Mishustin set a personal record in the State Duma

Mikhail Mishustin delivered an unprecedented voluminous report in the State Duma: his report lasted 100 minutes, and the prime minister talked with deputies for almost 2.5 hours. Contrary to the forecasts of experts promising the Russian economy a difficult year, the head of the Cabinet is full of optimism. The sanctions, he said, were defeated by “the collective collective mind.” “We expect that in 2024 the period of adaptation will end and Russia will embark on the path of long-term progressive development,” he said.

The speech of the head of government in the State Duma began with an exchange of courtesies. First, they applauded Mishustin himself, then the ministers who came with him. Then the speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, remembered the lady sitting in the presidium and asked everyone to separately greet the head of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, with applause. The deputies did not begin to limit the report of the Cabinet of Ministers in time, so Mikhail Mishustin decided to go for a personal record. The total running time of his speech was 1 hour 40 minutes – only 5 minutes less than the President’s Address to the Federal Assembly. At the beginning, the Prime Minister outlined the unprecedented sanctions pressure that Russia was subjected to in 2022. He traditionally did not name the reasons for this pressure, but he emphasized that the countries of the West took up arms precisely against the common people. “They wanted to provoke mass unemployment, worsen the quality of life of Russians,” Mishustin explained. But thanks to the prompt and coordinated work of the government, these goals were not achieved. The economic downturn was moderate, and the vast majority of Russians felt nothing at all. Without false modesty, the prime minister recalled that this is not the first time the system has shown such flexibility: Russia also overcame the covid crisis much better than many developed countries.

Then Mishustin moved on to 12 priority areas that the Cabinet of Ministers set for itself, and reported in detail on each of them. Again, there were many achievements: targeted payments, the recipients of which are 35 million people, increased, another record was broken in housing construction, the share of domestic electronics in the domestic market doubled, 80% of foreign software already has Russian counterparts, production of knitted fabrics began in Ivanovo, more than 1000 new drugs have been registered, etc.

Mishustin pointed out that one of the priorities of the Cabinet of Ministers was also to meet the needs of the SVO. And after the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions became part of the Russian Federation, the government began to deal with their integration and development in detail. New regions, according to the prime minister, are planned to be declared a free economic zone – the corresponding bill will go to the State Duma on Friday. Donbass needs investments in metallurgy, mechanical engineering, coal mining and the chemical industry. In Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, agriculture should become the main driver. The prime minister promised potential investors “basic mechanisms of state assistance”, supplemented by “tax incentive measures”.

When Mikhail Mishustin finished, Volodin lamented that not all deputies found the strength to listen to his report to the end. “How can we start a conversation if someone has already lost the previous one,” he said, looking at the empty seats in the hall. According to the regulations, each faction had to ask the prime minister 5 questions each. But in the end we agreed on three.

The ten deputies from all the factions, who did not manage to ask questions, were lucky in a sense: the prime minister invited them all to the government to discuss topics of interest to them during a separate conversation.

Those questions that were raised in the meeting room did not directly touch upon the topic of the special military operation and its economic aspects. Yana Lantratova (SR), in particular, asked if the government plans to offer alternatives to the USE. Mr. Mishustin acknowledged that he had been repeatedly asked this question during the meetings preceding the report by deputies from many factions, but he personally believes that “the abolition of the Unified State Examination requires a very serious discussion.” “Today, with the help of the USE, children from distant corners can enter the leading universities of the country and study there,” he recalled, but expressed his readiness to “systemically consider” any proposals for alternative forms of knowledge control to the USE. “Among about 20,000 questions that came to the State Duma from citizens before the government’s report, the issue of the Unified State Examination is among the five most frequently discussed, it is necessary to discuss the topic,” Mr. Volodin considered it necessary to note.

“The media is actively discussing the topic of the growth of the budget deficit, a number of social networks give very gloomy forecasts for the development of our economy, and citizens have a reasonable question – will the state be able to provide pensions, salaries to state employees, is there funds to fulfill social obligations, will it be necessary to include printing press,” said Viktor Seliverstov (ER). Yes, as of March 8, 2023, federal budget revenues amounted to 3 trillion rubles, and expenditures – 6.3 trillion, but the reason for this is “simple,” the prime minister explained: it’s just that from January 1, the government financed part of the expenses ahead of schedule, many of which are usually left at the end of the financial year. Further, he believes, “the deficit will gradually come into line with the parameters laid down in the budget for 2023,” that is, as a result, it will amount to about 2% of GDP. The government is going to finance the deficit mainly through government borrowing within the country, as well as using the funds of the National Welfare Fund. “Our public debt is at the level of 15% of GDP approximately now,” Mr. Mishustin said, which, according to him, is much lower than the public debt of “unfriendly states”.

During the discussion, the prime minister repeatedly stressed that the work of the parliament and the government is proceeding constructively. The speaker of the State Duma took advantage of one of these moments and said that the deputies “would like a backlash” to the initiative to ban vapes: “children must be saved, because it’s an addiction, everyone walks around with these devices.” The Minister of Health supports the deputies, Mr. Volodin said, but the Ministry of Finance does not, “because they count the money.” “We will consider, we will form a position, of course,” Mr. Mishustin replied, but did not express his opinion on this matter.

By the way, the sale of nicotine-containing mixtures for electronic smoking devices to minors is already prohibited in Russia.

In their speeches, representatives of the Duma factions generally praised the Cabinet of Ministers. The leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov did not become an exception, although he complained that until now he personally does not see the “mobilization of all resources” necessary in the current conditions. Leonid Slutsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, called it “the government that defeated the sanctions”. From the rostrum of the State Duma, Mr. Mishustin was greeted with long applause.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28996 dated March 24, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Mishustin’s personal record