse of the ruble ...

Dmitry Medvedev:It is not traditional. We really had a very difficult situation when the ruble was subjected to such an impact and when we, in fact, moved to an open, free corridor, but nothing like this is predicted this year and is impossible to imagine.

M. Fishman: I also have a question about economic growth. You said the economy came out of recession. It is gratifying, but the question of the quality of growth is still there. You mentioned the figure of 2%, I will refer to the adjusted forecast of the Central Bank for the year - a growth rate of 1.8%. One way or another, this is not enough, it is, in fact, a forecast for stagnation. And if so, then, of course, the question arises why this is happening. There are different opinions. It is believed that this is the effect of external factors, sanctions, the oil price fell, although it has grown recently. Or there is an opinion, experts say about this: it is our economy that has exhausted its opportunities in its current form, and without real denationalization of the economy, without real guarantees of property rights, without a functioning judicial system, and so on, such growth is our ceiling.

Dmitry Medvedev:Mikhail, I still cannot agree that 2% is stagnation. Because, let's be honest, some countries would envy this 2%. The question, of course, is what is the base - the base of growth. We have it not as significant as we would like, and we are really not satisfied with 2%, although it is much better than minus 2, or minus 3, or near zero.

Now about whether we have exhausted opportunities for growth or not. I think that we, of course, have not exhausted them, but you are right that our economy is under the influence of what economists call shocks. This, by the way, was in the previous period and now. I mean both external shocks and internal shocks or internal challenges. Of the external ones, naturally, these are the prices for hydrocarbons, which, although they have grown, are still very different from what we had three or four years ago. And external sanctions, that is, attempts to influence our economic situation through the adoption of political measures by individual states. But no less important, and perhaps a more significant problem, of course, remains the structure of our economy, which is still largely focused on hydrocarbon growth.

Yes, it is changing. We analyzed these factors last year with you. Indeed, we now receive more than half of our income, about 60%, not from oil and gas trade, but from other sources. But it is desirable that these sources be 80, 85 percent. So that we are not so dependent on all trends in the oil market. Therefore, the task of changing the structure of the economy, carrying out structural reforms, if necessary, and what you are talking about: the state's withdrawal from some industries or, conversely, if it is appropriate, the state's entry into some segments, remains relevant. This model will need to be implemented in the coming years, if we do not want to "freeze" by 2%, which would really be bad.

V. Fadeev: Dmitry Anatolyevich, continuing the theme of structural reforms and sanctions. After all, we have bottlenecks in the economy - high-tech industries: machine tools, microelectronics. These are complex industries. They require very serious work. And I'm not sure that only private business can cope with this. In connection with the sanctions, in connection with the risks that we have from outside, what measures are assumed to develop such complex industries?

Dmitry Medvedev: Yes, these industries are complex, but extremely important for us. And this is precisely where non-resource growth lies.

The measures are clear. We, in fact, have already begun to implement them. These are investments in the industries that you name. This is what is called machine tool construction or production of means of production. Until recently, we purchased 87% of machines for export. In fact, 90%. Now this figure, by the end of this year, will already be around 70%. Also a lot, but this is still a significant increase. By the way, large players have appeared in this market - purely Russian ones. Such as the group "STAN", for example, and some others. These are already purely Russian participants. Moreover, we still need to get technology, create joint businesses with our foreign partners, and so on.

If we talk about microelectronics, about IT, this is also a very difficult area. This is not to say that we have never dealt with it. The same Zelenograd was created back in the Soviet period as a center for the development of microelectronics. And our leading enterprises also appeared practically on the basis of what was then created. The main thing is that they correspond to the level dictated by the current situation. And these are very subtle, hypersensitive things. By the way, some of these technologies were naturally sanctioned for us, so that we feel uncomfortable in this sense.

But we must still develop, and we must still use these technologies in everyday life. It is impossible to imagine modern life without this kind of technology.

Until recently, we did not have our own internal payment system. It's not about sanctions, it's just that the world is very vulnerable. Digital technologies are vulnerable. Full, full of all sorts of gavrikov who harm simply by making certain decisions and acting on the same network. We have created our own payment system. But how to operate this payment system? Naturally, we must have our own chips and our cards. This was done in the form of this project - the World Map. The task is to ensure that all this is at the highest level.

There are other issues that we are currently working on, and I recently talked about this with colleagues from the Eurasian Union: the idea of \u200b\u200btraceability of goods and electronic tags.

You understand, the modern world is so arranged that, in principle, it is very important to know how the goods came to us (any - from toothpaste to a car) and what stages it went through. In order to erect a barrier to counterfeit, in order to erect a barrier to all kinds of gray imports, violation of the law, ultimately, simply non-payment of taxes on these transactions. Therefore, traceability of goods, electronic tags are the future of the economy. The Digital Economy program has just been adopted, and it is aimed precisely at this.

If we talk about investments, then these investments were in the anti-crisis program, and now they remain. These are investments through the Production Development Fund, through our innovative institutions. For example, if we talk about machine-tool building, at the moment credit support is about 3 billion rubles, and this is only through one of the channels. Therefore, we are doing this, we understand how important it is, and we understand that this is the future of our economy. There can be no doubt about this.

I. Poletaev:Dmitry Anatolyevich, I would like to raise the issue that my colleague Mikhail (Fishman) already raised. According to the Analytical Center for the Government, there are now about 12 million working poor in Russia, and more than 20 million people live below the poverty line. And there is an opinion that it will be possible to reduce this indicator in five to seven years. Does this mean that we will not be able to overcome poverty by, for example, increasing GDP growth rates to the world average or higher in the coming years?

Dmitry Medvedev:Poverty is, of course, one of the most glaring problems. Naturally, poverty itself is the flip side of the underdevelopment of the economy, because there can be no situation when the economy is in a weak state, and there are no poor at all.

It is very important that through consolidated efforts we take real steps to fight poverty and low incomes. Indeed, over the past few years, the number of such people has grown due to economic problems. It is still significantly less than what we started with at the beginning of this century, 10-15 years ago. Then the number of people who had incomes below the required level was measured by the figure of 30 million people. But it's still a big, very big figure. This is the first thing I want to say.

Second. There can be no abstract calls to fight poverty: let's make the economy better, and there will be fewer poor people. This is certainly not the case. This is an absolutely systematic, concrete work that concerns certain groups of the population, precisely those who need help.

What is the problem of our social system (it was and still remains)? The system in this sense is not entirely fair, because it smears everything in almost a thin layer. And people who have good incomes are entitled to some kind of benefits, and people who have very low incomes are entitled to the same benefits. Therefore, the idea of \u200b\u200btargeting is extremely important. Only it needs to be brought to its logical conclusion, that is, to take into account any person who needs support.

What groups of people are these? It is clear which groups. These are retirees, people with disabilities, that is, people with disabilities, and, as a rule, people who have a large family, including large families. It is in these categories that decisions are made.

If we talk about pensioners, then, of course, the main task here is to increase pensions. Here's what we ran into some time ago - the task of indexing pensions in line with inflation or even above inflation. Actually, we have provided this now.

If we talk about programs to support people with disabilities, disabled people, then these are, of course, programs for their social and medical rehabilitation. We are also implementing such programs, they are quite specific.

Supporting families with children is generally a key task, because we know what demographic situation we are in. This is our future. And it is very bad when people who make decisions about how to plan a family are faced with material problems. This is the main constraint. When we started the maternity capital program and started paying this maternity allowance for the birth of a second child, we assumed that this could stimulate the growth of children. And so it happened. By the way, this program is working, and the President has just announced that he proposes to keep this program for the next period - until the end of 2021. This is a welcome decision. It seems to me that it will play its role.

Some other very important steps were also announced. Let me remind you which ones. One of these new solutions is benefits for those families who decide to have their first child. Because we are convinced that now is the time to stimulate, encourage people to give birth not to second children, as we tried to do 10 years ago, but to first children. And for this purpose, an allowance is being introduced - targeted, I emphasize right away, this is exactly the targeting that I spoke about - for families who have their first child. This allowance will be one living wage and will be paid until the age of one and a half years.

There is one more solution: to pay a similar allowance at the expense of maternity capital, but to those who have second and third births, if these families want to receive additional money.

Another major decision. When people start a family and think about children, the question is not only what exactly is earned in a particular month, what benefits are paid, but also where to live. This is perhaps the most important task for any family. This is exactly what another idea is aimed at, which is to subsidize mortgage loans in excess of the 6% level (and according to all world estimates, 6% is exactly the mortgage that the absolute majority of families will quite pull when the interest rate is 6%). So, the difference between 6% and the current mortgage rate will be compensated by federal funds. This will apply to those who have a second and third child, and such measures are being introduced for three and five years. It seems to me that this will motivate people in a significant way, and, on the other hand, will stimulate the mortgage program itself, which is also extremely important for us.

All these solutions, it seems to me, together and are aimed at helping those people who have problems with income.

I.Zeynalova: Dmitry Anatolyevich, year after year I ask the same question about pensions. I would not like to remain completely helpless and without money in old age. Now suddenly there are statements (which, of course, have been refuted, but there is a feeling that there is no smoke without fire) that the Pension Fund is empty and there is basically nothing to pay with. Moreover, there has already been talk that only non-working pensioners are being indexed. And the workers as a result have gone into the shadows and do not pay taxes, somehow trying to survive. So is there anything at all to pay pensions for this category? Because otherwise there will be working and non-working people, not just poor, but beggars.

