ASI Forum "Strong ideas for the New Time"

ASI is the Agency for Strategic Initiatives and one of its innovative ideas was to promote citizen involvement in the provision of strong ideas for the new time. Here’s how the Kremlin describes it:

Forum "Strong Ideas for a New Time" is held on behalf of the President since 2020 and accumulates socially significant initiatives and projects of caring citizens from all over the country. Every inhabitant of Russia can share their idea or project on a special platform, get the necessary expertise and support in implementation. Herein forum held by ASI and the Roscongress Foundation with the support of VEB.RF, 30,731 ideas were received in seven areas.

At the end of the meeting, the head of state got acquainted with the exhibition of the participants of the competition growing Russian brands "Know Ours", which is designed to provide support promising domestic producers in all regions Country. Vladimir Putin toured the Creative and Food themed zones Commodities", "Consumer Goods", "High Technology", "Information Technology". About 80 exhibitors from 27 regions are represented at the exhibition Country. In total, more than 12 thousand applications were submitted for the competition.

There’re a dozen photos of Putin’s tour of the exhibition here. “Know Ours” is part of the very successful import substitution project. Several months ago an article focusing on that aspect of nascent Russian Consumerism was posted at the Gym. The ASI is also a Putin creation. As readers are learning, the talk show forums are a popular format in Russia. And as you read, this project allows for citizen participation in their governance and acts as an adjunct to Putin’s traveling the nation talking to people. Putin’s examples of how to govern is training the younger cohort of regional governors on how to perform. Should provide some info on VEB.RF; its mission from its website:

VEB.RF is a national development institution that promotes the implementation of state socio-economic policy, increasing the competitiveness of the national economy and its modernization.

We carry out our mission through financing of investment projects of national significance. The implementation of such projects contributes to the diversification and improving the efficiency of the Russian economy. Modernization of the economy, in turn It gives an impetus to serious social transformations in the country.

Fascinating, yes? Here’s a blub from Wikipedia:

In April 2007, Russia's State Duma passed the federal law "On Bank for Development," which regulated VEB's legal conditions and made it a state development bank.

Vladimir Putin increased lending when he became the VEB's chairman of its supervisory board in 2008. By late 2009, VEB quadrupled its assets to nearly 2 trillion rubles ($65 billion), it was seen by the government as an off-budget fund, used to put off budget expense.

It’s financed over 300 projects and is sanctioned of course, beginning in 2014. It’s been educational in seeing how Russia has generated the Capital to fund its development and modernization which aren’t exactly the same. So with the above background in mind, we’ll first read the words of ASI’s director Svetlana Chupsheva, then Putin’s and then if discussion time:

Svetlana: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, Dear friends and colleagues,

It is already becoming a tradition: every year we meet at the forum "Strong Ideas for a new time". This year, this is the fourth forum that has brought together thousands of people from every region of our country.

Over the past four years, the forum's crowd platform has collected more than 88,000 ideas submitted by citizens and residents of our country on a wide range of socio-economic development issues. These are issues related to the quality of life, technological development, professional education, the environment, digital technologies, and, of course, the economy and entrepreneurship.

This year, the most active regions in terms of the number of applications were the Republic of Bashkortostan, Moscow and the Nizhny Novgorod region. There are already more than half a million registered participants on the crowd platform. Our participants are mostly 25-45 years old. 75% of participants have higher education. In terms of professional competencies, our platform participants rank science and education first, government officials and representatives of non – profit organizations second, and digital technologies and the Internet third.

I would like to thank our co – organizers of the forum, Roscongress and VEB.Russian Federation", our expert council: the crowd platform employs more than two thousand experts who review every idea submitted to the crowd platform, give recommendations, ask some questions, which allows leaders to refine their ideas and their projects. I would like to personally thank the Chairman of the Expert Council, Igor Ivanovich Shuvalov, who personally participates in the meetings, listens to the speeches of project idea leaders, and we, together with the expert council, propose solutions that can also be included in government programs.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, every year you support the initiatives and projects that are presented here in the framework of the plenary session, and which we send as a report to you and the Government of the Russian Federation.

During this time, more than five thousand ideas were supported. Project idea leaders have raised more than two billion rubles for the implementation of their projects. A thousand projects this year are supported by all regions of the Russian Federation. And today we hope to hear some interesting projects and solutions in various fields.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, I give you the floor.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much, Svetlana.

First of all, I would also like to thank the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, Roscongres, and VEB.Russian Federation" for organizing today's event. It seems to have a traditional character, but the name, of course, seems to me, in itself sets up a certain and very necessary mood: "Strong ideas for the new time".

Strong ideas are always needed, because there are always development challenges. But strong ideas for the new time today are right on point. Why? Because today, I think everyone will agree – we are still going through a special time. And this novelty, the new time, lies in the fact that we are reaching a completely different level of the tasks we face in order to achieve them, to bring the country to a new level of development.

And in today's conditions, when we are facing so many different challenges, every day-I hope many will agree with me – we have the right to say: in the field of ensuring our security, in the field of economic development, in the field of economic sovereignty, and in the field of solving social problems – unsolved, of course. much more than what we have done – but still there is movement in each of these strategic areas. We are changing qualitatively, the country is changing qualitatively from within, becoming more self-sufficient, more sovereign, more self-confident. This is the time of Russia.

I regularly travel around the country, and even though the administrative services arrange meetings with people in a regulated manner, I understand everything, I see everything, but even in these conditions, it's all the same – people say what they think, what they want to say, what they want to see in the near future as a professional person, implemented ideas and suggestions.

Svetlana said that usually such events as today's are connected with the fact that I listen to ideas, suggestions and try to support them. So it will be this time. But now, to be honest, it would also be very important for me to listen to you, as a Message to the Federal Assembly is currently being prepared. This is not just a conversation, this is a statement of tasks that we, of course, are trying to develop and achieve their solution.

Taking into account the domestic political calendar, this will be a task statement for the next at least six years. That is why, frankly speaking, I would also like to see strong ideas from you, so that they can be properly formulated-not only in the Address, but also in the country's development program for the nearest historical perspective.

This has always been the case in reality-ideas have always been very interesting on forums of this kind, promising. I hope that it will be the same now. By the way, and I think that many people will also agree with me: of course, we see that there is less and less talk about this now, because the tasks that our detractors set for themselves in terms of limiting Russia, in terms of isolation-it is clear that everything has fallen apart, this is already clear obviously.

But something else is also clear: that we have more and more supporters all over the world, especially, you know – and everyone can see this too – in the area that we call our traditional values. It turns out that these are not only our traditional values: for any healthy person, these are also traditional values, and there are a lot of people. Not to mention the countries that we now call friendly, but even in the so-called unfriendly countries, the "safety cushion" for these traditional values has turned out to be quite large and reliable, and we also have many allies there.

Why am I saying this? The fact that these strong ideas that are born in the course of such discussions will certainly be interesting not only for us, but also for our friends around the world. We should also work in the field of social policy there. We have a lot of interesting things, and our partners are interested in many of them and are ready to implement them together with us: both in the economy, in politics, and in cooperation in various areas. And this is also very important, and it is also very much in demand.

In general, I would very much like to-I am ready to answer something if there are any questions – but, to be honest, I am counting on your suggestions and joint work in order to work together with you, and then together with public organizations, trade unions, together with the heads of industries and industries and we need our enterprises, together with those who work in the social sphere, to finalize some things and formulate them as fundamental tasks for the near-term historical perspective.

