OREANDA-NEWS. May 12, 2011. “We are establishing the Russian Popular Front in order to draw together constructive ideas, so that civil society, including youth, women’s and veterans’ organisations, the business community, trade unions and associations, has an additional opportunity to become directly involved in charting highly important state decisions.”
Vladimir Putin’s introductory remarks:

Good afternoon, colleagues,

Today, we have at our meeting the representatives of the public organisations that have supported the idea of establishing the Russian Popular Front and have voiced their readiness to jointly work in the interests of the stable, confident and sustained development of Russia. We are united by common views and strategic goals. First of all, this means strengthening the unity of our state, building a strong, democratic and sovereign Russia with an effective market economy based on the principles of public-private partnership and, naturally, on the principles of free enterprise, competition, the responsibility of employers and solid guarantees of working people’s rights.

It is our opinion that it is essential to Russia’s development to preserve civil and inter-ethnic peace, accord, mutual respect and solidarity between representatives of various ethnic groups, religions, generations and representatives of various professional categories.

Our highest value is the freedom and prosperity of all people in Russia. We will continue to strengthen this country’s standing in the world, to expand open and good-neighbourly relations with partners and to take an active part in integration processes.

I would like to once again repeat several basic principles for establishing the Russian Popular Front. First, as I already said while proposing this idea for the first time in Volgograd, all associations due to join this entity will be absolutely equal partners and should be able to submit for discussion their ideas and solutions for various national issues.

Second. Members of the Russian Popular Front will take part together in national parliamentary elections to the State Duma and will make a list of United Russia candidates through joint agreement.

Third. Our candidates will run for parliament with a common programme, and this is a very important feature. I repeat, a common programme which should be drafted after a very broad discussion at all organisations involved in the Russian Popular Front. Representatives of all organisations in the Russian Popular Front should understand that they are really involved in this joint work, so that our election programme is a truly general programme.

Fourth. The Russian Popular Front is open to everyone who shares our objectives and who is ready to take part in drafting and implementing a long-term programme for the development of the state and society. We are establishing the Russian Popular Front in order to draw together constructive ideas, so that civil society, including youth, women’s and veterans’ organisations, the business community, trade unions and associations, has an additional opportunity to become directly involved in charting highly important state decisions, so that “social lifts” function effectively, and so that everyone with the potential, creativity, energy and desire to work for Russia can prove themselves.

I would like to say that the idea to establish the Russian Popular Front has already received broad support. All of us have been involved in events linked with Victory Day. Various people approached us at the reception and directly offered to take part in our work. I was particularly happy with the fact that we were approached by veterans, and representatives of other organisations, who said: “You know our organisation is very small. But we are very active, and we know what should be done for the country. We’d like to declare our readiness to work with you right away.” They gave us their cards, addresses and so on. It was very pleasant to get such a response.  Work to establish the Russian Popular Front was happening all these days. On May 7, we met with you and representatives of public organisations supporting the idea to establish the Russian Popular Front. At that time, a  coordination council was established at the suggestion of the leader of national trade unions, the leading trade union organisation.

Last evening, we met in an informal setting and shared opinions on how to organise our work. Today, I suggest continuing our consultations. As we agreed yesterday, we should, first of all, discuss a draft declaration on establishing the Russian Popular Front. I know that all participants in the meeting have worked with this document. All of you have this text. Let’s share our thoughts once again and submit the declaration to the organisations involved in the Russian Popular Front for discussion. I would like all of you to speak on the draft declaration. First of all, I would like to hear from Mikhail Shmakov, Boris Gryzlov, Alexander Shokhin and other colleagues. Every opinion counts. If there are some remarks and additional proposals, all of them will be taken into account. I have also prepared some amendments. I have already looked at the text very closely, but we will now discuss all this.

In conclusion, I would like to mention another subject which I consider important. I believe it would be right for members of the coordination council to work in the regions, meet with representatives of public organisations which have joined the Russian Popular Front or which would like to join it. It is very important to us that the declaration is not only discussed by leaders. This task should involve as many members of public organisations and our fellow citizens as possible. In this sense, we should see to it that the Russian Popular Front becomes a nationwide entity.

Thank you for your attention, and let’s begin discussing the document which we have agreed to discuss today and create the basis for its final adoption.