Government Meeting

Agenda: partial write-off of budget loan debt for six regions; budget allocations to balance regional budgets; funding for the restoration of flood-damaged schools in Dagestan and Chechnya; support for border regions; and public transport development.

Mikhail Mishustin's opening remarks:

Good afternoon, colleagues.

Before we begin, I want to bring to your attention one decision that has already been taken. The Government continues its systematic efforts to reduce the debt burden on the regions. To that end, as you are aware, we are writing off debt on budget loans. This practice has been in place for several years and has proved highly effective.

Today, we will be supporting six more constituent entities of the Russian Federation: the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Republic of Tatarstan, the Khabarovsk Territory, and the Vladimir, Kurgan, and Omsk regions. Their combined debt will be reduced by more than 37.5 billion roubles.

Confirmation has been received that the relevant funds were used for their intended purposes. The regions allocated them to the implementation of urban development master plans and infrastructure projects in key communities, including those in the Far Eastern Federal District and the Arctic zone. They have improved local utilities - for example, by replacing lifts in residential blocks - overhauled public transport, installed utility networks, and relocated residents from dilapidated housing.

As a result, the resources freed up in their budgets can now be directed towards addressing both immediate and long-term priorities, and, crucially, towards further comprehensive development aimed at improving people's quality of life.

Today's agenda includes a wide range of issues related to supporting Russia's regions, particularly in socially significant and infrastructure projects.

The President has strongly emphasised the importance of providing children with hot meals and ensuring access to medicines - both free of charge and at low, fixed prices.

The Government is pursuing this work consistently. To continue these efforts, we will allocate an additional 2.5 billion roubles to balance regional budgets. These funds will be used, among other things, to provide free hot meals in schools, kindergartens, and after-school programmes in rural areas and small towns - including for children from families of special military operation participants, children with disabilities, and children from large and low-income families. They will also support teachers and nursery staff in the most remote areas, and provide medicines for patients prescribed expensive drugs.

Furthermore, funding will be made available for a number of infrastructure projects in the real economy.

This decision will help balance regional budgets across the social and economic areas essential to the country's development and, most importantly, improve the quality of life of our people.

A few more words about our school.

This spring, extremely severe rainfall occurred in Dagestan and the Chechen Republic, that resulted in major flooding and caused damage to residents and their property.

At the President's instruction, the residents received help on a priority basis. We talked about this at length during a meeting of the Government Commission on the Socioeconomic Development of the North Caucasus Federal District.

Essential infrastructure has sustained serious damage, including education institutions. Schools, kindergartens and colleges have been damaged - some 80 buildings in total. Another ten were destroyed by this natural disaster.

Today we'll talk about allocating almost 3 billion roubles to the republics for the construction and major renovation of these facilities.

I want to emphasise that more than half of the schools are located in rural areas. Many of them are the only schools in their respective villages, towns and remote areas.

I would like to ask the Ministry of Education to provide funding promptly and monitor the progress of all the recovery and maintenance works. They must be performed in full and, of course, in time for the new school year.

Our today's agenda also includes two issues concerning support of the border regions.

The President always points out that it is crucial to address requests from these regions' residents with great care and deal with all arising issues promptly and without unnecessary barriers.

Earlier, the Government allocated funds to help people in need so that the families affected by this challenging situation could rent housing, buy a flat, or build a house.

Now, we will allocate an additional 4.5 billion roubles for these purposes, to compensate the housing and accommodation expenses of the residents of the Kursk and Belgorod regions.

I would like to ask the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities to make sure that the money reaches these Russian regions promptly and that the residents receive all the benefits and assistance they are eligible for.

The next question concerns the development of public transport in the Russian regions. The President noted that upgrading the fleet is one of the priorities.

Modern buses, trolleybuses, trams and electric buses transform cities' appearance and make them comfortable for living. Our citizens can see real changes already as route networks are expanding, travel time is becoming shorter, and comfort is growing. The environmental situation is also improving.

Today, the Government will allocate a further 10.8 billion roubles for these purposes. This money will be spent on important projects in the Kursk, Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod and Saratov regions in the next three years. This year already, we will allocate over 5.5 billion roubles, which will allow purchasing new Russian-made equipment and build necessary utilities.

We will certainly continue to pay very close attention to this extremely important matter in all regions of Russia. Similar large-scale projects are underway as part of the Infrastructure for Life national project.