NOVO-OGAREVO, November 24 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has urged the United Russia party to achieve a good result in the forthcoming elections in order to not let "emasculate the parliament" and to retain the ability of making operational decisions.
"I would like to draw your attention to the need to achieve the maximum results in this election, because if we emasculate the parliament and are unable, just as our counterparts in some countries, to take the necessary decisions at the right time, and if we only promise to do everything at the expense of future generations, this will push us to a point beyond which there are some of our partners and friends in Europe," Putin said at a meeting with the leadership of the United Russia faction in the State Duma.
"I hope, of course, that you will be able to effectively conduct the campaign, and to show the voters what has been done, and what will be done, to convince the majority of the voters of the correctness of the chosen path, and thus to obtain the necessary number of seats," Putin said.
At the same time, he called for being guided by three main principles in the further work - social orientation, a balanced budget policy and reliance on public opinion in discussing laws. "First, the social thrust of all development programs and projects. Second, a responsible and balanced budget policy. And third, the most extensive public discussion of key legislative initiatives," he stressed.
In particular, Putin drew attention to the need for complying with a balanced budget. "All budgeted expenditures should be based on the real incomes, not even oil and gas ones, because a considerable part of them we get due to the favorable external market conditions," said the head of government.
He stressed that "in taking all these decisions we should not drag the country into a so-called debt bondage." As a negative example, Putin cited the situation in several European countries.
"We see what is happening in many western European countries these days – there have been more mass events of social nature in Portugal, they do not stop in Greece, and in France the problems are increasing," said the prime minister. He said "this is due to the debts, and the debts occurred because at a certain time decisions were inaccurate, people began to live beyond their means, and then could not break this trend."
"Extreme social obligations that are not based on the results of the economy’s performance lead precisely to this sort of condition and then make it necessary to reduce drastically the costs, to sequestrate those budgets," he added.
As Putin said, "in the United States today there is the same thing."
"This, in particular, is a result of a lack of consolidation in society, when the leading political forces cannot come to terms," he said.
According to Putin, "now in the United States there is another crisis, the parties are again unable to agree among themselves in the parliament."
"This has negative implications on the economy. I hope that we will not have it this way," concluded the prime minister.
During the dialogue with the leadership of the United Russia faction Putin thanked his colleagues in the parliament for their fruitful work, for the prompt enactment of laws in the times of crisis. "Over the past four years the fifth State Duma has adopted over 1.5 thousand laws, and a third of them was initiated by members of the United Russia faction. All this indicates the party was in the midst of legislative procedures, that it put the interests of citizens of our country above everything else," he said, expressing the hope that "this will continue." "It is very important to preserve the continuity of the positive trends," Putin added.
After the meeting with the leader of the party the functionaries told reporters that Putin had instructed the party members to use the remaining ten days before the election to step up work with the citizens. "The task is to perform well in the regions and to clearly explain to citizens the meaning of the decisions being made,” said the deputy head of the faction, Andrei Vorobyov. “I think we can work soundly these days."
In turn, the first deputy speaker of the State Duma, Oleg Morozov, said that the party in the elections had set itself the task of obtaining at least as many seats in parliament as in the past elections, that is, to retain the constitutional majority. "Our task is to preserve the ability to work effectively, which requires a stable parliamentary majority. This is a challenge that we face, and I hope we will cope with it," he said. "No party approaches the election with a task of getting less votes than it did last time. Therefore, the maximum task is to achieve a constitutional majority. And if that works, we shall congratulate ourselves on this. And if the voter decides slightly differently, and we get a solid majority, it will be a result that will enable us to solve the problems that we have set to ourselves," he added.