Dmitry Medvedev:Irada, it is clear that any kind of negative information always leaves a deep wound in the soul, because, as we say, a residue remains. It seems to have been denied, but still somehow it turns out dull.

I would like to officially say both on behalf of the Government and on behalf of the Pension Fund: in this sense, everything is in order in the Pension Fund, there is money to pay pensions in full, and there will be no problems at all. There won't be any problems.

Another thing is that we need to think about how to optimize these money savings themselves, how to manage them, how to position the state in this system, the relationship between the federal budget and the Pension Fund. These are all tasks for the coming years, but they have nothing to do with payments, where everything is absolutely in order. Moreover, pensions concern 43 million people, that is, pensioners are, in fact, a third of the population of our country. Therefore, this is an extremely sensitive topic on which there can be no ambiguity. There is money, everything will be paid.

Moreover, we proceed from the need to pay pensions and index them next year, not even in February, but in January. And this indexation will clearly be higher than inflation, because inflation, as I said at the beginning of our program, will be below 3%. Maybe even quite seriously below 3%, wait and see. And indexation has already been planned, money has been allocated for it, it will be 3.7%. This still means that we are back to normal when indexing occurs at or above inflation. This is how we will act, there is no doubt about it.

I.Zeynalova: That is, those who said all this are wrong?

Dmitry Medvedev: Whoever said all this meant something completely different. Because it was those who said all this who later gave refutations on this topic. If you mean a few words that Alexei Kudrin said: he said that he meant the need for the development of the pension system, and not the presence of money there, they say, his words were taken out of context.

S. Brilyov: Then let's talk about taxes. This is my favorite question. A couple of years ago I got from the audience when I was visibly delighted at your answer that personal income tax would not change. Now a new circle of talks about the tax burden has started again. But I wanted to dwell on personal income tax, because it concerns everyone. Dmitry Anatolyevich, will he still remain flat? That is, let it be not 13, but 15-17%, it is better lower, to be honest ... But it will remain flat - tax on personal income?

Dmitry Medvedev: We promised that during the current period (the President said about it, the Government relayed it all) the basis of the tax system will not change. And we did it, no matter what they say, no matter how they reproached us for introducing some kind of quasi-tax payments, and so on. It is clear that the tax system is complex, but in general, the basis of the tax system, tax rates have remained the same. Tell me a country where it would be the same as ours, where tax rates have not changed at all for four or five years. There are practically no such countries. Therefore, we have done everything here.

Regarding personal income tax. There are no decisions at the moment to change the personal income tax. Are changes possible in the future? There are no eternal taxes. I can only say that the flat scale of personal income tax was very successful for our country. It paid off - we pulled a huge amount of income out of the shadows; not only people with low incomes, but also very rich people are not afraid to pay taxes. The growth in collection has grown, we collect up to 3 trillion in personal income tax per year - this is a huge amount. Of course, when deciding which way to go, you have to think about how much we will collect if the rate changes, and about who will pay what.

S. Brilyov: They can start cheating, calling things by their proper names ...

Dmitry Medvedev: It is possible, if, for example, to do something illiterate. Then there will obviously be a return to envelopes, gray and other payments, the budget will not receive the necessary income - everyone will only get worse from this. This does not mean that you can never encroach on this very flat scale. Moreover, as we talked about this, the majority of modern developed countries, countries with developed economies, still have a more complex taxation scale than we do. I am not saying a proportional system, but a more complex scale.

For example, you are talking about 13%, but we have people with very low incomes, which we talked about. Probably, hypothetically, we can also consider the option of introducing some kind of benefits, when people with very low incomes do not pay tax at all. It will be deducted from the tax base, quite rightly. On the other hand, some people are probably able to pay a slightly higher tax. All this must be weighed and the final decision made. And to finish on a positive note, I believe that the easy-to-calculate, understandable scale of personal income tax has justified itself. And we'll see.

I. Poletaev: Dmitry Anatolyevich, I wanted to ask a global economic question. International rating agencies do not rule out that trillions of costs for the rehabilitation of troubled banks with the participation of the Central Bank may lead to a budget crisis in the future. What do you think about this? Are you generally satisfied with the work of the financial system?

Dmitry Medvedev: The main thing is not whether I am satisfied. Are people satisfied with how the financial system works, the citizens of our country? And, of course, companies and businesses are satisfied with how the financial system works? These are two key ingredients. I believe that at the moment our financial system is in a stable, balanced, normal state. Despite the difficulties that we had several years ago, this system was balanced due to successful decisions made by the Central Bank, they were resonant, but ultimately turned out to be successful for the financial system. The government, in its part, also adopted or supported these decisions. The way they were implemented has resulted in a stable financial system.

This does not mean that we are completely calm and should not do anything. The Central Bank continues to work actively to restore order in the financial world. We really had a lot of banks, some of them either did not have sufficient capital to develop, or made decisions aimed at supporting certain groups of shareholders, in fact, de-energizing the bank itself and withdrawing money through very dubious transactions. For such banks, the Central Bank decided to revoke the license and close it. This is a problematic story, it is always lawsuits, disputes, people lose money. But this is still clearing the financial field, because when there are a lot of such banks, they can undermine the entire system, including even the largest banks. Therefore, there is no doubt about the need to put things in order here. It seems to me that the Central Bank is coping with this.

For banks, indicators are very important - the formation of reserves, capital adequacy, the risk ratio per borrower, liquidity issues, that is, the availability of sufficient capital, money in the bank itself. All these positions have been and will be followed by the Central Bank and the Government as far as the Government is concerned. But there is absolutely no reason to believe that these measures will lead to any opposite effect. On the contrary, it seems to me that our financial system has strengthened as a result of everything that has happened in the past two or three years. This, by the way, to a certain extent manifests itself not only in the indicators of our financial world, but also in the quotes of our currency, which we have already discussed.

V. Fadeev: Dmitry Anatolyevich, let me return to the social topic. Deceived real estate investors. At one time it seemed that the topic was closed and the defrauded equity holders would forever remain defrauded. But this year, very serious changes have taken place: the law has been adopted by the State Duma so that there are no more such deceived people, some serious measures are being taken. People who have already lost faith that they will receive their apartments, it seems, are gaining faith again. What's going on here? And has there become fewer already defrauded equity holders?

Dmitry Medvedev:You are right, Valery, that certain decisions have been made. In my opinion, the solutions are long-awaited. But this does not mean that we need to stop there.

I would divide the problem of equity holders into two parts. The first is to prevent the manipulation of equity holders' money in the future. For this, a law was adopted, a Fund for the Protection of the Rights of Citizens - Participants of Shared Construction was created. Moreover, this protection is carried out in two ways: either by placing the accumulated funds in the actual completion, or by paying compensation. These funds must be pledged into the contracts themselves, according to which the organization carrying out shared construction is obliged to transfer part of the construction cost ...

V. Fadeev: They are afraid that prices will rise immediately.

Dmitry Medvedev: There are only 1.2%. This will not affect the cost of construction services and contract work in general. Moreover, you know that these prices have been falling lately. And our developers, our contractors are just worried about these reasons. That is, it practically had no effect on prices, on the construction market. But this creates a money bag, due to which these problems can be solved. This is part of the problem.

There is another part of the problem. It consists in the need to help those who have already got into this situation. These rules cannot apply to them to such an extent, and there it is already a piece of work carried out by the regions with the support of the federal government. There are all sorts of problems there. The region is very different from the region. Somewhere there are many such people, somewhere very few of them. Somewhere the region was successful and solved these problems, somewhere the turn and the need to complete houses is measured in tens of thousands. All this needs to be untied, to do it carefully, treating with utmost attention and tact to those who are in such a situation. I receive a huge number of such requests. On social networks, people write. Naturally, we try to tell the regions what to look for. And there is money in the federal budget for these purposes. True, this does not allow solving the problem at once, nevertheless, it is also clear what to do here. This is the second thing.

And the third - for the future. It is necessary to complete the existing agreements, to close the entire problem of defrauded equity holders, which has formed in recent years. And for the future, it is generally necessary to abandon shared construction contracts. This is all, if you will, the rudiments of a previous era. This is all the legacy of an underdeveloped housing market. No other countries have such agreements on shared construction. Mortgage - yes. He took the money, preferably at a normal rate, and bought an apartment. But here, due to the fact that the financial system worked so-so, as they say, due to the fact that construction technologies were not up to par, it was necessary to finance construction projects at the expense of the citizens themselves, and we have this model.

For the future, it is necessary to gradually move from shared construction to a normal, civilized mortgage - with subsidies if necessary, including at the state expense or at the expense of the employer, which, by the way, is also very common. This will be the best guarantee against money manipulation of those who want to buy an apartment.

I.Zeynalova: Dmitry Anatolyevich, about support. It sounded very nice: stop nightmare business. And everyone said: we will stop nightmare business, that's enough ... And suddenly I'm talking to teachers, talking to doctors and I'm faced with an absolutely amazing problem: the social sphere is being nightmares. Teachers have to complete a billion papers to buy each textbook. The student should not be asked to erase from the blackboard because this could be seen as child labor. Doctors have to put together a thousand papers, because each pill may end up on one list and not on another. As a result, the health care reform, which we are all waiting for and so want to receive, results in the fact that physicians formally have to report on some incredible scientific work, and not solve the problem of how to get to a remote village. How does this health care reform now include the very problem of increasing the availability of medical services and improving the quality, in principle, of professional services in the social sphere? Otherwise, doctors will get bogged down in formal papers, and we will not get either new education or healthcare ...

