MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/. The practice of granting additional powers to governors amid the epidemic helped Russia not to stifle its economy and cope with the outbreak, Russian President Vladimir Putin said an interview for Sergei Brilev’s documentary shown on the Rossiya 24 TV channel on Saturday.
"Of course, it did work," the president said when asked whether the strategy of granting additional powers to governors amid the epidemic, as well as the practice of giving orders to both the government and the State Council, helped. "It was impossible to reduce everyone to the same level," he stressed, adding that, as a result, Russia would stifle its economy or lost its battle against COVID-19.
The head of state noted that after the decision to grant special powers to regional governors was made in Russia, "many countries have repeated the same practice." "That’s good. That means that we hear, see each other, share these best practices, and our practice turned out to be good," he concluded.
The coordination at both the federal and regional levels has become a key factor in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic in Russia, Putin said. "A very important question arose, and it was discussed at the expert level: will we be able to take concerted steps at the federal and regional levels. That has become a key factor in arranging our work," he said.
"The coordination issue has become the most important one, the key one, and we managed to do that with the help of the State Council’s working group, in particular, because it did not work by itself, but within the framework of subordination, bearing in mind the Russian government’s dominant role," the president added.