Welcome, over there please. Hello mister putin. [applause] a million and a half questions is how many we have had this morning we reach that mark. The most popular way of contacting us here is a phone call. Byry phone call is recorded an operator. Lmost 400,000 texts this year, russians are using a very special app to ask their questions. You can even record a video call, send a text message, it is very simple. Press record. , you only haveis one limit, and then you press send. Your message will be processed here. We will receive it, certainly. Of course, there is an advantage to a video call. You can actually show what kind of problem you have, like a road or a landfill or maybe a leaking roof. The most topical and interesting answeringwill be today, another way to contact us is to use our live platform. You might even go live. Every call, every message, is not left unattended. We process everything and we record data. After we finish, we will continue working with these messages. Good morning. In the last few days we have had several reports of how you have been preparing for the direct line with heaps of papers and looking at laptops. What kind of version questions do we have now . I need to be aware of what is happening. One of the most pressing case, for people in any when we get prepared for the direct line, we see what are the most prominent, pronounced issues. Right now, it is no secret. It is our Living Standards. Income, health care, and what i just said. Landfills. Garbage, recycling. Yes, we have had a lot of questions concerning these topics. Here is another thing. Understand, there are National Projects aimed at resolving these issues. Officials always talk about them. But judging by the questions, people do not understand what these projects are about. Are they going to help . Pres. Putin they are supposed to help, and thank you for this cue. This is what we focused on. Definitely our biggest focus is our people, but in order to improve our economy, in order to help our people, we decided to channel our activities interNational Projects. The ultimate goal is to transform our economy to make a and improve our Living Standards and provide security for russia for the long term. Split oury we by level of importance. Of subject matter, how resources are distributed, we were prompted to do that. First, we needed to identify sources of financing for the activities. What are the sources of financing by the government and one of the ways was to increase the tax from 18 to 20 . We need to build infrastructure. We need to build railroads or bridges. Or highways that is the job of the government. Electricity. Access to the power grids. You cannot do that without the government. Then we did other calculations. We wanted to give a boost to Certain Industries and we wanted to boost the incomes of our people. This is why we had to do that. We had to rely had to resort to these not very popular measures. Overall, the government and the inflation was up for six months. The central bank had to hike the rate. Industrial production is down. We see the effect has faded and inflation is down. We just got the data the day before yesterday. Incomes are on the rise. Being, the way we planned it, it actually works. Mr. Putin, lets continue. The income is falling. People have some any questions about it. Few from to ask you a different places. When is life going to improve . We only have 10,000 rubles of income. Young people are leaving. So many questions. Began, wet before we had a video call. People are struggling. They have no money to buy basic necessities. Food, clothes. People struggling the most are teachers and doctors. I highly a good specialist from one city said she gets a salary of 10,000 rubles and teachers in other regions are getting 15,000 or 20,000. Here is a video call from a fire worker. Hello mr. Pruden. I am mr. Putin. I am stanislav. Please tell me, when is our salary going up . Right now what we get monthly is from 12,000 to 13,000 rubles. Division. Of my it is impossible to live getting this money. 2, 3 jobs, and our families are falling apart. E only have 2, 3 people you can see what is happening in our country. When is it going to change . Referring to your question on 10,000 rubles, for the first time in history, we made the decision to bring the to 11,000 rubles, actually 11,280 rubles. Possible to pay a person less. 10,000 is the basic salary and the rest are bonuses. Some people say regional authorities made those decisions. We need someone to look into it. People monitor the situation. Regulators need to look into it. Now, indeed, the situation is not the best one. Are you aners officer . You are supposed to get 43,000 rubles. Those who are not officers would get 16,000 or 13,000, but in the past month weve been talking about it with the minister of emergencies. We have decided to earmark 4. 3 billion rubles to raise pay for the workers of the Emergency Ministry to about 24,000 rubles. Next year we have added 8 billion rubles. Pay is supposed to grow to 32 rubles. Let us go back to the economy. Many believe that the sanctions are to blame and today the eu is expanding the sanctions and people are urging us to makeup. So let us assume russia agrees to this. What help . We did not have disputes with anyone. And will it yield anything . According to experts, these russia about 50 billion u. S. Dollars. The European Union lost about 240 billion u. S. Dollars. The u. S. Lost 17 billion, japan lost 17 billion. Jobs in those countries, they are losing our market. That hit them hard. These are preliminary figures. We agree with that. But we had some advantages. There was a silver lining. We had to switch on our brains with what we are doing with high tech sectors of the economy. If a Substitution Program was lost was launched, that is worth 667 billion rubles and that forced us to develop certain areas where we never had any skills. Take russia as part of the soviet union. Domesticever had any ship engines. We used to buy them from abroad. But we realized, it is not just enough. These engines are a particular area where we are not qualified and we are able to fill in the demand and we now have special ship engines which have the same quality of foreign engines. Take energy machinery. Take other areas. Magine 10 years ago imagine they would tell you that we would export agriculture 25. 