Dmitry Medvedev:What do we have to do? Firstly, reporting as a whole is needed; it cannot be completely abandoned. Because if you say: do not record anything at all, do not write down, there may be a downside, we will go to the other extreme, when it is impossible to track how a person was treated, how a person was taught, what happened in a school or hospital. But, of course, this reporting should be reasonable, not prohibitive. Recently, the heap of this reporting has really grown, everyone indicates this: teachers, doctors, social workers and citizens themselves, who are forced to spend a lot of time in the doctor's office, and 80% of this time the doctor writes something, writes and does not look at the patient.

What to do? Introduce modern forms of control and reporting. What are these forms? These are electronic forms, there is nothing supernatural here, the doctor does everything in an electronic form. He already has everything, he just arranges several positions and reports in the same way. This is completely normal. The social worker does the same, because we are moving on to keep work books in electronic form. The same goes for teachers. This is one side of the problem. The second side of the challenge is to provide better accessibility for what you are talking about. And here, too, help ...

I.Zeynalova: So that doctors can use a computer ...

Dmitry Medvedev:I think, Irada, that they already know how to use it. It seemed to me myself that everything is complicated in this sense. 10 years ago, I started the transition of schools to the Internet in our country, as they say. Then we had very few connections. And when I entered the school, I watched how our teachers, often already of considerable age, looked longingly at all these computers that children easily use. There is no problem now, everyone has learned. And this, it seems to me, is absolutely normal. But it is very important that accessibility is ensured, and this accessibility is really associated with the use of modern digital technologies. After all, it is not at all necessary, in order to consult, to take the patient somewhere from the district to the regional center. Sometimes it’s hundreds of kilometers, it’s hard, and the patient, the person may just feel unwell. But if there is an electronic connection, if there is direct communication on the Internet, you can show all the examination data, devices that take readings from the patient, and get qualified advice either in a regional center, or even in Moscow, in a leading center (and this will take 15 minutes ), get the right picture and make the right medical decision. This is very important, and now we are discussing the issue of spending additional money on the creation of such a system of electronic communications between central district hospitals, regional hospitals and federal clinics.

M. Fishman:I'm talking about reporting and how nightmares are, I will continue. But I'll ask about the theaters. You probably know about the Seventh Studio criminal case. The famous director Kirill Serebrennikov is under house arrest. Sophia Apfelbaum, the former head of a specialized department at the Ministry of Culture, also a former theater director, is under house arrest. Alexey Malobrodsky, the former general producer of the Seventh Studio, has been in jail for five months already. It is necessary to check the reporting, this is understandable. But here the scale of the accusations and the aggression that manifests itself in this case go beyond conceivable limits. The theater community is reacting. The Union of Theater Workers has already said that this is, in fact, a demonstrative electoral campaign of intimidation, a campaign against theaters. They say that the laws are such that such claims can be made to any theater. In essence, normal, routine theatrical activities are criminalized. Grab anyone. The Union of Russian Museums also supported them, they also say that the laws must be changed. And of course, I want to ask, how do you look at this case specifically and at this whole situation?

Dmitry Medvedev:I think that our representatives of the creative professions are right that the legislation in this area is extremely imperfect. Applied to theaters, filmmaking, a number of other creative professions.

I also discussed this with them many times. Unfortunately, the changes are not as fast as we all would like. Everything revolves around government procurement and government services. This is the so-called 44th law, which generally dictates quite understandable competitive requirements. And we are all for the competition. The market is the market. But as soon as we move into the creative world, all these criteria fail. It's one thing to buy paper clips and pencils by competition, and another thing to props, or create something on stage, or do filmmaking somewhere in a distant village. What's the competition? The only performer? This is the first thing.

Second. I have already come across this many times, the directors have contacted me: you know, we are making a film, now everything is included in the system proposed by the Ministry of Finance, the system of control and administration through the treasury. All this is good, we completely agree with this, but how can we pay off the carpenter who creates some decorations for us somewhere in a distant Siberian town? We need cash, we can’t do anything without it, he has no account, it’s impossible to pay with his card.

We meet halfway, and according to the treasury support system, I personally gave instructions twice each year to apply more flexible criteria here. But on the whole, the system of government contracts and government purchases with regard to theaters, film production, and other creative activities should become more loyal. But, as usual, the question is within this loyalty. You and I cannot allow another situation when they will tell us: you know what, here I am going to shoot a film, I need 5 million rubles, give me all this in cash, because I will not be able to pay off any of the film production participants in any other way. Report - well, I'll bring you some pieces of paper.

This is also a question. Therefore, here you need to create a working model. This is the first thing. The second is, of course, the issue of the accuracy of the reflection of all these actions in the accounting department. You said that our colleagues from the creative community say that, in their opinion, such claims can be made against any creative production - film production, and theatrical production. Probably, everyone has flaws, but still the task of those who are engaged in this is to follow the existing rules to the maximum. It is difficult, but it needs attention. This is done all over the world. Thus, the movement should be counter - on the one hand, it is necessary to create a more understandable, more efficient, more loyal, if you like, frame of creative activity and its legal form for creative professions, and on the other hand, the representatives of creative professions themselves organizations that do this should monitor as closely as possible what is happening with them.

Now with regard to this case. Of course, it is difficult for me to comment now, because there is still an investigation going on. The case is very resonant, commenting on this kind of thing is a thankless story. We need to figure out exactly where there are possible violations, and where, in fact, the need to make operational decisions that do not go beyond the law. I hope that the investigative and judicial structures will be able to sort this out.

M. Fishman: Dmitry Anatolyevich, will you allow me to clarify (because you yourself say that it is a high-profile case, and it really worries our audience very, very much) about selectivity? Just the other day, the Investigative Committee closed the criminal case against the director of another large theater, this is the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater, according to the statute of limitations. They are similar, these are the statute of limitations, but here people are in jail. And this is kind of selectivity ...

Dmitry Medvedev: Let me tell you this, Mikhail, I would be very sad if the final decisions were made only taking into account the expiration of the statute of limitations. It is advisable to complete everything within the timeframe prescribed by law. This is the first thing. Second. All processes always have different sides. There are law enforcement agencies, there is a court, and there are plaintiffs who, for example, believe that the actions of certain people, persons, organizations, including creative ones, contain elements of administrative or criminal offenses. And these plaintiffs have the right to appeal, including decisions made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the prosecutor's office and even the court. With regard to the other incidents you are talking about, I do not know how they will act. This is in their right. The state can do this, and so do other participants.

V. Fadeev: Dmitry Anatolyevich, let me return to social problems. Another pressing problem is drug prices. Cheap assortment is washed out of pharmacies. This is a phenomenon of recent years. It is profitable for manufacturers and traders to work with expensive medicines. Even if we talk about the list of essential drugs, there is a markup there, and, of course, it is also beneficial for them to make the drug as expensive as possible. This is a major problem, and this is a topic that concerns the problem of poverty that you spoke about. What measures are being taken here?

Dmitry Medvedev: This is indeed the most important topic, it concerns absolutely all people in our country, because everyone takes medicine in one way or another. We talked about control. This is an area where state control must be unrelenting, constantly tough. Who is doing this? This is done by the Federal Antimonopoly Service as a whole within the framework of state regulation. Taking into account the fact that our economy is market-based, we do not, of course, fully regulate drug prices, but we are monitoring the balance of these prices. And this is the most important task of the state, the Government and the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

How can this balance be achieved? The money is spinning there huge. This morning, on purpose, realizing that one way or another we will talk about this, I called the minister and asked what we expect in the future with regard to financing and purchasing medicines through the federal and regional lines. This is approximately half a trillion rubles annually - federal and regional budget funds. They go through the budget and through the compulsory health insurance system. It is necessary to ensure that this money is used for business, that it is used to purchase really vital and essential medicines. This is the list approved by the Government. I, as Prime Minister, sign it. Now it consists of 699 items. There were 400-500 names, and now there are almost 700. This is very important: the wider the list, the higher the availability of these drugs.

Second. It is very important to keep track of the mandatory assortment in pharmacies so that it does not happen like this: there is an expensive drug, but there is no cheap drug. And this is the business of the control authorities. The Ministry of Health, the Antimonopoly Service, and other organizations that are called upon to monitor this must necessarily follow this.

Third. It is very important that the drugs themselves are of high quality and reasonably cheap, so that they are sold at prices that are acceptable to people. How can this be achieved? It is clear that everything that is bought for currency is always more expensive. We also have a certain belief that a foreign pill works better than a Russian one. Unfortunately, not groundless. A number of manufacturers did not act very nicely. It is imperative to put things in order in the pharmacological market. We now have approximately 70% of drugs in terms of value purchased from abroad and only 30% - domestically. But in terms of names, the situation is different: in our country, 60% of the so-called international medical non-proprietary names are purchased domestically, and only 40% are purchased from abroad. If you take the list of vital and essential medicines, 85% of them are already purchased domestically.

Why am I talking about this? It is not only about supporting our pharmaceutical industry. It's just objectively cheaper. And this does not depend on fluctuations in foreign currency and the relationship between the ruble and other currencies. This is the key task. This is import substitution, which we are engaged in and to which we must pay close attention.

