Tuesday marks 1 year since Putin’s third inauguration for presidency

Tuesday marks a year since Vladimir Putin was inaugurated as President of the Russian Federation, the 3rd time during his political career. He will mark this anniversary by a tightly packed agenda, which includes talks with the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, and a conference with cabinet members on a strategic issue. This testifies to the President’s status as the key figure in setting up and implementing the country’s foreign and domestic policy likewise. In spite of his impressive experience at highest executive positions - eight years in the presidential office and four years as a prime minister - Putin admits that his work has not become easier in any way. “We were faced with a dramatic situation ten years ago that pertained to the very existence of Russia’s statehood but this doesn’t mean at all that the questions we’re faced with today are less complicated or less important,” Putin said at the end of April. He underlined the growing demands and needs of the people and the consequent importance of standing up to the heightening requirements and new challenges. As regards the tasks of the current term of office, Putin formulated them right on the first day of his work in the capacity of the President when he signed a block of eleven decrees. The so-called ‘May theses’ spelt out the guidelines for his own activity and for the performance “The tasks were extremely complex and we chose very high benchmarks for the performance of executive agencies quite conscientiously,” Putin said later. The cabinet has so far reported on fulfilling about 70% of the objectives. Nonetheless, Putin is satisfied with the cabinet’s work on the whole. He is especially pleased with the fact that the government has managed to raise pensions and wages of some categories of budget-receiving workers, including teachers and physicians. Putin agrees along with this that the authorities should ponder an outstripping growth of labor productivity and says he is aware of the fact that the government’s new computations did not always turn into new monies for the budget-receiving sphere. Like in the previous terms of presidency, Putin has shown propensity for ‘team spirit’ and the maintenance of stable governmental teams. This could be seen during a recent question-time TV show where Putin was asked if he thought the government was really capable of performing the duties vested in it. He said the cabinet had been working for less than a year and hence “people /government members/ must be given a chance show what they are worth in practical terms.” He believes that “messy reshuffles” are not needed as “they will bring more harm than good.”