President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Zyuganov, as you know, I regularly meet with the leaders of the party factions represented in the Duma to discuss current affairs, general issues and prospects. Please go ahead.
Leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) faction in the State Duma Gennady Zyuganov: Thank you. This is a good tradition and it must be maintained.
Mr President, the elections have just ended. They have been the most massively attended and most interesting lately. We have drafted a programme, ”Ten Steps to a Dignified Life,“ a development budget, which you and I discussed at a meeting dedicated to the Government report, 25 trillion rubles. There is our unique experience of creating Zhores Alferov Academic University – you also supported this idea, by the way. It is now being carried out in Novosibirsk where our candidate, Lokot, won the mayoral election. We are ready to implement the programme ”Science of the 21st Century.“ It deserves special attention. Our experience of people’s enterprises – there are over 200 such enterprises now; we have summed it up and shown a series of films.
All this was supported by the voters. We doubled and tripled the results in the regions, and our team in Moscow did very well (13 deputies vs 4 before), and we are ready to further implement all programmes, primarily the ones mentioned in your Address.
I believe the time is ripe to enter the global stages of economic development. You recently gathered your economists, I watched carefully, and I think this is an absolutely achievable goal. We are now forming a budget for the next three years in conjunction with the Government and the ministers. We all need to work hard to implement this programme.
The election is over. I think it makes sense to gather all the leaders of the Duma party factions and discuss ways to repair the electoral system. Some say, ”electronics,“ others have different ideas. If we discuss this, we will find a solution that will consolidate the country and the political system. We are ready to do this work.
Vladimir Putin: Good.
We are constantly discussing matters of this kind with you, including with regard to the country’s political system. It is a living organism, and we must watch how the existing tools work in real life and what needs to be fixed in the process, what needs to be improved, made more effective and beneficial for the Russian people.
Gennady Zyuganov: There are good ideas for amendments. We will introduce them if you support us. It will be good for everyone, and the electoral system will return to normal. We need to build a good integral system with contest and control, where everyone will do something useful and improve the country, rather than waste time in litigation.
Vladimir Putin: Let's talk about it.
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