President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Ramzan Akhmatovich, how is everything going, what is the situation today? What is happening with Chechnya’s social and economic development? I would like to hear from you.
Also, it is summer now and it is important to organise children’s summer holidays. Do you have any proposals in this area? This is also an important subject for discussion.
Another issue I would like to hear from you about: you have a parliamentary election coming up in Chechnya. How are preparations going? Does anything else need to be done in this area? What are the forecasts?
President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov: Dmitry Anatolyevich, first of all I would like to thank you for finding the time to meet with me and discuss all the issues concerning our republic. We are indeed addressing all the problems. Following your last instruction, all issues have either been practically settled or are in the process of being settled.
The political, social and economic situation in the republic is stable. The work to rebuild the republic, construction work, is gathering pace. Not only are we building new buildings but we are restoring old ones, and working in the mountain districts. We have new construction underway too. We have put the emphasis on rebuilding the mountain districts. We are doing this because we have an unemployment problem. Our republic was always famed for its agriculture, and agriculture is concentrated in the mountain districts.
As for children’s summer holidays, we send children to health and holiday resorts every year in Kabardino-Balkaria, Stavropol Region and Krasnodar Region, though we have even better places in our own republic. I sent a letter to you today asking for the 13 health resorts we had in our republic before the war to be rebuilt.
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Dmitry Medvedev: Of course you have beautiful places. We need to do everything to ensure that rebuilding children’s health — and rebuilding the economy in general — is not done just by sending children to holiday resorts in other regions, but giving them the chance to spend holidays at home too. This would a good thing, the right thing to do, and I will look at the document you have prepared.
Ramzan Kadyrov: Dmitry Anatolyevich, we have a question regarding the parliament. We have carried out all political measures and events, always at the high quality level. The self-dissolution of the parliament is proof that our republic is a democracy. We used to have bicameral parliament, but now there will be just one house of parliament.
Preparations for the parliamentary election are going full steam ahead. We have 12 parties and more than 500 public organisations, and they can all take part in the election. We are transparent and open for all, and we call on all to take part and to pray that decent people are elected to the parliament, people who will pass the laws that our people and republic need.
Dmitry Medvedev: As I understand it, the structure that you now have for the republic’s legislative assembly is, in our view, better suited to today’s demands. The single-chamber parliament you will have now will be more compact and in this sense also more efficient than the bicameral parliament.