Dmitry Medvedev: Good afternoon, Alexander Vasilyevich,
This is a good event you have underway here [the V World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples].
Alexander Filipenko: Thank you very much.
Dmitry Medvedev: The Congress is only just beginning but the guests are happy. I think it is very important for Russia that this kind of event takes place not only in Moscow or other big cities but also here in Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous District. It shows how intensively the country is developing.
There are achievements, of course, and there are no doubt some problems too. But this provides the opportunity to address all sorts of different issues, not just social and economic problems but also issues concerning the development of small ethnic groups, in short, everything that comes under the regional authorities’ responsibility.
Alexander Filipenko: First of all, thank you once again, because events such as this congress do indeed oblige us to give everything a shake-up and mobilise our efforts, and this is always beneficial.
Dmitry Medvedev: Of course.
Alexander Filipenko: Second, I want to say that just a month ago, at the beginning of June, Yugra produced its nine-millionth ton of oil. This represents the tremendous labour of millions of people: of the 17.5 million tons of oil our country has produced over the years, in Tsarist Russia, in the Soviet period, and in modern Russia, nine million tons come from the oil fields of Yugra.
Dmitry Medvedev: This is a big achievement. We just visited one of these important sites, the ‘library’ you could call it, where all the samples are kept. We had a serious discussion today about the need to invest not only in oil production but also in exploration of new oil fields, something we have not been doing lately, unfortunately. Not only the regions but above all the oil producing companies that operate the oil fields should be giving this matter their utmost attention.
Alexander Filipenko: We have some ideas of our own in this area. The essence of my proposal is that we could perhaps find a way to distinguish the best-performing oil companies.
Dmitry Medvedev: We will definitely give the best the recognition they deserve, and those who commit faults will definitely be punished.
Alexander Filipenko: Absolutely.