Finally, the most important thing. It is necessary that all participants in this market behave responsibly. We have now made a decision to label the drugs in a new way and use a different package. Questions immediately arose - they say, this will lead to an increase in the cost of drugs and so on. We need quality drugs, not fake ones. We need a normal, modern pharmaceutical industry. We know how many problems and machinations there are. Therefore, it is necessary to put things in order in this market. Then the pharmacies will have normal, cheap Russian drugs, no worse than foreign ones.

I. Poletaev:Dmitry Anatolyevich, let me go to our daily bread, in the literal sense. For several years in a row, Russia has had a record grain harvest, including wheat. Due to the growth of supplies from our country, prices are falling both on the world market and inside Russia. This is a problem for farmers. Investment programs are being cut, jobs are being cut. Does the state plan to regulate the grain market more tightly? And how, in the end, can we balance prices and interests of agricultural producers?

Dmitry Medvedev: I will start by saying that we have achieved outstanding results. I just want to praise all the farmers here. And ultimately praise the measures we have taken to support the agricultural sector. 140 million tons of grain - cereals and legumes - is a result that our country has never known, in no century, under any system, under any state. The result is outstanding. Now we need to do it competently.

We have become the largest net exporter of wheat and grain. This is capital, this is currency. And in principle, this can help our farmers. Therefore, if we reach the export level of about 45-50 million tons, and this harvest allows us to do this, in compliance with all norms on carry-over stocks, so that everything is in order with the provision of bread and grain to all producers, this will solve many problems. This is the first thing.

Second. We must, of course, invest in deep grain processing. These are modern technologies, this is the production of amino acids, this is just a huge number of various additives that are used, among other things, to support animal husbandry, to develop animal husbandry. This is the second.

Third, it is very important that our logistics capabilities are aligned with our increased grain production capabilities. That is, these are investments in ports, investments in roads.

And the fourth, but related to the third, is the tariff component. Taking into account the concrete results that we have achieved this year, the outstanding results in the harvest, we have made a number of decisions, and we will take more, to support the farmers by using lower tariffs for rail transportation.

I.Zeynalova: Do we have enough wagons?

Dmitry Medvedev: Enough.

M. Fishman:If possible, I will ask you about politics again. We are summing up the results of the year. One of the results of the year: this year a lot of governors have been replaced, about 20 replacements have been dismissed and made acting. There was a group in the spring, then a large group in the fall. This is an unprecedented scale of replacement. At least I don't remember that. Among them there are many "Varangians", that is, those who are not initially associated with the regions on which they are placed. Among them, by the way, there are also deputy ministers in your Government. You probably know them well. So it’s interesting what you think about this. In particular, I am concerned about the following question: does not such a large-scale reshuffle, which we are facing for the first time, mean that these new governors are de facto assigned the status of a representative of the central government in the localities, despite their formal electivity? It seems that there are elections, but nevertheless? ..

Dmitry Medvedev:If we talk about the general trend, then it seems correct to me. She, by the way, did not appear now, not this year. It was in previous years, and even in the previous period. We started quite actively these processes related to the rejuvenation of the governor's corps, probably already eight to ten years ago. Indeed, now it was a large group of people, relatively young, who received new appointments. But I draw your attention to the fact that so far they are only temporarily acting. They still have to be elected. Some of them have already received trust, including the very "Varangians" you are talking about. This is not a key factor, although, of course, people always, when they vote, look: theirs is not theirs, understands problems or does not understand.

I was in many regions during the period when the election campaign was taking place, and I watched how the appointees work, for whom they had not yet voted. I was honestly pleasantly surprised how quickly they immersed themselves in the local material. You know, there are some hesitations: here is a smart, intelligent person, but how will he get to the ground? Will he be able to talk to people in the same language, make decisions that are completely earthly, and not reason abstractly about how the yield curve will grow? They fit in very well. Of course, everything will depend on them, their teams, on how they will work. This also applies to former deputy ministers, this also applies to other people.

Now with regard to who the governor is. Let me remind you that the governor is not the president of a constituent entity of the Federation in the sense in which we understand the figure of the national President, who is the guarantor of the Constitution.

In general, the head of a constituent entity of the Federation, as a rule, or in 99 percent of cases, is the head of the executive branch. Therefore, they are de facto and de jure, and so are participants in a large vertical of executive power, which is headed by the Government, respectively, the government of the subjects of the Federation and those persons who make executive decisions in municipalities. They should not be taken out of this context. But, of course, the most important thing is the support of people. And now another group of people who have received such appointments must prove their efficiency in these conditions.

After all, I am not only the head of the Government, but also the leader of the largest political party. I met with all the candidates and talked to each of them, asked (this especially concerns, for example, deputy ministers): a deputy minister is a very high position, at the same time you are responsible for a specific industry or sub-industry and you can be good at it, absolute authority for someone, make management decisions throughout the country. And here you will need to do other things. You have to sort out all sorts of controversial situations, deal with housing, monitor the sewerage system, water supply, gas supply. Are you ready for this? You're interested? And we must give them their due, they all say: yes, this is a challenge, this is interesting, we want to be useful to our country and a specific region.

Let's see what they do.

S. Brilyov: Dmitry Anatolyevich, I tried to remember where I myself went to the new governors this year. Tula, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kirov, Samara, Novgorod, Ryazan, Perm - I don’t remember all of them. But you know which thing? Of course, I am not a boss, I am an ordinary voter, a taxpayer, but still, as a journalist, I also see something. The rejuvenation took place, the update also took place, but in principle the control system remains in general the old one. Our state seems to be like a federation, and governance is to a certain extent unitary. Take the same inter-budgetary relations. In order to fulfill the presidential decrees in May, the regions, including those that I have listed, went into debt. There are different mechanisms for solving this problem. But in general, according to your feelings, if these debts are forgiven, then should they be written off? Or, perhaps, to provide the regions with more independence, so that our essentially unitary federation becomes more of a federation? It's a dangerous thing, though. Not every region can handle it. A double-edged sword, I understand.

Dmitry Medvedev:You see, you, not being a boss, as you said, have already laid out everything absolutely correctly in the sense that there is always a double-edged sword and you need to keep a balance.

Indeed, our regions are all very different. Moscow is one thing, and Chukotka, for example, is another. And in scale, and in population, and in distance from the centers.

Second. All regions have their own projects. I am sure that the vast majority of these projects were created in order to help the region, help people, develop the economy. In some cases, these projects were not well calculated. We got into debt, including commercial debt, and borrowed money.

S. Brilyov: Optional by May decrees.

Dmitry Medvedev: Not necessary. I'm mainly talking about investment debts.

I.Zeynalova: The May decrees were never fulfilled, and they got into debt.

Dmitry Medvedev:It happens. They want to show how their investments are going well, at the same time they do not monitor the budgetary sphere. All this is there. Therefore, the situations are different. How are we going to resolve these situations? Or how to help the regions? And you still have to help them. Despite the federal nature of the state, we still bear full responsibility - I mean the federal government - for how the economic mechanisms in the regions work.

What do we have to do? Of course, you need to see what kind of loans they are. And if possible (we did this this year and last year), transfer part of commercial loans to budgetary ones. This is definitely a help, because there is a different lending rate. We have already transferred about 50% of these loans into budget loans.

Second, you can think about debt restructuring. And such decisions were made. In total, it was restructured for about 700 billion. This is also significant aid.

The third, conditionally, is a system of subsidies, transfers, and support for the regions themselves. This year it is just over 600 billion rubles. All these measures taken together help to contain the situation. But, of course, regional leaders must behave responsibly. And when they make decisions, they must first of all calculate their social obligations, and this is the most important thing that is: salary, benefits, some other payments that go from the regional budget, including, of course, what is supposed to by presidential decrees dated May 7, 2012. That is, the development of our own social sphere, and after that - the development of the economy. Therefore, it is a matter of prioritization. But we will help the governors - both new governors and those who have been working for a long time -, of course.

S. Brilyov: But in principle, it is worth adding independence to the regions, what do you think?

Dmitry Medvedev:You see, this is another topic that I have not named. We are now monitoring the so-called federal powers - in other words, what they can take away from the federal powers, what they cannot. We need to look at how this relates to regional powers, because some regions say: yes, we are ready to take that too. They take it, and then they cannot fulfill it.

S. Brilyov:Well, yes, we will have such an asymmetric Federation.

Dmitry Medvedev: You see, the question here is this: we cannot have an absolutely symmetrical Federation, because if all our territories and lands were absolutely the same, then it would be easy, but they are very different. The economic opportunities are different. In Moscow, I say it again, there are 15 million people, and in Chukotka or in the Nenets Okrug there are 40-50 thousand people. Legally, the powers are the same, but we understand that they can be exercised in very different ways. And all this must be taken into account.

V. Fadeev:Dmitry Anatolyevich, let me change the subject. A technological revolution is underway in the world. We all understand this and look at it, on the one hand, with great interest, but on the other hand, there is some tension, because all the key decisions, key studies are not in our possession - they are in the USA and Europe. Already, I think, China will catch up soon. Do we have a chance to return to the ranks of the leaders? We won't be late?

Dmitry Medvedev: There are chances, but there is no time to hesitate - you need to hop into a running and accelerating train. Because this train, to be honest, picked up speed at first without us. In this sense, you are right. For a long time we were in a situation where we were forced to simply survive. This happened in the 1990s. In the 1980s, no special attention was paid to this at all. And only now we have begun to create the basis for our technological development. For this, everything is there. There are institutions, there is money. Probably not fantastic, but still pretty decent money that has been accumulated in various support funds. There are tools that have already been tested. And most importantly, there are people. We have a lot of talented people.

