GORNO-ALTAISK, February 18 (Itar-Tass) — Around 3,000 people participated on Saturday in a rally in support of the course, conducted by the Russian president and prime minister, which was held in the capital of the Altai Republic – Gorno-Altaisk.

It was staged under the slogan: “For civil peace, inter-racial accord and stable development!”. The event was sponsored by the amalgamation of local trade unions.

The rally was addressed by doctors, teachers, authors, representatives of veteran, youth, union and other organizations. Speakers expressed solidarity with participants in other rallies in support of presidential candidate Vladimir Putin. They said that non-government cannot be on the sidelines, seeing how some forces take pains to split society and destabilize the situation in the country.

The rally adopted a resolution, read out by chairman of the republican union amalgamation Andrei Ishchenko. It was announced that it would be dispatched the same day to the people’s headquarters in support of presidential candidate Putin in Moscow.

The resolution says that the Altai Republic is among the best regions in the Siberian Federal District according to the main indicators. This was achieved by industrious and creative work of Russians and the Gorno-Altai ethnic group. It is necessary to continue the course for the country’s stable development, to work honestly and conscientiously as well as to build a reliable future for themselves and their children.

Backing the course of the country’s leadership, rally participants gave several mandates to the federal and republican governments, including restoration of the Ministry of Labour in the structure of the federal cabinet, fixing up the minimum size of labour remuneration no lower than the living wage of able-bodied population and its increase in future at rates no lower than inflation, imposition of a high tax on the rich, tough control of the tariff policy in the housing and communal services in the interests of citizens, higher living standards, etc.