Thanks

S. Chupsheva: Thank you very much, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

We appreciate your participation and attention to our work. The most important thing is that really every proposal, every idea that is voiced, finds its support and finds its partners.

I would like to give the floor to Igor Ivanovich Shuvalov, Chairman of the ASI Expert Council and Head of VEB. RF. Igor Ivanovich will talk about the block "Economics and Entrepreneurship" and present some ideas from this block.

I. : Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

Dear friends! Hello!

Mr President, all that you have said is the main motivation for all the forum participants, for all those present here in the hall, and for the millions who follow, that this work will first of all be in demand in your work in connection with the Message and, as we expect, with the future of the Forum. updated development goals that will be announced in May-of course, this is very important for all of us. I must still say, let me say this, that all of us who are in this room, and millions of others who are not in this room, we support you and stand firmly behind you.

Thank you for allowing all these years, Mr President, to develop professionally the people who have worked their way through such a rather complicated procedure over the course of all these months, so that we can show some ideas today. This is a difficult job, and this year we had to go through the whole procedure a little shorter, twice as short as usual.

You know, we meet once a year, we only held such a forum in the summer, and today we are presenting with you the results of the selection process. Despite the fact that we worked a little shorter, we reviewed over 30 thousand ideas. This means, Mr President, that just in the hope that these ideas will be heard by you and demanded by all expert services on the eve of a new particularly important and valuable stage in the development of our country, we, of course, understand our responsibility as your assistants in this, as people who should bear their part of the responsibility.

Of course, we know how much the country has gone through in 20 years. And now, just as many millions of people visit the exhibition at VDNH, we look at all the achievements of Russia, and we also understand that our responsibility for the coming years is to make qualitative changes even more valuable and important, so that the new generation sees that our work is really promising.

And against the background of the fact that we visited the regions of the Russian Federation with Svetlana [Chupsheva] and many experts, this was a new form of work, Vladimir Vladimirovich, we went to enterprises, visited universities, went to schools, met with a large number of caring people both in the Siberian frosts and in slushy weather. This work was very interesting.

But the most important thing is that this time the number one problem was identified by everyone as the personnel issue. Today, we work when highly qualified personnel are required in higher education, general school, and production. We remember that for many years experts have warned us that the labor market will experience a need for highly qualified workers, and both migration policy and higher education should be prepared for this.

I know that our country has such a conservative attitude towards migration policy. I understand the responsibility of raising this issue, but we have one expert, a citizen of the Italian Republic. Her name is Irena Cecchini. She is a student at MGIMO, and as part of the selection of ideas, she proposed a completely new approach to the formation of migration policy principles for those people who share traditional values and those who are well prepared for the competitive labor market.

Let her speak. Please, Irena.

I. Cecchini: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon.

My name is Irena Cecchini, I am an Italian citizen and a fourth-year student of the MGIMO Faculty of International Relations. I've been living in Russia for three years now, and over the years I've really fallen in love with Russia, its rich culture and the people who live here.

Thank you very much, Vladimir Vladimirovich, that today in Russia there is such an opportunity to offer your ideas and receive support for their implementation. I came to the forum "Strong Ideas for a new time" with a strong idea, which, I am sure, will help many foreigners who dream of moving to Russia and share Russian values.

I personally faced a lot of difficulties when applying for and obtaining a visa and a temporary residence permit.

First. I expected more service from the migration service, but unfortunately, this was not available for getting information and actions.

Second. Everything is very long. I applied for a temporary residence permit four months ago and still haven't received a response. Although I was told that I should receive it in 30 days.

And third, but most important. In principle, I cannot live and get a residence permit in Russia on value grounds, not because I study or work here.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, I have great suggestions for you. Allow foreigners who share our values and dream of moving to Russia to do all this simply and quickly. I even suggest such a new Russian word as "impatriation". This means moving to a permanent place of residence in Russia based on cultural, traditional and family values. All this would be beneficial for Russia, as people would bring new skills, they would be entrepreneurs, they would be the population of the country, it would be an additional contribution to the economy and qualified additional people.

I even suggest creating a special organization for individual support of providing services, i.e. cultural, labor and social services for people who want to move here. And I even suggest organizing informational information via an online platform for expatriates about the possibilities of moving to Russia.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, I am personally ready to help with this and get Russian citizenship in order to build my future life in this beautiful country-in Russia.

thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

Can I ask you a couple of clarifying questions?

I. Cecchini: Of course.

Vladimir Putin: You said you fell in love with Russia. And that's it? Haven't you fallen in love with anyone else here?

(Laughter in the audience.)

It's just that if this is the case, then everything will be quite simple, it's easy to do everything.

I. Cecchini: No, in the first place…

Vladimir Putin: It's strange, such a beautiful girl, and still hasn't fallen in love with anyone.

I. Cecchini: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: But they probably already fell in love with you, this is 100%, even during your performance, there are many of them in the audience.

Where are you from, what region of Italy?

I. Cecchini: I'm from the Milan region.

Vladimir Putin: From Milan?

I. Cecchini: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: Northern Italy.

I. Cecchini: Yes, that's right.

Vladimir Putin: Good location, industrially developed region of Italy. Italy has always been close to us. I remember when I came to Italy, how people met me there. In some places, I felt quite at home, that's for sure. Milan is such a labor province of Italy, the industry is well developed.

And what you just said about sharing both our moral and traditional values is exactly what I was talking about. In other words, these values are not only ours, in fact, many people in Europe also adhere to such values. So it's great.

It's a good idea to focus on traditional moral values when accepting people who want to live here, but how can you determine what values a person really adheres to?

I. Cecchini: The main role should be played by the migration service, it should be specialists who understand very well who is in front of them, what these people are doing. And give directions for each of them – how these people can live comfortably and comfortably here in Russia.

But about values, how do you know if these people share these values? I'm not an expert, I don't work in the migration service, but you need to understand what values are, what Russia offers. I can give you some examples.

There is tolerance in Russia, and Russia is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country. And now I can say, in the West, because I lived there, in Italy, now it is very difficult to find a country where different peoples live amicably together. This is already a value that Russia wants to preserve.

Second. Now homosexuality and transgender people are very common. These are new values, and people who understand perfectly well that these are not traditional values, these are not family values, they want to preserve their beliefs, but they are in an unfriendly environment, and therefore they think: where can I feel protected? Is there an answer to this question: this is Russia.

Vladimir Putin: I get it, Irene. Please sit down. I don't feel comfortable talking to you when you're standing up." Please sit down.

The offer is very good, and it is very relevant for us. As a matter of fact, it is the same for any country, including in Europe.

What Irena is certainly right about is that people of different nationalities live here, 190 ethnic groups, different faiths, four traditional ones, but in reality we have more faiths, and in general everyone feels comfortable. It's true.

By the way, we are quite tolerant of people of non-traditional sexual orientation. We just don't stick it out and don't think it's the right thing to stick it out. Let all adults live as they want, no one restricts them in anything. But as for the children, I have already said many times, do not touch the children. That's all. This is the first one.

Second. After all, we are primarily a state focused on traditional values. Here you are absolutely right.

In order to determine what kind of people come to us, of course, we need an individual approach. You're right, Irena. And our migration services have not yet grown up to this, of course, this is obvious. There is a lot to work on here. There are different ideas here.