What is not? The ability to quickly transform technological innovations into working and commercially successful projects is still lacking. With this we are not doing very well. We are not very good at it.

V. Fadeev:This has always been the case, unfortunately.

Dmitry Medvedev:Unfortunately, in this sense, we really cannot boast of some great past, nevertheless, this can also be learned. There are other countries where they are very good at commercializing and much worse at inventing. To write off something, to copy something - yes. And it's harder to come up with it yourself.

We, of course, need to learn this very commercialization. This should be the focus of both government efforts and business efforts. Business should invest in R&D, should invest in IT research, in modern technologies.

Ten years ago I had, in fact, to drive large companies there with a stick so that they would plan some investments. Because the companies are huge, the revenues are huge, and they have some tears for R&D ... “We are fine anyway. And everything that we need, we will buy from them. " And now we will not buy from them, and we did not conduct our research properly.

Therefore, indeed, this is a task of exceptional importance. But I am sure that we have chances to be on a par with the most advanced countries. We solved such problems in the XX century, and now we can.

I.Zeynalova:I, perhaps, most of all here (after you, of course) was interested in cybernovae. For several weeks in a row this topic went up, one by one. Maybe you saw that all over the world they grabbed our geeks, calling them hackers, accusing them of hacking Google, PayPal, whatever. We will not even say whether they are to blame, not to blame, and nevertheless ... There is already such a thing as cyber war. I understand that we will no longer buy some things, we will invent it ourselves, nevertheless now people who are deeply "mired" in the computer world, have climbed deeply and are building this computer world, say that we must ensure our cyber sovereignty. Beyond the usual sovereignty. That is, the war is waged on land, at sea, in the air, and now it can still be waged in cyberspace. You say all the time: digital economy, labeling and the like, doctors will treat on TV ... How can you ensure the safety of people who will still be under attack by the same hackers who do not know what comes to their minds?

Dmitry Medvedev: Yes, this is a global challenge. Of course, it is better not cyber war, but cyber cooperation, for which, by the way, we always urge our partners in different countries.

Unfortunately, if we talk about international legislation, conventions in the field of cybersecurity, in the field of regulation of relations in the field of digital technologies, we are now, in fact, at a zero level. Mankind has not advanced anywhere, conventionally, since the period of the 70s-80s of the last century, and the world has changed in the most radical way.

Cyber \u200b\u200bsovereignty - how should it be understood? We must be self-sufficient, but not closed. Self-sufficient in the sense that we must have all modern cyber technologies that allow us to develop the economy. We have already talked about this today. Closure is a harmful story, because we can thus cut ourselves off and turn into a state that does not develop at all. A balance must be sought here.

I.Zeynalova: Then they will pick up the master keys for this closeness.

D. Medvedev: Then they will pick up the master keys and still do some nasty things. Regarding the reproaches that are being handed out to us. This is really a common topic now, a hackneyed song that is constantly sung to us, that in general all hackers in the world are agents of the Kremlin. It seems that we are only doing this. This is a separate established global market.

I.Zeynalova: By the way, do they come to us, these hackers?

D. Medvedev: Everyone climbs to everyone. Do not hesitate at all. Everyone is trying to keep an eye on each other. Therefore, it is ridiculous to blame one of our countries for this. Everyone understands this very well, but for some states it has become simply a way of solving internal political problems, a way of internal disassembly.

These decisions must be made. We need to do serious things in the field of cybersecurity, and not yell that there are only hackers around from this or that country. What I mean is countering the terrorist threat. This is the real problem. Terrorists are really using modern technology. This must be fought against, and fought together, by all states that have encountered this. This is the first thing.

The second is all modern digital technologies on which the world is being built today. Therefore, I am sure there are much more reasons for cooperation here than reasons for jealousy or suspicion.

I.Zeynalova: And how is protection ... I understand that states cooperate, but they must also protect themselves from each other, no matter how friendly they are. There is a fork of interests.

D. Medvedev: Protection here is to have self-sufficient capabilities within the country - network, to control certain information flows. But, let's face it, there is no absolute protection that will last for decades or even years. Because for every cyber defense measure there is always a trick. This is the competition that will take place in the world all the time, there is no doubt about it. We just have to be ready for this. The world has changed in this sense.

I.Zeynalova: How ready are we? What do you say, report? You've done a lot of this. How secure are we?

D. Medvedev: I will say this: we are protected now, taking into account different solutions - both open and closed, and monetary and legal - in principle, no worse than other major countries. Moreover, we have a huge responsibility as a leading nuclear country, as the largest country in terms of territory, as a permanent member of the Security Council.

S. Brilyov:I would like to ask you about the traditionally friendly Russian-American relations. There are a number of leading weekly programs here. A series of intersections between Putin and Trump in Vietnam happened before the weekend, after which we took it all apart into small details, assuming who Trump was, was he not too zigzagging to change some of his statements during the Asian tour. But we assumed, and you and Trump met two days later at the summit in the Philippines. There were handshakes. You communicated. Dmitry Anatolyevich, what kind of person is he? Can you even deal with him?

Dmitry Medvedev: I did not communicate for long, as it happens at such summits, and before me the President of the country had the same communication. I have already spoken about this: if we talk about an external impression, then he is a benevolent, willing to establish full-fledged contacts, a politician who perceives everything absolutely adequately. And we really sat and discussed various issues during this dinner. He recalled our cooperation during the Second World War and said that this is important for both Russia and America. In this sense, the contact is quite normal. I am sure, and President Putin also said about this that everything is in order in his personal relationship.

The problem is not our personal relationship. This, of course, is important, but it is still a subordinate story in relation to the decisions that we make, in relation to the atmosphere that is being created. But it is very bad in relations between our countries, between the United States of America and Russia. I would say she is disgusting. She is the worst in any case for the entire period that I remember. And I also remember the meetings of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev with various presidents of the United States. And this, of course, is very bad.

S. Brilyov: You have already mentioned that there are things that are used for domestic political reasons. That is, Russia is such a scarecrow, in fact, due to the mention of Russia, all sorts of things are somehow resolved. From the latest news: colleagues from the RT (Russia Today) TV channel have been deprived of accreditation in the United States Congress over the past 24 hours, although how this affects national security is an absolute mystery. There were many accusations against Russia: you are to blame for everything. Although somehow strange. How are you to blame for everything? Who was the first to add foreign agents to the lists? It came to the reduction of diplomatic missions. They say in Washington that the whole point is Russia's interference in the elections, in Moscow everything is rejected. Do you think (personally - not personally, systemically - not systemically), has the chance to improve Russian-American relations been missed? There were hopes that under Trump it would be somehow different.

Dmitry Medvedev: As for guilt, this is our rather hackneyed topic, and you can answer the question about the guilt of certain forces or states exactly as they say: it's not who is to blame, but what to do about it. We have our own position, everyone knows it. We do not believe we acted in such a way as to spoil our relationship. But that's not the point now. The question is exactly what to do. You say: is the chance missed? I think there is always a chance. The President of the country and colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spoke about this, and I, of course, also spoke about this. The question is to start a full-fledged communication on the most important, essential topics. Look: representatives of big American business come to me - we have a commission on foreign investment, there are 10-12 people from America, these are all top officials of corporations that cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Did any of them have any political theme? They all say: we want to work - we want to work in the Russian market, we want to work together with you. Business wants. If we talk about the human position, then, I am sure, it is also very different from the policy that the Washington establishment is pursuing today and from which, by the way, President Trump also suffers to a large extent.

S. Brilyov: This, of course, is the kingdom of crooked mirrors.

Dmitry Medvedev: We have a feeling that a number of American politicians are trying to solve their own problems at our expense, trying to influence their President by playing this very Russian card. This thing is quite rare, because in the previous history I cannot remember this, except perhaps the 1950s, the period of McCarthyism, but even then it was not about settling scores with our own President.

I. Poletaev: Dmitry Anatolyevich, continuing the theme of the United States. The United States, in fact, does not hide the fact that the sanctions against Russia are intended, among other things, to replace our gas in the European market. In this regard, will we not remain in gas isolation? At the beginning of the year, the Americans announced a new sanctions package. Are we ready for it? In general, we understand that we can find ourselves in the situation of countries that have been living under sanctions for decades?

Dmitry Medvedev: Frankly speaking, we spent the entire 20th century under sanctions. I have spoken about this more than once, Western countries have imposed sanctions against the Soviet Union and subsequently the new Russia - 10 times. If we talk about the well-known Jackson-Vanik amendment, it was in effect for about 40 years. The state was no longer, and this problem disappeared, but the amendment was in effect. Therefore, we have lived under sanctions all the time. And now our partners are trying to make these sanctions durable, that is, to cement them with the help of this law, to make them in such a way that even the President of the United States cannot lift them. Because on the Jackson-Vanik amendment, let me remind you, the President had the decisive word, he could postpone the effect of this notorious amendment. Now the President does not have these powers, to which we have drawn attention to the fact that this is to a certain extent a limitation even of the executive power of the President of the United States.

But God bless them, with these sanctions, we survived with them in the XX century, and now we will survive. We have learned to do this, we have learned to overcome all these difficulties. It even helped us in some ways. The course towards import substitution, quite obviously, would not have appeared in the form in which it is being implemented without these new sanctions. It just hurts everyone.