7 billion. Laugh at that person in the face. You would shake his hand and say, thank you for your fantasies, but this is not possible. Not feasible. But thats what we have today. 25. 7 billion u. S. Dollars. By 2024 we want to go to 45 billion. Can we reach that . Well, that is a question, but we believe that is quite realistic. We need to go with that figure. That has helped us to mobilize resources. Together. Act we can surrender, we cannot give up, we can give way on national interests, but will there be any change . Signals, but some there will not be drastic change. Take china. China has nothing to do with crimea or the conflict in southeast of ukraine. We are accused that we are, but that is complete nonsense. That is a lie. What about china . Slapped tariffs. What about the attack against who way the attack against huawei . They want to curb the developments, the rise of china. A competitor of the u. S. The same is happening in the case of russia and it will continue to happen. So if we are to have a certain place in this world, we just need to be stronger, particularly in the economy. Many are saying it is time to end this. Pres. Putin no one likes sanctions. We lost 60 billion u. S. Dollars. The eu lost 240 billion u. S. Dollars. Sectors acted on many of the economy in europe. There are advantages. Opinion it is better to and you have common rules, feasible rules. Questions. On april 27, you said all ukrainians will be able to go through an easy procedure to get citizenship. Will he good relations with ukraine . Asking whether you will come to ukraine. We have a live video call. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. What are the prospects for programions in this platform . He said he will conduct with the new power in kiev. As for prisoners and their relief, what do you have to say about that . Pres. Putin we always keep track of these issues. These are humanitarian issues. In veryound themselves difficult situations. They end up in jails or similar institutions. It. Ealt with anall started with instruction issued. You raised the issue of releasing Ukrainian Naval workers excuse me, ukrainian , andn that were captured some other ukrainians that served time in russia. This issue has to be solved in a comprehensive way. We need to think of the fate of the people who we really care about. If russians ended up in the same situation in ukraine. I saw one question on the screen. The question from yakutia, one the government has to resolve this issue with the governance of yakutia. Where does this road lead to . Is nowhere to lead that road further on. Its like a dead end. This is why the payback period will never happen. But sooner or later the issues have to be resolved. Now, here is a question. What about the ethnic group . . It was just assimilated i guess. Has undergone a similar assimilation. We have a lot of ethnic groups, indigenous populations and call it that used to live here in russia. You still have some ethnic groups that have kept the land. Some have disappeared. The assimilation we have a lot of ethnic groups, indigenous populations and call it that used to live here in russia. You still have some ethnic groups that have kept the land. Some have disappeared. All parts of the cultural dna. Lets go back to our question. The question is about the economy. Id like to know about the further plan for the development of our economy. Are we going to further into the beconomy, administered in command economy or are we going to continue with the way we are going now, which is bnation . They are not going to be any breakthroughs. Partially related to the 1990s but hes transformed himself. He is drifting toward the economic stance thats been promoted by mr. Glossy. He wants to use oil reserves. So that we have more oil revenues spent but there has there are opponents who say that will trigger inflation. Okay, let the debate go on. We dont have actually any economies from the 1990s. There are Monetary Policy ideas, maybe, from the 1990s, but we dont have economic systems of the 1990s. Why . We dont have the galloping inflation of 30 . We dont have it. We dont have the debt we had back then. We dont depend on the imf. Weve gone higher than 500 billion u. S. Dollars. We dont have debt. We do have incidents when payments are not made to the population but we dont have situations we saw in the 1990s. The military and households didnt get their pay for six months. And only pension payments were the only 1 and sometimes, people didnt get their retirement benefits. Its actually a different story. You cant have a pure market economy or. Command system but a blended economy. Thats what we see around the world. Once you see disruptions and issues in the economy than the then the role of the state goes up. Once households are getting wealthier and as things calm down, the state gets away from the economy. Thats what happened across the world. Thats what we saw during crises. Take blended economic models. Take china. They are developing faster than the world average. Partially india. China is seeing slower pace of Economic Growth and india, but still fears one of the Drivers BehindEconomic Growth around the world, democracy. To push planning in Certain Industries. They dont have anything against that so we need to be aware of that. We need to use that. We discussed that earlier with the Economic Development industry. The most important thing is motivation, regardless of where you are, you need to have the right motivation. This is the only way to resolve the issue. Moving on. Thank you. We are currently at the Technical Center of our program here, the technical part of the direct line, q a, its very noisy here, people here have a lot of work. These people are getting codes and messages from social media. You can see how many people are waiting for the opportunity to ask a question to the president and here you can see the governors waiting, some of them may have to answer to the president today. They must be nervous. So what screen is this . So this is st. Petersburg and this is magadan. Go ahead, magadan. Mr. Putin, good afternoon. My question is, in the media russian