RUSSIA, March 28 - The meeting was part of the preparations for the Government’s annual report to the State Duma.

Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:

Colleagues,

The Government continues holding meetings with all parliamentary parties of the State Duma.

We have already talked with the CPRF and LDPR. We discussed, in part, the need to enhance security in the context of the tragedy in the Crocus City Hall last week and a number of other socially important issues.

I am sure that your parliamentary party is also going to present a package of proposals, considering how attentive it is to the responsibilities of its deputies in the regions. It maintains feedback with people, the importance of which the President has always emphasised.

The President noted that only by sensing what is happening in society, it is possible to timely adjust the large-scale plans he described in his address and achieve the results.

First, I would like to thank the esteemed deputies of your parliamentary party for your pro-active position on the issues related to the special military operation, and for your readiness to immediately join the lawmaking process on the President’s instructions in this area. This allows us, considering the support of other parliamentary parties, our colleagues in the Duma, to promptly help our defenders and their families and friends.

A Just Russia Party is doing much to safeguard human rights in other areas as well. I am referring to the social, housing and economic sectors. I would like to make special mention of the law on the amendments in the national payment system. Many people have to counter telephone scammers. There are victims who lost their savings and are now in debt. Of course, the initiative on protecting people against criminals in banking is very much in demand.

I consider correct the introduction of a responsibility of the operators to check suspicious transactions between individual accounts and stop them, if they seem risky. This opportunity is sealed in the current regulations owing to the decisions of the State Duma Committee on Financial Market and its head Anatoly Aksakov.

There appeared a legal barrier to such crimes and the relevant structures have received the instruments for helping people in such situations.

By tradition, your parliamentary party is active in the housing and utilities sector. This is one of the reasons the Government supported your deputies’ amendments to the Housing Code.

I am referring to the regulation that protects the rights of owners in residential buildings, in part, to prevent any attempts to falsify the results of their voting. These amendments have appeared after the complaints of people who faced unfair actions by management companies or boards of housing associations. This measure is very much in demand. We know that you are working hard on this agenda in the State Duma Commission on Citizens’ Housing Rights headed by Galina Khovanskaya. This work must be certainly continued.

I would also like to note our cooperation with your parliamentary party on support of science. We spoke about this at our meeting before the report a year ago. I would like to pay attention to one of the Government’s resolutions that was endorsed at the end of the past year.

On the President’s instructions, we made a decision to add science cities to the regional urban environment programmes – this is what Sergei Kabyshev asked us about during our latest meeting. This measure will make it possible to spend federal funds on developing their territory and creating the required infrastructure there.

Of course, researchers should live in comfortable conditions. The addition of science cities to such programmes will make it possible to start landscaping public spaces and courtyards, parks, squares and pedestrian areas. Renovate neighborhood playgrounds, asphalt driveways, and adjust lighting – the residents of these cities are facing many problems.

In a nutshell, it is necessary to do everything to make science cities well-maintained and comfortable for their residents. During my trips to the regions, I saw how this was done in Sarov and Dubna. We have many places like that. We must put them in order. It is also important to spend subsidies strictly on their intended purposes. We hope the deputies will focus on these issues and rely on parliamentary control over the implementation of the adopted decisions.