The last package is clearly aimed at limiting our gas opportunities in Europe. Why? The position here is completely cynical: we want to supply our liquefied natural gas to Europe, the Russians are hindering us with their pipeline gas, their so-called pipe gas, so we want to squeeze them out. Absolutely shameless, even Europeans have their hair on end. True, not all of them, because, unfortunately, our colleagues in Brussels have also begun to stir up the situation a little, making decisions aimed at extending the so-called Third Gas Directive, the Third Energy Package, to our supplies. But let's hope that reason will prevail in Europe and these gas projects will be implemented, because they are commercial in nature and mutually beneficial for both Europe and Russia.

S. Brilev: Dmitry Anatolyevich, in order to complete this international part, there is one story where we could learn some more. I mean interaction with the international sports community. The participation of our athletes in the Winter Olympics in Korea is under threat. WADA is somehow not convinced of the cleanliness of our athletes. McLaren's report is still hanging on the horizon. What conclusions can be drawn from what is happening with the national team and how is the Government going to help our athletes?

Dmitry Medvedev: Naturally, we are in a constant search for a way out of this situation, and my colleagues in the Government are engaged in this, and in general the entire Government is concerned about this in one way or another, and the President has repeatedly dealt with this and expressed his position. There are two things to separate here. The first is our position on doping. It remains the same and unambiguous: we are against the use of doping. We have certain problems with this, and we will fight against this, which in no way casts doubt on the brilliant result of the Russian Federation at our Winter Olympics. It was an honest and absolutely objective victory, and no foreign forces will ever convince us that everything was done somehow wrong. Everything was achieved due to the efforts of our athletes and due to the atmosphere of support that developed in Sochi at that time.

This is one side. And the second side is that, as you say, WADA is not convinced. Nobody wants to be convinced of anything! This topic has become absolutely political, absolutely autonomous, and doping here has 30% of this topic. Everything else is political manipulation.

Unfortunately, this topic became the basis for the promotion of the next anti-Russian campaign. Moreover, we feel that its peak must fall on a certain political cycle in order to show how bad things are in this sense. There is a definite, quite obvious intention in this. They love sports, they root for our athletes. If you take and cut off our athletes, naturally, it makes us all feel disappointed. Therefore, in its pure form, in my opinion, it is now politics. If earlier there were some doubts, now these doubts are gone. This also applies to the McLaren report. There are other characters there, like Rodchenkov, who publishes some diaries. But this, it seems to me, is more of a psychiatric problem. It is enough to look at these diaries to understand that this citizen needs, first of all, psychiatric help, and not some other. But we will leave this aside. Overall, this situation is very disappointing.

I.Zeynalova: But they are already aiming at the World Cup. Rodchenkov begins to write about this too.

Dmitry Medvedev: This is politics. This all became an instrument of political manipulation. Of course, we will oppose all this at all levels of communication, in all organizations, but you need to understand that this is a political campaign - not a sports campaign, not a campaign related to anti-doping, which is deployed against our country, and this is the only way to evaluate it ...

V. Fadeev: Dmitry Anatolyevich, presidential elections are just around the corner, next March. Vladimir Putin has not announced yet whether he will go to the polls. You are the chairman of the United Russia party. Surely the party is discussing the idea that the party should take the initiative and nominate Putin for the presidency. Surely? This is the first question.

Second. You are the leader of the ruling United Russia party. Maybe you are ready to put forward your candidacy for the elections?

D. Medvedev: With regard to candidates for the post of President, everything will be clear very soon. You are the position of United Russia and you know my position very well.

If the current President of the country, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, nominates himself or agrees to be nominated, our party and I personally, as the party chairman, will support him in every possible way in this, because we believe that he is a successful President who leads our country. In this regard, everything must be done within the law. Who will nominate ultimately depends on the candidate himself. Which way the candidate chooses - this way, for example, "United Russia" and will support. If Vladimir Vladimirovich agrees to nominate himself in this sense and if he needs such support, then, of course, United Russia will, no doubt, provide this support.

As for me personally, in the current political season I do not see myself in this capacity, but I will continue to work.

M. Fishman: If Vladimir Putin goes to the polls, you support him and he wins (there are few doubts about that), then by the end of the next term he will work as President for a total of 20 years. And in the interval - four years as the Prime Minister. Brezhnev, you mentioned, was in power less in the end than Putin would get. My question is obvious: does this violate, from your point of view, the principle of the change of power, which is laid down in our Constitution?

D. Medvedev: It seems to me that all kinds of violations are possible or can be so assessed only if we are talking about violations of the law. The situation when a person wins directly and unequivocally due to the absolute support of the population cannot be considered a violation of the law if all this occurs within the framework of the current Constitution and within the framework of the current legislation. This also applies to what you are talking about and to various other countries. Suffice it to recall what is happening in Germany, where the same political force, the same candidate for decades can be the head of government. And, in fact, the head of government there is to a large extent the head of state, because all the powers are there, and no one doubts it. Therefore, everything that is within the framework of constitutional powers and is based on democracy, on the opinion of the people, corresponds to the law. And that's okay.

M. Fishman: In Germany, less time is obtained.

D. Medvedev: It's only the beginning!

M. Fishman: Alexey Navalny. The audience of my colleagues probably knows him worse than our audience, because he is not allowed on the central TV channels, they are not allowed to participate in elections either. But in March of this year, he released an investigation film dedicated to you. You then reacted very sparingly to this, you said "compote", "nonsense" - in these terms, despite the fact that there was a fairly large public response, people took to the streets. And of course I want to ask, maybe you want to add something to this?

D. Medvedev: No. I said everything when I described everything that was done there during one of the interviews. I have no other comments. What should I comment on this? The more you comment on all sorts of swindlers and crooks, the better for them, they count on this.

M. Fishman: Continuing the theme. As a lawyer, why didn't you file a lawsuit then?

D. Medvedev: Precisely in order not to promote such people. Because creating opuses like these films has one simple political goal - to promote itself and create tension. And given the characteristics of these citizens who are doing all this, why should I create additional advertising for them? It doesn't make any sense. If they are crooks, then crooks.

But this does not mean that the people and organizations affected by this film are not entitled to protection. If you have followed the information clearing, recently there have been several courts on different lines, where the information contained in this opus was found to be untrue, found to be false and is subject to refutation, as well as elimination from information sources. Now the question is how to implement these decisions. The creators of such opuses are just responsible for the execution of judicial acts. And they came into legal force. If such execution does not occur, administrative or criminal liability should ensue.

By the way, I think that we need to think about how to strengthen administrative and criminal liability for failure to comply with court decisions. I think that both the Government and the deputies of the State Duma could take care of this.

I.Zeynalova: Dmitry Anatolyevich, everything that is now being discussed is viewed through the prism of elections - sports, security, pensions, the budget, and the like, all the same elections are somewhere in the sub-core. We will not speculate who will be the next prime minister, who will be handed out portfolios, because according to the Constitution, the President will be obliged to dismiss the Government and recruit a new one. Now, after five and a half years of work as the head of the Government, you can abstractly, for some abstract prime minister after the 2018 elections, you can summarize how this Government can be made more efficient and how it can distribute responsibilities so that it works without duplicating itself, without missing any then the industry? Because sometimes it seems that somewhere two people, and somewhere not one.

D. Medvedev: You know, giving advice is not very rewarding. The structure of the future Government will be determined by the elected President. If you ask me about the structure of the current Government (it really has been working for quite a long time, five and a half years is to some extent a long period), I cannot say that it is ideal, but at some point it was adopted by the President, The government is quite optimal. But we changed it. Let me remind you that we created some ministries such as the Ministry of Crimea, and then abolished them when we thought that the tasks were completed. We simply disbanded individual ministries - like the Ministry of Regional Development, transferring its powers to other places. But at the same time, they retained the ministries for the Caucasus and the development of the Far East. This is all work that needs to be felt, no matter who is involved in this in the Government, who is the head of the Government, how convenient it is to work. Let me remind you that we had different governments, some had one deputy prime minister, and some (in modern Russia) had 12 or, in my opinion, even 13 deputy prime ministers. To say that one is always better than 13, or vice versa, is wrong. The question is how to distribute the load.

Naturally, I have my own idea of \u200b\u200bhow the Government should work. Probably, we have failed to do something, there is probably something to do from the point of view of the structure of the Government, optimization of technological processes. The same digital agenda is also facing the technologies in which the Government operates. This is quite obvious. The paperwork we all create is really, to a large extent, time to switch to modern digital controls. This is not easy to do. The government is the supreme executive body, and a number of decisions we make take effect immediately and have seemingly quiet consequences, but the results can be tectonic. Therefore, you need to act very responsibly.

I. Poletaev: Dmitry Anatolyevich, now, looking back, what is the most difficult challenge for your Government? Maybe it is cheap oil, sanctions, something else? And did the Government adequately respond to this difficult challenge?

Dmitry Medvedev: I will answer you briefly. The hardest challenge is both of these challenges. Simultaneously. Never in the history of our country has it happened that oil prices collapsed dramatically and sanctions were imposed. It happened either one or the other. I'm not even talking about the structure of the economy - as it was imperfect, it remains. And this challenge was unique to a certain extent.