As for repatriation. We didn't have such a legal term before. Now we have this term, and it is described who can be recognized as repatriates. I think there are four or six positions there. I won't go into the details right now, but it's there. Such specialists as you, who are absolutely necessary for us, do not fall into this category. But what we definitely need is highly qualified specialists, and we definitely need to orient our migration services in such a way that people with a high level of intelligence and qualifications come to us for permanent residence, for work, for residence in general. Of course, we will focus and create migration services, there are certain thoughts and ideas here.

I heard what you said. You are also in the "top ten" from the point of view that this topic is very relevant for Russia. Because there is also such a thing as labor migration. But we still have a lot to do here.

Alexander Nikolaevich Shokhin, who heads our largest association of entrepreneurs, will confirm that 2.5 million people are missing from the labor market. This is what our business is now ready to offer. This is 2.5 times higher than the unemployment rate. According to official data, we have about 450-460 thousand unemployed people, but 2.5 million are not enough.

The construction sector, industry, and so on are ready to borrow hundreds of thousands right now. But even here we need to carry out appropriate work, and it should be improved qualitatively. We need to work with those people who want to come, even in the countries from which they want to come. We need to ensure that these people absolutely observe our laws and traditions, even in the regional context, the traditions of those regions where people come, so that the language is taught, and so on. There's a lot of work to be done here.

But, of course, the best way to solve all the problems, especially in the field of labor relations and the problem of labor shortages, is to increase the birth rate and improve the demographic situation in the country, this is quite obvious. We are certainly following this path and will continue to increase the state's efforts to support the family, childhood and motherhood. This is already a separate topic, but all this is closely related to each other.

Your idea is correct, I thank you for this hint, we will move in this direction.

And where would you like to be in the future, if this happens and your opinion does not change, your position, and you want to stay in Russia, where would you like to find yourself, work?

I. Cecchini: It's too early [to say], but I want to connect my life with the development and improvement of Russia, because Russia has given me a lot, a lot. I want to thank this country and specifically help it.

Vladimir Putin: Let me wish you success. We are also interested in this.

I. Cecchini: Thank you very much.

Igor Shuvalov: Mr President, thank you.

The next idea, it didn't take shape today, which we could present to you as a strong idea in this already finished form, but I can't help but say. During these months, we have been working with those who are directly involved in the special military operation. And Dmitry Makarenko, a special military officer, suggested an idea that we are committed to work out with Svetlana and the expert council: those who are most technologically prepared in the army and are mastering new equipment and are ready to take part in improving the technical qualities of this equipment, to ensure that these our military personnel are connected with the manufacturers of this equipment, with design bureaus, so that even at the moment when a new technique is being mastered, they can already accept proposals in a different order. Not in the order that exists, but in a different order, so that the technical qualities of these weapons improve.

I would like to say once again that this is not ready as an idea that can be put directly on paper, but there are a lot of guys who would like to take part in this work, Vladimir Vladimirovich. And we are working with Anna Tsivileva and we want to launch a special training program, professional training for those who either lost their father or a close relative in a special military operation, or who have completed this service under a contract and are ready to unlearn and get a good professional education. Together with the foundation, we will accompany these young people to find their rightful place on the labor market. So we also have certain ideas in this area, which are also related to improving our equipment, and this is also related to the development of entrepreneurship.

And one more idea that I've been assigned to report to you. All of our traditional values and well-being are based on our historical experience and great history.

Of course, over the past 20 years, a lot has been done in Russia to develop tourism, to develop small towns, to ensure that young people, and people of older generations, return to the roots of their history. Since people have been educated in different ways over the past 30 years, many stories are not even known. By the way, we carefully watched your interview with Tucker Carlson, where you described in detail all the historical relationships between different peoples in Russia and our neighbors.

Alexey will now introduce you to the idea of reviving historical cities as entrepreneurship. I think this is a link between entrepreneurship and a big demand for a modern urban environment, for the development of tourism, and for some forgotten, abandoned and very valuable parts of our country to find a new life.

Alexey and I met in Lipetsk. He used his own money to restore the estate on the Don River, and now it is already a big project. And in general, when Svetlana and I were in Lipetsk just now, we were shown this huge program: all the estates are handed out to investors so that they can revive them.

You are welcome.

Alexander Shkrapkin: Thank you.

Good evening, Vladimir Vladimirovich!

Good evening, dear colleagues!

I am engaged in the restoration of historical estates and their adaptation for tourism purposes. My passion for historical monuments and monument restoration began with my childhood dream: to restore the Church of St. Michael the Archangel in my grandmother's homeland, in the village of Skornyakovo, Lipetsk region.

I was lucky enough to restore not only the Church of St. Michael the Archangel, but also the Skornyakovo-Arkhangelsk estate, on the territory of which this temple is located.

Today the Skornyakovo-Arkhangelskoye estate is a major cultural and tourist center of the entire Chernozem region. People come to us from all over the country.

You know, it is very painful for me to see how thousands of abandoned historical estates and various cultural heritage sites continue to be destroyed in the country, especially in rural areas or in small towns, despite the fact that they could work and benefit the country in the same way as the Skornyakovo estate does.

In this regard, I propose to implement the idea of restoring all abandoned historical estates and cultural heritage sites that are located in rural areas and small towns and that can become the core of the tourist infrastructure of Russia at the expense of private investors and small state support programs.

But, unfortunately, there is a problem: historical development is not very popular with investors right now. This is a long, expensive and complex process. In order to attract investors to the revival of historical monuments, I proposed the following three initiatives.

First, create a system for supporting investors at all stages of project implementation at the level of existing regional development institutions, so that the restoration of monuments is easier and faster.

Secondly, I propose to develop mechanisms for concessional lending to investment and tourism projects implemented on the basis of historical estates and cultural heritage sites, also primarily in small towns and rural areas.

And my third initiative is to develop a state program to support projects to revive historical estates and cultural heritage sites and adapt them for the purposes of hotel and tourist infrastructure.

You know, I am sure that these initiatives will allow us, first of all, to create a truly competitive tourism infrastructure on the world market, because in most countries the basis of tourism is historical monuments and historical heritage.

The second big effect is that we will still preserve the crumbling cultural heritage sites today for our future generations. I think this is very important.

And the third important effect. We will create a new social infrastructure in rural areas.

In conclusion, I would like to say that today I have a dream that all abandoned and decaying historical monuments will be restored and acquire their new caring owners with the help of these initiatives and with your support, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

When you started talking and offered to restore all the estates, and with the help of soft loans, I said: what a good person, but what an idealist. But after you went on and said that this should be done for tourism purposes and that a revival program should be created for tourism purposes, I thought that I had jumped to these preliminary conclusions. In fact, if you really build this work in the way you suggest, that is, after such a thorough analysis of what is happening in the country and in the regions, this is a lot of work, in fact, it is a huge amount of work, but nevertheless, if you start this work and bring it to some level, in general, is not difficult to do. Because in general, there are lists of regional cultural heritage sites in the regions.

Did you want to add something?

Alexander Shkrapkin: Yes, Mr Putin.

Look, I think that this is actually not such a big amount of money and it is not so difficult to do it, because the core of the tourist infrastructure may well be just 100 estates and a thousand historical monuments in small towns.

In my opinion, the initiative should come not from municipalities and regional authorities, but from entrepreneurs. In other words, entrepreneurs themselves are well aware of which objects can best be adapted to the tourist infrastructure, and what will work best. They can take these initiatives to the regions, and the region will continue to help these entrepreneurs. I'm absolutely sure of that.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, I agree.

