Russian Popular Front Action Forum

Russian Popular Front Action Forum

Vladimir Putin took part in a plenary session of the Russian Popular Front (ONF) Action Forum.

November 22, 2016

16:10

Moscow

2 of 6

Russian Popular Front Action Forum.

The forum’s aim is to review the results of 2016 as well as the movement’s activity over the past three years. Attending the event are federal and regional ONF experts, activists and popular overseers from across the country.

The forum’s work was divided into seven thematic events: An Honest and Effective Economy, Social Justice, Society and Government, Education and Culture, Quality of Everyday Life, Environment and Forest Protection, and For Honest Public Procurement.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, Friends.

Welcome to the concluding annual forum of the Russian Popular Front. I know that you have done a huge amount of work over this period. It is indeed a public movement, not an organisation, and it has gained extensive membership. Tens of thousands of people from all over the country are enthusiastic participants in its activity – initially, in order to oversee the fullfilment of the May 2012 Presidential Executive Orders. We will talk about this today.

However, your activity is expanding and encompassing more areas and it is a very positive development. Public opinion polls indicate that this is what the public expects and relies on. This means people’s trust in the ONF is growing. Several inspections have shown that the front’s activity resulted in adjustments to various programmes and government expenses at various levels worth 227 billion rubles. This is a very significant figure even for the entire country’s budget. Therefore, your work is reflected in these very specific and large amounts of money.

The ONF has been working to improve the quality of roads, which is extremely important. It is not only important that the Popular Front is overseeing road construction and improvement, which has always been a public concern, but the cost of these projects is also very important. You have done a great deal in this respect.

The environment has always been a priority issue, and 2017 will be the Year of the Environment. I sincerely hope that we will be able to work together in this area. It is an extremely important matter, because nothing costs so little to incompetent or unscrupulous people and nothing brings them so many returns as the environment, which is used to the detriment of the people who live there. It is very easy to take over something that is precious to many residents of a given neighbourhood, district, city or township, practically for nothing, and to derive huge profits from it by using the available infrastructure.

There are also other areas of major importance, which I would like to highlight, primarily the social policy at the level of municipalities, regions and the country as a whole.

I will end my monologue here. Let us get down to our usual work in the usual format. I hope very much that you will tell me about what you have achieved, what you plan to do and the areas where you plan to move on.

Thank you very much.

To be continued.