Let the citizens of our country assess how we dealt with it, but it seems to me that a number of decisions that we made turned out to be absolutely adequate. And even the exit from the recession turned out to be somewhat faster than many imagined, not to mention the fact that the drawdown was significantly lower than, for example, in 2008 and 2009. Then our GDP and industrial production fell by 8%, and during this period only by 3%. Nevertheless, it is clear that perhaps more could have been done.

I.Zeynalova: That is, are you satisfied with the work done?

Dmitry Medvedev: You can never be happy with everything. We must always have a reasonable amount of skepticism about all the decisions we make. This is absolutely certain. And this is advice to any government.

S. Brilyov:Dmitry Anatolyevich, then the last. Do you enjoy being the prime minister yourself? In general, it seems like it. How do you see your future? We beat around the bush, but I still ask this question.

Dmitry Medvedev: I once reflected on these topics. And I will answer approximately in the same way as I answered once, because this is an absolutely sincere answer. I have always (probably in my life was lucky) liked what I do - both when I was a student, and when I was a graduate student and a young teacher, and when I started practicing law, I began to deal with some business issues. And after that - when I was called to Moscow and I began to work in the Presidential Administration, then as the head of the Presidential Administration. Then he moved to work in the Government, then was elected President of the country. And now I work as Prime Minister. This is all extremely interesting work. It is undoubtedly a huge challenge and, on the other hand, is satisfying. In this regard, I am quite a happy person, because this is a very interesting job.

By the way, in order to conclude not with questions addressed to me personally, but with some familiar words ... We are meeting approximately in this format for the 10th time. Today, however, is the last day of autumn, but the New Year is definitely not far off - the active celebration has not yet begun, but trees are already appearing in some places. People are starting to prepare for the New Year holidays. Therefore, taking this opportunity, dear colleagues, I would like to cordially congratulate you all on the upcoming New Year and congratulate all citizens of our country, wish them happiness and health.

S. Brilyov: Thank you very much, Happy New Year! This concludes the annual Conversation with Dmitry Medvedev program. All the best and see you.

Dmitry Medvedev:Thanks.

The Prime Minister answers questions from Russian TV channels live

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev

The head of the cabinet sums up the results of the government's work this year. In this format, he has been communicating with a representative of the television media since 2008, thus this conversation will be the 10th.

Dmitry Medvedev will answer live questions from journalists Valery Fadeev (Channel One), Sergei Brilev (Russia 1), Irada Zeynalova (NTV), Igor Poletaev (RBK) and Mikhail Fishman (Rain) ...

Traditionally, the conversation will begin at noon.

The interview usually lasts about an hour and a half and is devoted to summing up the results of the outgoing year, assessing the events that have taken place in the society and economy of the country, in the world. As a rule, the emphasis is on economic topics. In addition, the prime minister talks about the plans of the cabinet for the future.

Dmitry Medvedev is already at the Ostankino television center, everything is ready to begin.

Medvedev began by saying that the economy entered a growth phase. “Last year there was a decline in economic development, negative growth. This year the situation is different. Analysts - both ours and foreign ones - agree that we will get about 2% of GDP growth.”

In addition, a record low inflation awaits us in this - less than 3%. This is the lowest figure in the entire post-Soviet history, the prime minister stressed.

Income growth is expected at the level of 3%, nominal income - 7%.

The head of government also stressed that the rest of investments in fixed assets in the Russian Federation by the end of the year will exceed 4%.

Irada Zeynalova asked Dmitry Medvedev about his forecast regarding the ruble exchange rate. The prime minister said that now the ruble exchange rate is stable and said that the value of the national currency has ceased to react sharply to fluctuations in oil prices. "The question arises of what to keep money. There are at least two answers to this question. The first depends on what goals the citizen or the company pursues. The second depends on what the citizen keeps and pays for." Since most Russians have incomes and expenses in rubles, Medvedev advises keeping savings in rubles.

Another economic issue related to GDP growth. Still, 2% - and according to the World Bank - 1.8% - this is very little. This is "stagnation," says Mikhail Fishman. There is an opinion that this is the ceiling for Russia, whether the prime minister agrees with this. Medvedev does not agree that 1.8-2% is stagnation; there are countries that can only envy this indicator. But he agrees that the structure of our economy is still too focused on hydrocarbons, but its potential is by no means exhausted.

The structure of the Russian economy is changing, but it is not changing rapidly and dramatically enough. Now about 60% of budget revenues are in the non-oil and gas sector, these figures need to be brought to 85%.

If we do not want to freeze at two percent, then we need to change it faster.

A question from Valery Fadeev about the development of non-resource sectors of the economy. "Until recently, we purchased 87% of machine tools for export. Now this figure will already be in the region of 70%. If we talk about microelectronics, about IT, this is a very complex topic. It cannot be said that we have never dealt with it. (...) We should develop and use these technologies in everyday life. Until recently, we did not have our own payment system. (...) "He also recalled the recently adopted Digital Economy program and talked about how important it is to track the origin of all available on the market goods - "from toothpaste to car".

Igor Poletaev's next question concerns poverty: according to analysts, it can be overcome in the Russian Federation within 5-7 years.

Medvedev agrees that this is the flip side of the underdevelopment of our economy. Indeed, the number of poor people has increased in recent years. They are significantly less than at the beginning of the 21st century, but there are more of them.

But our social system, according to Medvedev, spreads aid evenly, instead of providing support to those who need it more. These are, first of all, pensioners, disabled people, large families.

Dmitry Medvedev reminded about the indexation of pensions, about special programs aimed at helping people with disabilities.

With regard to assistance to parents, the prime minister recalls the success of the maternity capital program, which is proposed to be extended. It has shown its effectiveness and led to an increase in the birth rate.

Continuing the topic of helping families, Medvedev recalls the initiatives recently announced by Vladimir Putin, which also concern payments at the birth of the first child. Moreover, the assistance will be targeted. Families who have a second and third child will receive mortgage subsidies in excess of 6%.

All these decisions, the head of the government is convinced, will help those who have financial problems.

Irada Zeynalova asked Medvedev about "money for retirement." She recalled rumors that the Pension Fund is empty and there is nothing to pay pensions with.

"It is clear that all kinds of negative information leaves a deep wound in the soul. As they say, the residue remains. I want to officially say absolutely both on behalf of the government and the Pension Fund. Everything is in order, there is money for pension payments, and there will be no problems at all," the prime minister replied. According to him, next year it is planned to index pensions, and the indexation should be 3.7%, which is higher than the inflation rate.

Finally, the name of Alexei Kudrin sounded, who said that the Pension Fund did not have enough money, and then had to explain that he meant the lack of money for development. The head of the government recalled this.

Igor Poletaev asks whether Medvedev fears a budget crisis and whether he is satisfied with the way the financial system works. "The financial system is in a stable, balanced, normal state. Despite the difficulties that we had several years ago, this system has been balanced." He also recalled that the Central Bank continues to work on rehabilitating and cleaning up the banking system.

"It seems to me that the financial system, as a result of everything that has happened in the last 2-3 years, has only strengthened - this is reflected in the quotes of our currency," the Prime Minister said.

Again a question from Sergei Brilev, who is interested in whether Russia will have a flat taxation scale. Medvedev recalls that the president and the government have stated that the foundations of the tax system will not change.

"Tell me a country where it would be like ours!" - says the prime minister, recalling that in the Russian Federation the rates have not changed for several years.

As for personal income tax, the flat scale has paid off, it is successful. People are now not afraid to pay tax, we collect about 3 million taxes from individuals.

But the success of the flat scale does not mean that we will never "encroach on it." Still, most developed countries have more complex systems. We have people who could pay more ... So here we need to discuss everything and weigh everything, said the head of government.

A simple scale for the income of individuals has paid off, Medvedev stressed.

We return to the social topic and the problem of defrauded equity holders. Measures are being taken to combat fraud in this area, but are the victims falling?

Medvedev agrees that measures are being taken, but there is no way to stop.

Firstly, the money of equity holders cannot be allowed to be manipulated in the future. Site placement or compensation. This should be taken into account in the contract. If you set aside about 1-2%, then this will not affect the total cost. And this "money bag" will help to avoid problems in the future.

Another part of the problem is the need to help those who have already found themselves in such a situation. This work with the support of the federal center is being carried out by the regions themselves. Somewhere everything is going well, and the region has solved these problems. Somewhere everything is not so smooth.

And third, it is necessary to cancel contracts of shared construction... "This is the rudiment of an underdeveloped housing market!" - Medvedev is convinced.

For the future, it is necessary to move from shared construction to a normal mortgage. With subsidies, but no manipulation!

Irada Zeynalova recalled Medvedev's appeal "not to nightmare business." She said that she talked to doctors and teachers, and found that now they were terrified: there are thousands of papers to fill out and you cannot force children to wipe the board. I asked how to solve this problem.

"Reporting is needed, it is impossible without it." But at the same time, it should be reasonable, not transcendental. According to Medvedev, "the heap of these reports has grown lately." Therefore, it is necessary to introduce electronic reporting, in which "everything is already there", and only a few forms need to be placed. To the remark that, perhaps, not all doctors know how to use a computer, Medvedev replied that, probably, they already know how. "There is no this problem now, everyone has already learned."

The next question is about the criminal case against "The Seventh Studio" and director Serebrennikov. Mikhail Fishman lists the defendants and the preventive measures that have been taken against them. Some cultural figures are convinced that the laws need to be changed, since in the field of culture the legislation on reporting is imperfect.

