Contents tagged with Putin

  • Putin promises to increase minimum wage after the election

    Russian President Vladimir Putin promises that the minimum wage in his country will increase on May 1st, as he stated on January 10th while speaking with workers at a plant in the city of Tver and added that a change in the minimum wage will affect "about four million people."

    The Government plans stipulated that such growth would take place later in 2018. According to officials, the Russian Ministry of Labor will soon begin developing the draft bill regarding the increase in minimum wage. …

  • Carnegie Center: Putin and Russian Patriarch at odds over Ukraine

    Disagreements have emerged between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kirill of Moscow, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), following the start of the conflict  in eastern Ukraine. This was noted by Andrey Pertsev, researcher from the Carnegie Moscow Center, as reported by Voice of America.

    “It has long been known that the president and the patriarch’s relations became strained after the start of the Ukrainian crisis and the conflict in the Donbas,” the researcher observes. …

  • The Kremlin announces that Putin would meet with Netanyahu soon

    Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have agreed to hold a meeting "shortly," the Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov stated, Interfax reports.

    According to Peskov, the meeting of the leaders of the two countries is needed to "discuss current bilateral relationships and exchange views on various international and regional issues." He also said that during the conversation, Putin congratulated Netanyahu on the New Year. "The leaders …

  • Putin signs law increasing punishment for false bomb threats

    President Vladimir Putin has signed a law to increase the maximum punishment for telephone terrorism from five to ten years in prison. The document signed by the president has been published on the official Internet portal for legal information.

    The law was earlier adopted by the State Duma and the Federation Council. The amendments were prepared together with law enforcement agencies, and aimed at combating terrorism, said United Russia MP Vasily Piskarev, RBC news agency reports. The …

  • Putin gives a raise to the Prosecutor General and to the Head of the Russian Investigative Committee

    Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a 4% salary increase to Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and Head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin. The relevant decrees are published on the legal information website and take effect on January 1, 2018.

    According to a declaration that Bastrykin published in May, in 2016, the Head of the Investigative Committee earned 7.9 million rubles or $136,986 while in 2015 he earned 8.4 million rubles or $145,656. His wife’s declared income in 2016 …

  • Putin promises Assad that Russia will continue to support Syria

    Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a New Year's greeting to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, in which he expressed the hope that the radical changes in the gradual reconstruction of the country caused by the armed conflict would continue in Syria in the coming year, the Kremlin's press-service reports.

    Putin noted that the victory over the terrorists and the prompt normalization of the situation in Syria served the interests of peace and security throughout the Middle East. In addition, he …

  • Putin sends New Year's greetings to Trump

    Russian President Vladimir Putin sent best wishes to his American counterpart Donald Trump on the coming New Year and expressed hope that the relations between the two countries will develop following the principles of equality, the Kremlin press service reported.

    In Putin’s message sent to the heads of foreign states, governments and heads of international organizations, it is noted that "in the current difficult international situation, the building of a constructive Russian-American …

  • Putin: too many people in Russia live below the poverty line

    Speaking at a meeting with cabinet ministers, Putin said that one of the country’s main unresolved problems is a large number of people living on income below the poverty line, TASS reports.

    The Head of State noted that there are now 20 million poor people in Russia, and recalled that recently the figure had been 15 million people.

    "The economic crisis of recent years, the decline in oil prices, and some other causes - including external constraints - have done their dirty work, and the …

  • Putin: tax exemption on the capital repatriated to Russia needs to be extended

    "The first is to extend the amnesty period for capital, referring to those external restrictions that do not become smaller, but, on the contrary, appear to have a tendency to increase," he said at a meeting with Russian MPs.

    Putin also proposed to exempt those entrepreneurs who transfer business from abroad to Russia from income taxes.

    The amnesty on capital was effective in the country from July 1, 2015 until June 30, 2016. This rule allowed Russian taxpayers to voluntarily declare their …

  • Putin called for social media activities of ‘certain companies’ to be monitored during elections

    On Monday, December 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the activities of "some companies" in social networks to be monitored during the upcoming presidential elections. He also called for an assessment of the extent of their involvement in domestic politics.

    He did not directly name any of the companies, nor did he differentiate any particular concerns between the activities of foreign or local firms. However, Putin’s call comes in the aftermath of accusations by the United States …