Therefore, the first step is to analyze and create a revival program. Then there is the project support system – If we want to solve this problem, we need some kind of support system.

As for concessional lending, the first is: this is not just a soft loan, but if it is for tourism purposes (and you are absolutely right, because all over the world tourists go to places where they are interested, to these historical sites, the history of a region, a particular locality or the country as a whole), people go there, I mean such an obvious boom. of course, it will be in demand. And then these soft loans will pay off.

However, any concessional loan is additional budget money, because if there are benefits, then these benefits must be covered by someone, the difference in the key rate and the commercial bank rate calculated from it, and the difference between the benefit and the commercial bank rate must be covered by someone. This is additional budget funding. But, of course, all this is possible, not so much money, you can calculate and offer a solution.

A. Shkrapkin: I would just like to add that there are already positive practices of concessional lending for tourism projects in the country. And there is the 141st Government decree on concessional lending to large tourist sites with more than 120 rooms. But historical monuments do not fit into this program, these programs, they could be implemented if someone needed these numbers in historical monuments. But we don't fit in. And in principle, I think that it would be possible not to take any new funding, but to redistribute, perhaps, the funds that have already been allocated in the budget for these large objects, including historical monuments. Because this is no less a priority than large tourist sites, in my opinion.

Vladimir Putin: There we have done everything under" three stars", this is a very popular segment. I am not sure that we need to reduce it in terms of funding. You can think about the sources.

What's the next item you'd take? You've named a specific estate, so you probably have something?

A. Shkrapkin: Yes, the second estate is also in the Lipetsk region, it is in the middle of the road. The third estate is also in the Lipetsk region, at the beginning of the road.

Vladimir Putin: No, no, the second, third-and off we go. What's the second one?

Alexander Shkrapkin: The Repets estate is also part of the Zadonsk district.

Vladimir Putin: Is it a beautiful place there? And you expect that tourists will go there?

Alexander Shkrapkin: I have no doubt that tourists will go there, because I have a lot of money.…

Vladimir Putin: And how much is the amount of funding?

Alexander Shkrapkin: The total amount of funding there is about 200 million. But I continue to develop at my own expense. If, of course, there are some state support programs, of course, I will not refuse, but getting some benefits for me is not an end in itself. It is important for us to develop this industry in general, not only estate tourism, but also historical tourism in the country.

Vladimir Putin: That's why I ask so insistently, I've become attached to you. The chairman of VEB, he is the head of the expert council of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, and he is right next to me, Igor Ivanovich Shuvalov. 200 million for VEB – well, what is 200 million? Moreover, you partially invest your own funds.

Igor Shuvalov: I understand, Mr President.

Vladimir Putin: Such a noble cause, Igor Ivanovich.

Igor Shuvalov: I understand everything.

Vladimir Putin: Igor Ivanovich has changed a lot since he stopped working in the Government and started working in a bank. After all, he didn't answer the question, he said: "I get it." Understand what? Whether there will be money or not, it is not clear?

Igor Shuvalov: Mr President, this means that I have briefly replied that I will carry out the task you have set.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you, Igor Ivanovich. We didn't come to today's event for nothing.

All the best to you [Alexey], the idea is good, we will definitely work on it. But what we are discussing now is just a joke, of course, we have heard that VEB will support us. You will agree among yourselves how much you, as the initiator and future owner of this object or tenant, I do not know, will invest, how much VEB will support. But in general, the idea is good. I'm not sure that you need to distract from other projects that work well. You can search for money, search for sources, but this will only work in the system that you have proposed: there must be a program, some kind of preferential lending in some volume, and a support system, and then it will really work. This is a very good offer. It is, of course, expensive, this is understandable, but it will give an additional boost to domestic tourism for sure. First.

And secondly, it will help people not only travel, which in itself is also not bad, and somewhere on the Black Sea to relax and lie in the sun, but (we have many people who want to and many outdoor enthusiasts) will immerse themselves in the history of their own country, which is also connected with the history of the region, and families. This is a very interesting, informative and useful task.

Thanks for the idea.

Alexander Shkrapkin: Can I make a small addition?

S. Chupsheva: No, no, I will not give you the floor as a moderator, because we still have speeches ahead of us, and Vladimir Vladimirovich's time is limited.

Vladimir Putin: Irena, do you see how things are here? A virtual dictatorship. I am the only guarantee that this is not happening.

Svetlana Chupsheva: Mr President, we are very lucky to have the President of our country, and I personally was lucky to have the chairman of the supervisory board of the organization I head. thank you very much.

I think that, of course, all the ideas that have now been proposed, we will work with our colleagues to finalize them. A very interesting experience in the restoration of manors and the transfer of their destination as tourist destinations. In the Kaliningrad region, Anton Alikhanov does a lot of things here, which is also an interesting experience. That is why we will take a look here and work it out, Mr Putin, both with the Government and with VEB.RF", what additional tools can be offered here.

I would like to give the floor to Dmitry Nikolayevich Peskov so that he can talk about the ideas from the "Technological Development" block, as well as introduce the project leader who will present his idea in this block.

You are welcome.

Dmitry Peskov: Mr President, dear colleagues, good afternoon!

We have a growing quality and quantity of technology projects. First, a few words about past projects. At the first forum, we promoted – and this caused us such a stir-a project on crew-free navigation. It is brought to the result. Some time ago, the first two ferries with this technology-"Marshal Rokossovsky" and "General Chernyakhovsky" – entered the Ust – Luga – Baltiysk highway, and now they are working calmly and as standard. That is, it was a large block that was two forums ago.

Last year, we spent a lot of time collecting ideas for drones. Almost all of them were involved in the relevant national project. This work is actively continuing, and the Digital Sky project proposed by GLONASS JSC, Alexey Raikevich, has now become a leader in integrating everything that flies from 500 kilometers to half a meter on the basis of a common digital platform. And we believe that such a story can be made on the basis of the infrastructure of GLONASS JSC.

Last year, we had a heated discussion on ultra-low space, and your instructions have already been issued. We continue this work with our colleagues from Roscosmos. It goes hard, but it moves. I hope that we will still bring it to a result, although there are difficulties.

And since there are a lot more ideas, Mr President, the first suggestion is that we should make industry tracks based on technology and link them with relevant state corporations. Because we have advanced state corporations: there is Rosatom, for example, there are those that are a little more self-contained. But the ideas that are offered by engineering teams, inventors, individual teams, they could very seriously complete the programs and R & D that these corporations conduct. We could have listened to them in the same way and already talked to them in more detail, so that they would take a responsible decision: whether we will go in this direction or not. If we don't go, then why? This is the first one-based on previous experience.

What characterizes this year? Of course, the logic of technological sovereignty has brought to the top a huge number of completely new large, ambitious projects, many of which we have not even seen, and many of them have not thought about. There are some winning projects that reinterpret the traditional understanding of security in a different way – with an emphasis on the security of critical infrastructure and a proposal to build a large market around this, not only in Russia, but also in the world. Federal technology company, the leader is Ivan Pominov together with Kaspersky, we have a SafeNet direction in NTI. They also suggest looking at it as a separate market and starting to develop it using appropriate market methods.

The next big block, also quite unusual for us, was on soils. In fact, the three projects that have emerged as winners, they perceive, I would say, this way: the earth as a technology.

