Russia (bbabo.net), - The threat of new outbreaks of coronavirus, the indexation of pensions and the gasification of regions became the main topics of the first meeting of President Vladimir Putin with the government this year, which was held via videoconference. New measures to combat "omicron" will be prepared by the Cabinet by the end of the week.

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Omicron: a new wave

Russia has two weeks to prepare for the rise in the incidence of COVID-19 due to a new strain, Vladimir Putin said. He noted that the New Year holidays would obviously affect the epidemic situation in the country. “We see what is happening in the world, as I said at the beginning, this suggests that we have at least a couple of weeks to prepare (for new outbreaks of the disease. - Approx. ). There are quite obvious things, with which nothing can be done is the communication of people, trips abroad during this vacation period, including to countries with a difficult epidemiological situation, so you need to be ready for this," he said.

The President stressed that the situation is very difficult and the topic of combating covid continues to be relevant, not only in the Russian Federation, but throughout the world. “We see what is happening now in the United States of America - over a million cases, one million three hundred already, in my opinion. In some European countries, about the same thing is happening with the new Omicron strain,” he said. Therefore, to a possible surge in Omicron “Russia needs the readiness of the hospital network and industry, as well as an increase in testing and vaccination,” Putin instructed. The President reiterated that Sputnik V copes with the coronavirus more effectively than other world vaccines. “In any case, the neutralization of the virus is obvious,” Putin said. Putin asked Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to work out the issue of a vaccination campaign with the regions as soon as possible.

The head of state also instructed the government to intensify work on in-depth medical examination of citizens who have recovered from the coronavirus. He recalled that last year it was planned to have 9.5 million people undergo medical examination, as a result, less than 2 million passed it. “Therefore, it is necessary not only to return, but to do it more actively,” he said. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova confirmed that a new rise in the incidence of covid due to the Omicron strain in Russia is inevitable. To date, about 698 cases of infection with the Omicron strain have been identified in the country, most of them in the Moscow region, Golikova said.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the capital will be the first to face an increase in the incidence of covid due to a new strain. "Therefore, we assume that with such contagiousness, the incidence and detection rates of a new coronavirus infection can be many times exceeded," she said. New measures to combat "omicron", which will be required in the event of an unfavorable development of the situation with a new strain, will be prepared by the Russian government by the end of the week, Golikova said. "We are working on additional response measures, urgent response, including financial support that, if the unfavorable scenario is confirmed, we will need to implement," she said.

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Pensions are higher than inflation

Indexation of pensions was another topic discussed at the meeting. The President noted that this social issue concerns millions of Russian citizens. "I propose indexing pensions slightly above inflation - now it looks like 8.4 percent - by 8.6 percent, with a small gap, because there are no final inflation figures yet. I ask the government to carry out the necessary procedures and make a decision as soon as possible," - he said.

The President instructed the government to index pensions by 8.6 percent

Putin stressed that the decisions taken earlier will not allow people to cover the costs associated with the high inflation of last year.

Governors will be responsible for gasification

The quality of life of millions of Russians depends on the implementation of the gasification program, Vladimir Putin said. "I ask the government, United Russia, and public organizations in general to get involved in the most active way," he said.The level of gasification in Russia at the end of 2021 reached 72 percent, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak said. He also recalled that the presidential order set the task of phased completion of gasification by 2030. To achieve this goal, the government approved a "road map" for the introduction of socially oriented gasification and gas supply to the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. "The target is to bring the level of gasification to 83 percent by 2030," Novak added. He also said that the government instructed the Federal Antimonopoly Service to prevent a rise in prices for gas equipment. "We are detecting cases of growth in the cost of gas-using equipment. This is happening against the backdrop of a fourfold increase in the number of applications, which caused an increase in demand for equipment," he said. Novak stressed that the government is closely monitoring the situation with prices in this area.

In turn, Secretary of the General Council of the United Russia party, First Vice Speaker of the Federation Council Andrei Turchak asked Vladimir Putin to support the proposal that the governors head the headquarters for gasification. "Yesterday at the federal headquarters for gasification, we came to a common opinion that the regional headquarters for gasification should be headed by the heads of the subjects. Today, only three heads of the subject head the regional headquarters, I would ask you to support this proposal," he said, addressing the president.

Another proposal of Turchak, which was made at the meeting, is to make free gas for the Eternal Lights. "The order of operation of the Eternal Lights is not clearly defined. As a result, this has already led several times to cases when such lights were extinguished due to debts or delays in payment by local authorities. In manual mode, we promptly resolved these issues. However, it is obvious that a systematic decision. We propose to set a zero fee for gas supplied to ensure the continuous operation of the Eternal Lights at the regulatory level," he explained. "The proposals that have been formulated will certainly be supported," Putin responded.