people are often set told about corrupt official hadbeen caught who have truckloads of money. Could he have acquired this money without outside help . You are told about sources of financing. Where did these billions of rubles come from . Millions of dollars come from . Who is responsible for raising corruption in the country. Do you feel personally responsible for the outrage that is happening . Mr. Putin first of all, i do feel personal responsibility for it. If i didnt feel responsibility, you wouldnt see any media reports. Just like it happens in other countries. Just like it has happened here in russia. There is always an alternative. Hush it . Ok, can we can we cover it up . Because there will be questions like yours. I have just one reply to that. No. If theres crime, if theres corruption, if someone wants to get richer at the expense of other people, we have to take criminal investigations to the end. We need to do it in a transparent way. Where did they take the money . Again, these are corruption schemes. They took money from the business community. Usually both sides are responsible. Some people steal and some take and they have people who pay bribes and people who take bribes. Where will the money go . The go . The government will take care of the money. Public officials, Law Enforcement officers are always in a certain position or special position with a special responsibility. When you find out about the billions, how did you respond . What did you say . Sometimes, youd rather not use those words in public. When you get the news of billions, you are speechless. At least, no proper words for it. No words without obscenities. To fight thisneed evil. We are aware of the issue and you can see similar incidents in other countries. Take the u. S. There are corrupt officials who get 150 years in jail. It doesnt make sense but thats tough and its done in the public way. We will do the same here in russia. By the way, they are talking about incidents, punishments, life sentences. Lets say a person who is 60 plus, you can give them life sentence but there is little difference. Theres a feeling the authorities are ramping up the fight against corruption but its not just about the size of or the amount, but its just that it should be inevitable, punishment should be inevitable. You seem to be ramping up the fight against corruption, but it seems like corruption is on the rise. Mr. Putin you say seems, but only seems to you. The number of corruption plans going down, its going down when youre consistent uncompromising approach. We will continue to do that further. Another blogger has joined us. This is dmitri, wellknown in the russians fear of government. You have the floor so your question is about the fake news. Good afternoon mr. Putin, my dmitry puchkov. The growth of social media has destroyed many of the barriers that prevented the spread of fake news but now anyone can spout nonsense and it spreads in a moment. Our young people on the internet believe on the internet, i know for sure i read it online. On the other hand, there is actual criminal responsibility for spreading fake news. For example, in iceland. Ande we should do the same introduce, responsibility for spreading fake news. Mr. Putin please never had any responsibility, actually. We just introduced the responsibility but the nation has become increasingly acute you mentioned one incident. While we are preparing for the events, we were sitting in my office. Even the heads of main channels, channel 1 and channel 2. They are getting calls about bombs planted. Its not just about our media. They are getting other kind of information. This information is spread and received by shopping malls. By companies that operate buses or trains. That inflicts serious material damage and that might cause concern for these communities in general. The radiation levels going up. Theres been fake news about that. Its not just about spreading information. Its deliberate dissemination of intentionally false information. Thats in the goal of the law. Lets look at enforcement, lets look at how it is implemented and then we will make conclusions on whether its enough or whether we need to change something. And add more stringent measures. Thank you. There are more and more attacks on our servers but we are still hanging on. We are still accepting calls. Starting on the first of november, the law of sovereign internet will be put into practice. Now we go to one of the bloggers. You have the floor. Good afternoon. Can you hear me . Yes. One of the main topics online today is the sovereign internet law. From the outside, it looks like we are trying to put another iron curtain and bloggers and Internet Users are at a loss. Why is this happening . Why are you doing this . Before you answer, in moscow i you could ever try. If you want to promote your goods and services, there you go. What was the question . Sovereign internet as we call it. Number talking about restrictions online. Earlier the u. S. Decided further interest restrictions but most of the operations going to the servers located abroad, i hope they wont take it as far as that. But if the servers are switched or anyturned off him impasse, then in any case we will have to provide reliable authorization of the russian sanctions of the internet. This is the purpose of the goal. Will there be any online restrictions . On the contrary. The law is supposed to provide sovereignty of the russians to the internet. Everyone should be able to work there from bloggers to government institutions. We simply signed a decree that the people have been waiting for using the procedure for getting citizenship of russia. Donbass all around russia. Now we go to our correspondent. We are with a large family and here we have they have russian, ukrainian, and belarusian roots but before we start, i would like to show you the small room in their rented flat. Which the head of the family has made into his personal work room. You can see some materials here. Some instruments. Vladimir is producing guitars. Hes making guitars by hand. And this is one of the nine children of the family. They all had to flee from donbass and seek refuge here. I know that you have been going to the Musical School here but you stopped. W