The first block is related to the renovation of soils that appear as a result of climate change – permafrost. There is the work of the Russian scientist Sergey Zimov, who actually learned how to revive the steppe of the mammoth era, where there are a lot of cattle, where there is a lot of vegetation, and all this turns around very quickly. This has two very strong effects. The first effect prevents, oddly enough, the rapid melting of permafrost, and the second is a completely new direction of animal husbandry that is emerging here. The Andrey Melnichenko Foundation has already supported this program. But we believe that it has a very large potential, and as new agricultural land is released, we can work with it.

The second block in soils is also very interesting – the proposal to create a segment of ultra-pure agriculture, which does not contain GMOs, but also chemical fertilizers. At the expense of what? These are developments from the era of food security in the Soviet Union that use peat. In other words, biological fertilizers are actually made from peat bogs. We have a lot of peat bogs in our country, no less than chemicals, and it can be positioned as ultra-pure food, including for export to friendly countries.

And the third project, which is also extremely ambitious, we will be testing it, so we can't take it out yet: colleagues from Ufa are learning how to make black soil from the desert. They suggest that one of the countries of the Persian Gulf make such a project, where we will take a section of the desert and turn it into black soil. This is an extremely interesting block that we didn't have before. We start moving into it.

Of course, the main problem for all projects of this type – we really have a lot of them – is the lack of engineers. And, if you remember, in 2018-2019, we made a very strong breakthrough in digitalization, began to train IT specialists, and made benefits for them. It became clear that there were more IT specialists, but there were fewer physicists and chemists, because children in school began to choose computer science, and this shortage became very serious. The lack of engineers with IT competencies is very, very serious. Several projects solve this problem.

One of the projects is Nerses Nersesyan's project, the Energia College near Moscow, which is a very large industrial college that trains students in a large field of study. They offered to conduct open lessons at school in laboratories that are available in strong colleges of secondary vocational education . That is, when children are taught physics and chemistry abstractly in the classroom-this is one level of interest, and when you can touch, touch, and work on it in laboratories, then the level of interest is completely different. And, according to our colleagues – it's been several years now – it gives them dozens of points for the Unified State Exam in the relevant areas. That is, it is obvious: there is potential, everything is already there for this, even some additional funding is not needed – you need to finalize and scale it organizationally.

The second block of ideas is the ideas of colleagues from the Central University, which is currently the largest private university in our country, created by an IT company, primarily Tinkoff, which asks to finalize the tax deduction mechanisms, which are already available, in principle, for companies that invest a lot of private money in education. There are nuances there, but you can sort them out with appropriate instructions. That is, in principle, this is already allowed at the regional level – we need to fine-tune it so that, for example, if it is a benefit of one region, it can work for a student from another region. This kind of thing, it seems, can give us a very serious set of private investments in the field of training engineers.

The third block that the leaders of our major universities have come out with, first of all, is St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. What do your colleagues say? They say: Look, we have new industries, but industries are emerging primarily around young ambitious engineering teams, they are created from our graduates – Let's allow small-scale production clusters to be created around universities such as St. Petersburg Polytechnic University and Phystech in new directions, which could reinvest this profit in the development of universities and in training students. engineers. This is the third big block of ideas.

And the fourth one, which I'll be honest with you, is that the idea is simple: of course, there will still be a shortage of our own personnel, so it would be good to start working on joint engineering training programs with friendly countries.

I would like to pass the floor here to the author of such an idea, called "Points of Attraction", Andrey Andreyevich Shket. This is our youngest Skoltech university with probably the most advanced technology laboratories in the country today.

A. Shket: Good afternoon, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Good afternoon, dear colleagues!

I have been working at Skoltech, one of the leading Russian institutes of technology, for eight years now. And, as you know, the creation of this institute was the result of international efforts. In fact, we are in constant contact with our university partners, with technology companies both Russian and international. Despite the sanctions, despite some artificial restrictions, this communication not only continues, but it is also expanding.

Russia has given the world a huge number of amazing inventions in its history. Our country can rightly be called an international, worldwide library of knowledge and skills. What is one Periodic law of Mendeleev! And, most importantly, Russia is ready to continue sharing its most valuable long – term asset-knowledge, skills and technology.

Thanks to the fact that Skoltech programs can be taught anywhere in the world – our teachers speak many languages: Russian, English, French, Spanish and many others – we are ready to create a network of centers for the development of advanced competencies based on Russian technologies in friendly countries. Such centers could become a kind of attraction point for talented young people and ambitious technology teams. And there they could get acquainted with the achievements of Russian companies, with our business culture, with our technological solutions.

Colleagues from the National Technology Initiative are already working on a platform for international cooperation, and its task is to achieve technological sovereignty not only by Russia, but also by friendly countries. Such centers could become a kind of physical infrastructure for such a platform.

In addition, we would like to take advantage of the experience of other colleagues: the Agency for the Development of Professions and Skills for Effective Training of Specialists, and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, which in just a few years have developed a huge network of" boiling points", there are already 180 of them. In fact, in addition to these partners and their competencies, we are also supported by business representatives: Rossotrudnichestvo, and TV BRICS is ready to offer us its extensive network of media resources for use.

We have developed a pilot center project in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Last year, in October, you visited Kyrgyzstan, talked with your Kyrgyz counterpart, including discussing education issues, and many solutions helped us to understand the architecture of this possible pilot center. But we are ready to go further, we have visited Tashkent and many other cities in different countries.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, if you support us, we are ready to scale this project to a large number of friendly countries within the framework of the EAEU and BRICS Plus, together with our partners, and we would like to ask you to instruct the Government and heads of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as well as partner companies, development institutions, and state-owned companies to implement this project together with us.

Thanks

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much for this idea and suggestion. In my opinion, I will meet with some of my colleagues from the countries you mentioned just now in Kazan: Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and we will also have the President of Kazakhstan there. I'll definitely talk to them.

Do you know what's going on? The fact is that we also understand, due to the natural causes of the development of the Soviet Union, that certain centers of competence and scientific research were created in the largest cities of the Soviet Union. Of course, such large cities as Tashkent and Alma Ata also developed there, but still everything was concentrated in the cultural sphere in the Bolshoi Theater, relatively speaking, or in the Mariinsky Theater, and in the field of science – in our leading branch academic institutions.

People work there, there are talented people, also interesting developments, and, of course, they are interested not only in buying something in Russia, but also in working together in high-tech areas. I am sure that in the field of basic research, too.

Therefore, I am sure that your proposal will be positively received by the colleagues with whom I will talk tomorrow, but also by the BRICS countries – you also mentioned this-it will certainly be interesting. We, too, with the leaders of the BRICS countries, are always looking for promising areas of cooperation, and this is certainly one of the promising ones.

But when you talk about the center for advanced Russian technologies, of course, if we start working together, it will simply be a center for the development of modern technologies, that's all. And here, when you work together with your colleagues, you will discuss everything that is available to each of the researchers who will take part in this joint work.

So the idea is great. We'll see how to organize it, and I'll ask the Government to do it, of course. We have a large delegation that just returned yesterday, say, from Tashkent, where we discussed cooperation in a number of areas: from energy and space to agriculture and so on. Very interesting, so we will definitely work.

Thank you for the idea.

A. Shket: Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: As for what you said about unmanned vehicles. When did we talk about this? When did you suggest that we pay special attention to this? When was that?"

Dmitry Peskov: Last July.