Laws for citizens and businesses

About 60 percent of the laws adopted in the Russian Federation in 2021 are based on the requests of citizens and businesses, Deputy Prime Minister - Chief of Staff of the Cabinet of Ministers Dmitry Grigorenko said at a meeting. He noted that last year the head of state signed 505 federal laws adopted by the State Duma, of which 289 (57 percent) were adopted at the initiative of the government. "All initiatives of the Russian government on legislative activities are based on real requests from citizens and businesses and on the basis of the information that we have collected," he added. Grigorenko recalled that among the key adopted laws is an increase in the minimum wage (minimum wage) by a little more than a thousand rubles - from 12,792 rubles to 13,890. An important law was also adopted aimed at addressing issues of protecting the rights of insured persons in the event of an illegal transfer pension savings from one state pension fund to another.

Vladimir Putin, in turn, said that it is necessary to debug the work on the application of new laws in such a way that they have a positive impact on the country's economy and people's lives. "The laws are necessary and timely. But the law is the law, but it is necessary to establish law enforcement practice so that all this works in life and gives the return that we expect from it for the country, for the economy, for our people," he said.

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Flights around the country are going smoothly

The passenger traffic of Russian airlines in 2021 amounted to 112 million people, the head of the Russian Ministry of Transport Vitaly Savelyev reported to the President. Thus, relative to 2020, when Russian airlines carried 69.2 million people, last year's passenger traffic increased by 62 percent, compared to the figure for pre-coronavirus 2019 (128 million people), it fell by almost 13 percent.

Domestic transportation, according to the minister, reached 89 million passengers in 2021, which is 59 percent more than in 2020 and 22 percent more than in 2019. The growth of the indicator was achieved thanks to the system of subsidizing transportation, Savelyev noted. In total, 21.9 billion rubles were allocated from the budget last year, 63 percent of this amount was allocated to support flights to the Far East. In 2022, the volume of air transportation subsidies in Russia will amount to 27.5 billion rubles. This will allow to transport about 5 million passengers. "In 2022, three state support programs are being implemented to ensure the availability of air transportation: these are increasing the availability of air transportation for citizens, developing regional transportation and subsidizing the Avrora airline," Savelyev explained. "I hope everything will work without failures, on time," he responded to the report Vladimir Putin.Back to news » Back to news »

State of emergency at Listvyazhnaya - solve people's problems

Vladimir Putin demanded an informal and individual approach to solving the problems of the victims and relatives of those killed at the Listvyazhnaya mine in Kuzbass. This is how the president reacted to the report of the governor of the Kemerovo region, Sergei Tsivilev, on how support is provided to people after the emergency at Listvyazhnaya. "The work, of course, must be exclusively individual, because there are a lot of questions and difficulties in life, we do not think about them when we do not encounter problems of this kind, and then it turns out that these issues can be solved only in close contact with those people on which the adoption of certain decisions depends and who should approach the solution of these issues informally," Putin noted. He stressed that if something is needed from the government, from the president, it is necessary to immediately apply. "The New Year is a bright holiday associated with hopes for a better future, we also have the New Year in the old style ahead of us, but someone has a holiday, and someone has a misfortune and tragedy. Of course, everything must be done so that people support during this difficult period of time for them," the president said.

How much money will be needed to index pensions above inflation

The indexation of insurance pensions in 2022 was provided at the level of 5.9%. The budget of the Pension Fund provides 377 billion rubles for this, the Ministry of Finance noted. Taking into account the president's instruction to index pensions above inflation - at the level of 8.6% - an additional 172.7 billion rubles will be required in 2022, the department added. Thus, the total amount of expenses for the indexation of the insurance pension this year will amount to 549.7 billion rubles.

Taking into account this indexation, the average size of the insurance pension of a non-working old-age pensioner will be 18,984 rubles in 2022, said the head of the Ministry of Labor Anton Kotyakov. According to Valery Ryazansky, chairman of the Union of Pensioners of Russia, the money in the form of an increase will go to daily expenses (to pay for utilities, food, medicines) and will quickly return to the economy. "Thus, the state performs not only a social, but also an economic task, increasing the purchasing power of more than 30 million pensioners," Ryazansky emphasizes.

The President's decision to index pensions above inflation will just support the incomes of the population in the current conditions, the Ministry of Economic Development is sure.

According to the chief economist of the rating agency "Expert RA" Anton Tabakh, any payment or additional payment accelerates inflation. "But in this case, we are talking about supporting the incomes of vulnerable segments of the population, so this argument is inappropriate here," the expert clarifies.

According to Alexander Shirov, director of the Institute for Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the instruction to index pensions above the inflation rate is associated with high rates of price growth. The expert noted that the budget forecast included a lower level of inflation, but at the end of the year it became obvious that it would exceed 8%. "The indexation of pensions will have a positive impact on the ability of citizens to compensate for the increase in spending. The state has the necessary financial resources for this," Shirov said.

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