Putin on the standard of living in new regions: I haven’t seen so many old Ladas and Zhigulis for a long time

President Vladimir Putin shared with the government his impressions of visiting the Lugansk People’s Republic and Kherson Oblast. According to him, disciplined and hardworking people live in the new regions, but incomes in these regions are still modest. As Vladimir Putin noted, this can be seen even from the cars on the road.

“Probably, it’s different everywhere, but still we traveled quite long distances – what I saw: everything is cleaned, everything is neat, clean. This means that the people living here are disciplined, hardworking. But, of course, they need real help,” the president said, speaking about his trip to the LPR and the Kherson region.

As an example of a low standard of living, the head of state cited the car park in new regions. “I have already talked about my trip to both the Kherson and Lugansk regions. What drew attention. I have not seen such a number of old cars – Lad and Zhiguli for a long time. What does it say? This suggests that people’s incomes are quite modest,” he said at a meeting with members of the government.

The President noted that prices in these regions are “even higher than in the Rostov Region”. The head of state invited Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin to think about how to eliminate the imbalance in prices and incomes.

“There are some things that can be done fairly quickly, including through your line,” Vladimir Putin said. In particular, he proposed to support agricultural producers, expand the possibilities for processing agricultural products in the regions and create storage bases for goods produced in their territories.

April 18, the Kremlin press service reported on the visit of Vladimir Putin to the headquarters of the Dnepr grouping of troops in the Kherson direction, as well as to the headquarters of the Vostok National Guard in the territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic. According to the press secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov, the trip took place on April 17. Later, Vladimir Putin said that he personally visited headquarters in new regions so as not to distract the military from business. The Kremlin noted that Vladimir Putin traveled between regions by helicopter.

In January the President declaredthat by 2030 the annexed regions — the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions — must meet the all-Russian level of quality of life. In this regard, the head of state instructed the government to prepare a special program for the development of new subjects of Russia by the end of the current quarter.