Vladimir Putin: Last July, you and I – you, Svetlana-met separately and had a discussion. Has anything changed since then?

Dmitry Peskov: We have grown into a giant national project during this time.

Vladimir Putin: Exactly. For the year. Therefore, we will continue to move in this direction, which is very popular. But what is there to say? I don't even want to waste time – and so everyone understands how important this is from the point of view of security, ensuring security, and in a variety of ways. Security – not only refers to military operations, but in the broadest sense of the word.

As for the soil, of course, to be honest, this could also be assumed, but more and more windows of opportunity are opening up for the use of modern technologies. You said that someone even wants to revive the mammoth steppes - let's leave it at that. It won't get to the dinosaurs, will it? Dinosaurs will not be restored for animal husbandry purposes? Otherwise, it will end badly.

Dmitry Peskov: We want to stop at the mammoths.

Vladimir Putin: Stop with the mammoths, yes. In fact, it is certainly interesting.

Now about turning deserts into black soil. Of course, I will continue to maintain contacts with both Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. I just have a big request for you, so that these projects do not turn into some kind of financial pyramid. We have very stable and good relations with both the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the President of the United Arab Emirates, but not so much that they experience all the negatives associated with the pyramids. I will have a good relationship with them, but they will quarrel with you – this is 100 percent. But the idea itself, of course, if possible, is great.

Then we'll talk again, discuss it all.

Thanks

S. Chupsheva: Thanks

We want to say that this year we really have a lot of scientists who took part in the forum and really have a lot of ideas and scientific developments that are worth paying attention to. We will work with the expert council separately and try to make sure that we don't miss all the interesting developments.

It is very important, Mr President, that we keep an eye on the ideas of the past years, that is, not only do we focus on the new ones – as I said, there are 88,000 of them, there are many of them-but we also look at the general development of these ideas and projects that were proposed at the first forum in 2020.

For example, the commander of the Nakhodka search team from the Novgorod region, he spoke at the first forum. He is engaged in military archaeology and talked about the search expeditions that they go with schoolchildren and children. He told how it changes the general attitude to history, the attitude to the Motherland, to the family, and how important it is. And then he suggested that the lessons of courage that he had already taught in the schools of the Novgorod region should be taught in the schools of our country.

Thanks to your support, Mr President, and the support of the Ministry of Education, Sergey Kravtsov personally, the Presidential Administration, and the Presidential Grants Fund, this has indeed become possible. And every year Alexander Morzunov and his team conduct such expeditions, 2.5 thousand children have already participated in such expeditions. 50 thousand schoolchildren took courage lessons. The project continues.

Thank you, we're keeping an eye on him. And we hope for further support here, of course, from the regions and the Ministry of Education, because we see how it is in demand: children are interested in learning their history through the biographies of specific heroes, people, their families, how the war affected the lives of these people. We consider it very important to support this project.

Another project was also presented at the first forum: Ilya Ovodov, a programmer, a father with many children – eight children, and his daughter Angela with disabilities. So Dad came up with a digital solution, a digital Braille recognition platform, to help her learn.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, the project is live, this solution is free of charge. Citizens of 141 countries use it. Tens of thousands of documents were translated thanks to this platform and tens of thousands of people use it, it is still open and working. So we want to thank you for your support. We can see that our ideas for the new time are still alive.

I want to move on to the next section, returning this year, to our nominees, finalists of the forum. Every year, the largest number of ideas concerns social support and social development of people's quality of life. This year it is no exception. The largest number of projects is carried out in this direction.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, there are a lot of projects offered by social non-profit organizations that help to solve specific, sometimes individual issues, problems, becoming partners for regional authorities, for the Government, for federal authorities in solving difficult life situations and supporting families in difficult life situations.

In the first place this year there are a lot of projects related to supporting the family, motherhood and childhood. It seems to me that this is also so relevant.: You have declared this year the Year of the Family, and you are systematically building support measures around the family where the child is born-from the moment of birth until the child reaches adulthood. Unprecedented demographic support measures and social support measures have been taken in our country today.

And, as the Agency for Strategic Initiatives studies, we always look at international practices, international benchmarks, together with experts, Vladimir Vladimirovich, on your instructions, we conducted such an analysis of demographic and social support measures, including large families, and last year we prepared such a report. I want to say that there is no such system anywhere in the world today. What has been created today to support the mother, father, family and children, and what has been implemented today in our country, I repeat once again, is not available anywhere, not in any country in the world. Thank you very much for this.

I would like to invite my mother, who is on maternity leave, to speak, and who will also join us via video link. If possible, please bring Natalia Ageeva from Bashkortostan, Ufa, to the screen. Natalia is a young mother, and she also has a strong idea for the Year of the Family, which I think is very relevant for supporting motherhood.

Please, Natalia.

Natalia Ageeva: Good evening, Mr President, distinguished guests!

My name is Natalia Ageeva, I am from Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan. As we have already said, I am a young mother. My son recently turned one year old. And here I am speaking today to really share my pain.

Having plunged into the" mother's " worries, into this new life for myself, because I have my first child, I realized that, unfortunately, a woman who gave birth in our country, in fact, is not needed by anyone except her family. I'll explain why.

Because when you go pregnant, you are constantly monitored by a doctor from the women's clinic, so that you pass tests, so that you pass all the doctors on time and get the necessary help to carry out and give birth to a healthy child. When the baby is born, pediatrics is connected in his case, and in the first year of life the baby is examined by many specialists, narrow and pediatrician, from head to toe several times.

But why is such a program not offered to a young mother? After all, a woman, especially when she becomes a mother for the first time, life turns literally 180 degrees, she does not always understand what is happening in her body.

I believe that this problem can be solved by creating a federal program that will be free of charge, which will work within the framework of compulsory health insurance. The program will be responsible for providing medical and psychological support to women in the first year of their child's life.

What, in my opinion, should be specified in this program? The first, by analogy, as I have already said, with pediatrics: create a clear and accessible calendar of routine examinations, after which the mother can, for example, see that at three, six, nine or 12 months she must pass certain specialists, receive appropriate recommendations, treatment, appointment, or on the basis of there is no need to register, for example.

And the second, of course, is to create an opportunity for women to pass these specialists from this calendar in a "single window" mode, that is, in one day or in a few hours, just so as not to be distracted from their main tasks.

I believe that this program will solve very important issues, one of which is that a woman will be able to quickly, efficiently, and timely monitor her reproductive health, and recover from childbirth in the first 12 months in a timely manner and well with the help of specialists.

Secondly, Mr Putin, you yourself say that families should be large, so that there is enough strength for both the second and third families. I believe that this program will become a cog of one big mechanism, and then the forces for the second, third, and perhaps even the fourth will definitely be found.

Thanks

Vladimir Putin: Natasha can hear us, right? Are we in contact? Natasha, can you hear us?

Natalia Ageeva: Yes, I can hear you.

Vladimir Putin: Excellent.

First of all, we all congratulate you on your first child.

Natalia Ageeva: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Secondly, despite all the difficulties, I am sure that with your character – and it is felt that you have it-you will decide on a second, and maybe a third child.

Third, I don't think it's entirely fair to say that no one needs a mother after giving birth in our country. I understand that there are probably questions, problems, and you want to sharpen them. Nevertheless, we have developed a program [of support] from a woman's pregnancy to the age of majority of a child, and for those children who are studying and receiving an education – up to 23 years. After all, we tried to create a family support system, and it works in general, although, of course, I agree with you: as for the baby up to one year, special attention is paid to him – there is patronage, and regular visits to women's clinics, where the baby is monitored. I think we even have such a healthy child's day once a week. You probably use it? Well, you see, you still use it.

