The President thanked the new and former members of the upper house of parliament for a quiet shakeup of the Federation Council that passed unnoticeably for the country and the lawmaking process.
He emphasized that the new Federation Council members were politically mature, and many of them business professionals well familiar with the economic situation in the country.
President Putin said he believed that one of the main objectives of the Federation Council was to maintain a balance between state and regional interests. He said it was very important for the Federation Council and the State Duma to cooperate together while still observing a constitutional separation of powers.
The President noted that the upper house had a unique constitutional status, enjoying as it did many rights, including the right to reject laws adopted by the State Duma, which vested Federation Council members with an additional great responsibility.
The participants of the meeting agreed to regularly congregate in the future in order to find a consensus on the country’s major social, economic and political problems.