With the fact that the laws are imperfect, Medvedev agrees. He reminds us that the market is the market, and we have a law on public procurement. Although buying paper clips and props are different things, the head of government admits.

The prime minister said that filmmakers also turn to him with complaints that they seem to be trying to comply with the laws, but how, for example, to pay off a carpenter in a Siberian village who was building sets at the filming location. He has no card or account.

Medvedev agrees that you need to be loyal in this area, but there must be limits to loyalty. A person will say that he needs 5 million rubles and in cash, as if this is the only way he can pay. But this is not the case.

It is necessary to create a more understandable framework for creative activity, but on the other hand, representatives of creative activity must monitor what is happening with them, the head of government is convinced

Fishman recalls the case of another theater, the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater, where the case against its head Vladimir Kekhman, who was accused of illegally obtaining loans, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

There is a court, there is the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but there are plaintiffs, Medvedev recalls in turn. Yes, the limitation period has expired, but the plaintiffs have the right to claim compensation.

Valery Fadeev said that cheap assortment is being washed out of pharmacies, because it is more profitable to sell expensive drugs. "The most important problem: what measures are being taken here?" - asked the presenter of the First Channel.

"This is really a major problem, it affects all people in our country, because everyone takes drugs." The problem should be "tightly controlled" by the state, namely by the FAS, Medvedev replied, "huge money circulates there." He recalled the existence of a list of essential drugs and said that regulatory authorities must ensure that pharmacies have not only expensive drugs, but also cheap alternatives.

"It is clear that everything that is bought for foreign currency is more expensive. We even formed the opinion that a foreign tablet is better than a domestic one (not groundless, unfortunately)," Medvedev said. Therefore, there should be cheap and high-quality Russian-made drugs on the market.

"The most important thing is that all market participants behave responsibly. We decided to label drugs in a new way and use a different package. Immediately there were questions, they say, this will lead to an increase in cost. Listen, we need quality drugs. We need to put things in order in this market." ...

Fishman asked permission to ask about politics, and started talking about the resignations of governors, of whom about 20. "In particular, I am concerned about the following question: does such a large-scale reshuffle mean that they secure the governors' status as representatives of local government formal selectivity? " the journalist asked.

Medvedev considers personnel rotations to be a correct phenomenon, and the "rejuvenation" of the governor's corps, according to him, began 8-10 years ago. He recalled that many heads of regions are now in the status of temporary acting, and they still have to be elected by the population. The prime minister does not see the problem that many regions are headed by officials for whom they are not native.

According to him, every governor is a member of the vertical of power, but "the most important thing is people's support." In his opinion, the governor (unlike, for example, the deputy minister) should walk around the entrances and deal with sewage problems.

The issue of grain, which sets records in yield, but due to the growth of exports, prices fall, which brings problems for farmers: jobs are cut, incomes are reduced. What will the state do

Medvedev agrees that the farmers have achieved outstanding results. In no century, under any system, there were no such indicators. Russia has become the largest net exporter. This is capital that can help farmers too.

With our harvests, we can reach export figures of 45-50 million tons per year, the head of government is convinced.

He emphasizes that the logistics must match our crops, that is, investments in ports, etc. are needed. And railroad rates should be lower to help grain producers.

Sergei Brilev agrees that the rejuvenation has taken place, but reminds us that our country is a federation, but the government is unitary. Because many regions, in order to fulfill the presidential decrees, need to turn to the federal center. Should we forgive debts? Should we make the regions more independent?

Medvedev stressed that our country is not homogeneous. Indeed, many regions are in debt. How can these problems be resolved? Yes, there are subjects, the prime minister agrees, but the federal government is still responsible for them.

Among the proposed measures, he names the transfer of part of commercial loans to budget. You also need to think about debt restructuring. Thirdly, says Medvedev, the system of subsidies and support for the regions (this is more than 600 billion rubles over the past year)

Regional leaders must fulfill social obligations: benefits, salaries, but also what is required by the May presidential decrees.

But they are also faced with the tasks of developing the social sphere and their own economy. Therefore, the governors need help.

Answering a question about independence, Medvedev said that monitoring is underway, on the basis of which it turns out what the regions can do themselves and what they cannot.

Fadeev decided to "change the subject" and started talking about the technological revolution taking place on a global scale. "The key changes are not here, but in the US and Europe. Do we have a chance to return to the ranks of the leaders?"

There are chances, but we must hurry, says Medvedev. In the 1990s, according to him, it was necessary to deal with the issues of survival, and they began to pay attention to technologies in Russia "only now." Complains that things are not going well to create commercially successful products based on existing technologies. “Of course, we need to learn how to commercialize. The efforts of both the state and business should be directed to this,” the prime minister said.

“We have chances to be on a par with the most advanced countries,” Medvedev is sure, and in the 20th century the country already had such an experience.

Photo: press service of the government of the Russian Federation / TASS

Irada Zeynalova is concerned about cyber security and hackers. She states that there is a cyber war, but how to ensure the safety of people when we have a digital economy, telemedicine and so on?

Medvedev would prefer to deal with cyber cooperation, but agrees that Russia needs cyber sovereignty. Of course, the country needs its own technologies, but it cannot be closed either.

As for the hackers, whom everyone considers agents of the Kremlin, this is a global market that has been formed long ago. Everyone is watching everyone, the head of government stated. It's ridiculous to blame one particular country for this. It is necessary to make decisions on ensuring security, and to fight such manifestations of terrorism together.

There is no absolute protection for decades, the prime minister stressed. There is a trick for all defense, and this competition will go on constantly, and we must be ready.

"How secure are we?" - asks Zeynalova.

We are protected no worse than other countries, Medvedev reassured. He recalled that Russia bears responsibility as a nuclear power, as the largest country in the world, as a member of the UN Security Council.

Sergei Brilev asked about relations with the United States. He recalled the recent APEC summit in Da Nang, where the president briefly met with Donald Trump, and Medvedev's meeting with the US leader in Manila. Brilev's question turned out to be short: "What kind of person is Trump, can you deal with him?"

Medvedev replied: "We did not communicate with him for long, President Putin had the same communication before me. Speaking of external impressions, he is a benevolent politician who wants to establish full-fledged contacts. He recalled our cooperation during World War II. , said that this is important for both Russia and the United States. The contact is normal, President Putin also said this. The problem is not in our personal relations. The atmosphere between our countries is very bad, I would say disgusting. It is the worst during that period, what I remember, but I also remember the meetings of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev with the US presidents. "

We continue the topic of relations with foreign colleagues, and in particular with the United States. Russia is blamed for everything that happens. Have you missed a chance to improve your relationship?

Dmitry Medvedev recalled that Russia has its own position. Moscow did nothing to worsen relations. Is there a chance? There is always a chance, he is convinced. The main thing is to start interaction on the most important topics.

The prime minister said that business representatives come to him, who themselves are not happy with the current situation, who do not agree with the actions of Washington. But there are politicians in the United States who continue to promote anti-Russian rhetoric and put pressure on their president. Medvedev is convinced that both American business and Trump are suffering from their actions.

The next question concerns sports scandals. What conclusions can be drawn from everything that is happening around the Olympic team? What is the government doing?

The government is concerned, Medvedev assured.

He admitted that there are problems with doping, and we will fight them. But the brilliant victory in Sochi was fair and objective. No force will ever convince us that this is not so, he stressed.

The head of the government stated that the topic of doping has become political. There is 30% of doping itself, the rest is just manipulations to promote anti-Russian hysteria, Medvedev believes. In his opinion, the peak of this campaign will fall on "a certain political cycle."

The idea is clear: we love sports, if you take and cut off our athletes, it will cause disappointment. This is politics. There was no doubt. Medvedev recalled both McLaren and Rodchenkov, whom he advised to seek psychiatric help.

The upcoming soccer World Cup? Threats to its implementation? This is politics, the prime minister confirmed. We will resist in all organizations. You just need to understand that this is not a sports component.

15 minutes remain, Brilev announces "the last round". Fadeev asks about the elections. "Surely United Russia is discussing the idea of \u200b\u200bnominating Putin? Are you ready to nominate yourself?"

With regard to the presidential candidate, everything will be clear very soon, Medvedev promised. "If Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin nominates himself or agrees to be nominated, our party and I personally, as chairman, will support him in every possible way, because we believe that he is a successful president who runs our country." Who will nominate and how will ultimately depend on the candidate himself, Medvedev said: "Which way he chooses, United Russia will support it."

Mikhail Fishman notes that if Putin goes to the polls, then by the end of the next term he will be in power for 20 years with a break to work as prime minister. "More than Brezhnev's."

In response, Medvedev referred to the support of the population, and explained that if the law is not violated, then everything is in order. He cited Germany as an example. “And this is normal,” the prime minister summed up.

Poletaev asked to recall the most difficult challenge that Medvedev faced as head of government. collapse in oil prices or sanctions?

It turned out that this is a collapse in oil prices and sanctions that happened at the same time. He emphasized that these factors have never occurred in the same period. "Let the citizens assess how we coped with this challenge." Medvedev said with a smile that you can never be happy with everything.

The last question concerns whether Medvedev is satisfied with his work.

He replied that he was very pleased. How pleased he was to be a student, a teacher, to work in business, to work in the Presidential Administration, in the government, to be elected president, and now lead the Cabinet. These are challenging challenges, but it is a job that is very exciting to do.

This concludes Dmitry Medvedev's traditional conversation with representatives of Russian TV channels.