You probably know better – I was not a mother, so it is difficult for me to understand the condition of a woman, although I know from the literature, from communicating with specialists, what a postpartum condition is. This is such a difficult period, as experts say, for a woman, and psychologically, too. As far as I know, not everyone, but some women have such a difficult period.

And here, of course, we need special support. Thank you for paying attention to this subtle area. It seems to me that following the example of the healthy child's day, it would be quite possible to establish a healthy mother's day and work with young mothers on a regular basis and support them both psychologically and through various medical specialists, that's for sure.

Thanks for the tip. We will definitely try to implement all this.

S. Chupsheva: Thank you, Natalia.

That's right, Mr Putin. Natalia just says that for the family where the child was born, system support is built throughout the growth and maturation of the child: both material, infrastructure, and housing. Here, Natasha, on behalf of mothers, asks just a little attention [to pay] to a woman's health in the first year of child care, because hormones are "walking", somewhere there is a need for psychological support, endocrinologists, therapists. I think that if, as you said, the mother's health day was really adopted in the compulsory health insurance system, in the health care system, then it would be great.

Vladimir Putin: Natasha, we will definitely discuss this with the Minister of Health, the Government, and the Deputy Prime Minister in charge.

We'll find a solution. Thank you for the hint.

Sergey Chupsheva: Mr President, when it comes to demography, our experts and analysts who prepared the report on demography based on an analysis of international and our own Russian experience: we all tend to like your image of Russia, where families are well-off and have many children. This is really feasible. Today we have just over two million large families. I think that with such basic support and respect for a family with many children, we can really see ten million large families in our country in the near future. We will all strive for this.

I would also like to say that a lot of ideas and projects were related to human health. These are not only technologies that make it possible to manage health today, including remotely, but also issues related to the introduction of artificial intelligence in healthcare, and all sorts of remote health monitoring devices that allow you to prevent, rather than treat, certain diseases.

We have a lot of such solutions, and here we are also helped by our partners, large businesses, corporations, and regions that take up such ideas and projects and implement them on their territories and on the basis of their institutions.

I would like to give an example of such cooperation with Russian Railways as one of the largest employers in our country. Last year was the Year of Health at Russian Railways, and we met with colleagues from Russian Railways-Medicine – Elena Zhidkova is here with us. We looked at the list of all the projects that have been submitted that are related to healthcare management, management and use of new technologies. Many thanks to our colleagues: last year we tested a lot – and very good results. We will continue this work this year, because this year there are also many decisions.

But I would also like to mention the responsibility of a person for their health and a healthy lifestyle. I would like to ask you to introduce the next project to Sergey Solovyov, an entrepreneur and founder of the Moyfitness platform.Russian Federation" from the city of Vladimir, which wants to motivate and instill a healthy lifestyle culture in our citizens, regardless of access to sports infrastructure.

Please, Sergey.

Sergey Solovyov: Good evening, Vladimir Vladimirovich! Good evening, forum participants!

I am Sergey Solovyov, founder of the Moyfitness.rf platform. An active athlete, I have been developing fitness clubs for more than a decade, and now I am developing corporate sports culture and well-being in companies.

By personal example, I observe how my daughters ask for training sessions and sections and from a young age consider sports the norm of life. This was made possible by the fact that our country has long been committed to developing the value of health.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, according to your instructions, 70 percent of our citizens should be engaged in sports by 2030, and the life expectancy should increase to 78 years. To achieve these goals, we propose the development of the federal system of motivating citizens to sports and health, as well as the development of the national sports platform "Moyfitness.Russian Federation", where citizens who lead an active lifestyle and instill these values in their children will receive health points and will exchange them for benefits in various areas of life, including regular examinations, leisure activities for the whole family and bonuses from businesses that have already supported this initiative in the city of Vladimir, providing the opportunity to partially pay for products and services with health points.

This is very important, because in Russia 37 million people have fitness apps and pedometers on their smartphones. Almost all of these apps are foreign. We offer to take a leading position in this direction with a domestic product. This will help us increase the tradition of a healthy lifestyle, increase our involvement in amateur and mass sports. This will help parents use their smartphone to engage their children in an active lifestyle.

There will also be advantages for the state. The Ministry of Health will be able to work with a digital profile of citizens ' health. Municipal authorities will be able to use analytics to improve the city's sports infrastructure in a targeted way, and federal programs such as Active Longevity will receive ready-made solutions for involving the older generation.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, we ask you to support the initiative to create a federal system for motivating citizens to sports and health, instruct the regions to assist in involving citizens and businesses in this initiative, and also include the national application " Moyfitness.Russian Federation " in the list of pre-installed programs for Russian smartphones.

This is a very small but very important digital step towards the development of healthy lifestyle traditions.

Thanks

Vladimir Putin: Sergey, thank you for your idea.

Indeed, just recently, a few years ago, only 38 percent of the country's population regularly engaged in physical education and sports, while today it is 55 percent. By 2030, we need to ensure that 70 percent of Russian citizens regularly engage in physical education and sports. This is for sure, this is our goal, we are moving towards it.

Of course, this is directly related to the health of the nation, to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, to demography, to the family, and to the economy. There are a lot of threads leading to different targets here. We already have such a system as a tax deduction for those who engage in physical education and sports on a regular basis. Probably not enough.

Points for those who play sports on a regular basis are, of course, an interesting idea. It's already in principle sound, I know about it. We need to understand what directions to move in terms of state support, and how to formalize these points. The simplest thing is to pass the TRP, it is massive in nature, and depending on this, you can earn points. But not only that – we need to develop this system. Exactly, I promise you, we will definitely work on this topic – it's a good idea.

There are different ways to motivate citizens. But how do you motivate your business? The state – all right: we will talk, agree with the Ministry of Finance, with the Government, how to allocate additional funds to ensure that these points are implemented. But how to motivate businesses to get involved in this work and also invest some money? How can this be done?

Sergey Solovyov: Business is currently experiencing great difficulties in attracting new customers. They are ready to join such a global loyalty system and support citizens who lead an active lifestyle. This is in their best interests, and they see certain business results in it.

Vladimir Putin: In general, yes, but it would be nice if… Here I am engaged in the metallurgical industry, and you are engaged in the textile industry. Well, it would be nice if the metallurgists supported us, but we, the textile workers, do not have enough money for investment projects. (He turns to A. Shokhin.) What do you think representatives of big capital will say?

S. Chupsheva: Employee health, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, and the health of employees, everything is clear.

Alexander Shokhin: Mr President, large companies deal with the territories of their presence in general, not only with their employees, but also with their family members. You know perfectly well that the largest companies, the same metallurgists in the cities where they are the city-forming enterprises, and textile workers are also involved in this work.

You mentioned today about the shortage of personnel – 2.5 million employees are not enough. A healthy employee compensates for the lack of labor resources: they can work harder, take fewer sick days, and so on. So it's an investment really.

Investing in health is a resource for growth and productivity and efficiency, so large companies are interested [in this]. Moreover, on your instructions, which you gave a year ago at the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, we summed up the results of the Socially responsible business Award. One of the categories is dedicated to investing in human potential – which includes health, mass physical education and sports.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, Alexander Nikolaevich, everything is correct, we all understand this, everyone is interested, but we always want someone else to invest or the state. It was not by chance that I asked you to take the floor: we need you to discuss it with your colleagues and make a general decision.

