The emergence of party factions in the legislative assemblies of the constituent Federation members should help to create the foundation for the country’s single party and political system, the President said.
A transition to this “combined system” should make Russia’s political system more viable, stable and predictable, Vladimir Putin stressed.
To ensure equilibrium of federal and regional legislations, and overcome inconsistencies between regulatory acts in the Centre and the regions is a major task, Mr Putin said. This legal gap hinders the solution of many problems, both social and economic. It is impermissible to repeat past mistakes, when the Centre endorsed legal acts ignoring regional specifics, while the regions adopted laws that ran contrary to the fundamental principles of the constitution, the President said.
President Putin focused on the delimitation of authority between different levels of power authority and reliable financing for the state to meet its obligations to the people.
In his concluding speech, the President cited some expert data: in keeping with current laws, the Government’s liability to people amounted to 6.5 trillion roubles, with Russia’s consolidated budget equaling 3.5 trillion roubles.
It is necessary to clearly determine the possibilities of the Government and the priorities to be binding on it. These include benefits to invalids and war veterans and to low-income sections of the population. However, the Government should not make any unrealistic promises.
President Putin stressed that it was necessary not only to delimit authority and clearly define the Government’s top-priority social obligations, but also to guarantee their financing.
Therefore, the delimitation of powers between the federal Centre, the regions and local authorities should be accompanied with changes in the country’s tax and budget legislation, the President said.