Alexander Shokhin: Can we do this together with the state?

Vladimir Putin: I knew it. You can, of course. We'll do that. It's a good idea, very good.

Alexander Shokhin: Mr President, we have a congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs planned for April. We are waiting for you and will report on the work done there.

Vladimir Putin: All right, but until then we'll work together, and I'll ask the Government to get involved without fail.

Thanks

Sergey Chupsheva: Mr President, we have reviewed international analogues, where tens of millions of citizens are registered on such platforms.

The platform can be absolutely self-supporting just due to the loyalty program of partners who sell through this platform, including their products, their products related to a healthy lifestyle. Citizens are motivated just to access, to collect such health points and convert them into some gifts or services.

We had an example of such a program in the field of volunteerism, when just all large businesses, all technology companies for volunteer points gave citizens all sorts of gifts and support that people who are engaged in volunteering can receive. Here, the same principle could be used to organize a platform with health points.

Vladimir Putin: Fine.

S. Chupsheva: Thank you very much.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, we have everything from our speeches that we have prepared for today, but, of course, there are more leaders-we are ready to work on a working basis.

Vladimir Putin: Okay, but let's do this: one question, if any, from each sector.

Please, please.

To.Anisimov: Good afternoon!

Konstantin Anisimov, Krasnodar Region.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, here is a request. You talked a lot about large families today. I represent one of these families. Please remove from our legislation, I believe, the discrediting norm that support for large families [is provided] for children born after January 1, 2018.

Vladimir Putin: You understand that this is due to budget constraints, but nevertheless, the question itself is certainly correct. We will definitely think about it.

To.Anisimov: Thank you.

Alexander Maksimenko: Hello!

Alena Maksimenko, Demlab Company, Kaliningrad region.

We have entered the top 100, just got some great news, and we are very happy with it. It's a pity that we didn't make it to the top 10, but that's okay.

We are developers of the charging infrastructure and make very cheap "charges". Compared to various analogues, we are three times cheaper.

We suggested creating charging hubs in all municipalities and extending the existing subsidy. We had a request to instruct the Ministry of Energy to extend the subsidy to slow charging stations, which now applies to fast ones. Now it is 150 kilowatts and very expensive implementation. Here in Kaliningrad, one station costs about 11 million rubles – we offer stations to put up for 100 thousand rubles. We are already selling charging hubs for 15 electric vehicles in Kaliningrad, the cost is only two million rubles. In my opinion, this is a great story that will allow you to quickly create an affordable charging infrastructure.

Vladimir Putin: Look, there are two agencies that should study this problem: the Ministry of Energy and the Prosecutor's Office, because it may be beneficial for someone to have only expensive charging stations. We'll do it, I promise you.

Give me the third sector now, please.

Igor Boldyrev: Mr President! Svetlana Vitalievna!

"Alfaseismica", Igor Boldyrev. We are engaged in wave methods of non-destructive testing, monitor buildings and structures using a wave and determine the state.

We are currently working on permafrost in Norilsk and other regions, and we can see what is happening to permafrost buildings. The situation is such that it is necessary to introduce constant monitoring of buildings on permafrost – not only for the permafrost itself, but for buildings, because these irreversible consequences can lead to the destruction of very expensive infrastructure.

Thanks

Vladimir Putin: You have raised an extremely important issue of a global nature. We are talking about permafrost, and if it melts… I don't want to talk about the serious consequences right now, I won't say complicated words at all, so as not to frighten anyone. But when permafrost melts, a huge amount of gases rises into the atmosphere, which cause enormous damage to the environment, not comparable to any emissions from cars.

For our country, where quite large and medium-sized settlements are located beyond the Arctic Circle, the problems are even more acute. Of course, you need to watch the buildings that are built on permafrost. If someone doesn't know, they are built on stilts that are driven into this permafrost-buildings are built on this permafrost on stilts. If it melts, then, naturally, the question arises: what to do with these buildings? This is a specific problem for us. Moreover, glaciers are melting faster in our region than in other regions of the world, and this is an absolutely urgent task for us.

Therefore, when someone somewhere says that we need to pay more attention to environmental issues and climate change, it concerns us first of all. We are in favor of uniting the efforts of all people on the planet who are interested both in analyzing the current events and in taking the necessary measures to prevent this process, if possible, and if it cannot be prevented, at least replace it, so that humanity, and in this case our country, will be able to do so. the country could enter the period that is coming, if it is unavoidable. We must be prepared for these changes.

And of course, in this case, your wave research methods, including first of all the housing developments that are located in this area, are extremely important. And you are implementing them, is it already applied somehow?

Igor Boldyrev: Of course, this has been working for a long time. But in reality, there is only one problem: regulatory measures for mandatory monitoring should be introduced.

Vladimir Putin: A mandatory study. Okay. I'm surprised there aren't any. Aren't there any?

Igor Boldyrev: There are some, but they are left to enterprises. Now, after one of the tanks was spilled in Norilsk, as you remember, they contacted the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and monitoring was carried out, and it turned out that the foundations of the remaining three tanks, one of the nearest ones, had problems, and after this monitoring was carried out, this tank was dismantled, and there wasn't another environmental disaster.

This must be done constantly. This is an inexpensive pleasure, but we maintain the infrastructure.

Thanks

Vladimir Putin: Yes. thank you very much. But we need to repair these tanks on time.

Igor Boldyrev: I agree.

Vladimir Putin: This is also a well-known problem, you just need to monitor it and respond in time.

Please excuse me, we agreed: one, two, three [sectors]. I just know we'll never be done. Let's have a final question, next to Alexander Nikolaevich [Shokhin].

K. Major: Mr President, colleagues, good evening!

The Media Committee of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and myself, Konstantin Valeryevich Major, owner of the MAER media holding, have this idea and suggestion. We all see advertising content that is actively distributed throughout the country – on TV, in outdoor advertising. As a representative of outdoor advertising, I know exactly what is better to see once than to hear a hundred times.

So there is a proposal: to develop criteria by which all commercials will automatically provide content aimed at having many children, correcting demographic problems, searching for academic professions, and so on. It's simple: you need to set tasks for large advertising companies and the largest holdings that produce content, lay down this moment, this task and implement it with simple commercials.

Thanks

Vladimir Putin: Let's reach an agreement. We will assume that we have formulated and set such a task today. We need to finalize the technical issues, and we will definitely reach an agreement with the Government. Thank you very much.

K. Major: Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: I would like to thank all of you for such an active participation in the forum. This is a very useful, necessary and timely event, especially under the slogan "Strong ideas for the new time".

Thank you very much. Good luck!

Have an idea? Lots of thinking being done by Russians. The task of sorting the submissions must be quite a chore, then the trialing of those deemed worthy. What a process. Definitely proper work for a Think Tank. And only a small percentage of ideas were presented. The immigration idea is sound hypothetically, but the vetting of applicants presents a major problem. Yet, Russia needs people and isn’t going to solve its demographic issues soon even if birthrates skyrocket as those newborns still need to mature before they can contribute to easing the job shortage, and that will take 20 years for those born in 2024.

*
*
*
Like what you’ve been reading at Karlof1’s Substack? Then please consider subscribing and choosing to make a monthly/yearly pledge to enable my efforts in this challenging realm. Thank You!