Vladimir Putin: Bureaucrats Have Made USD 100 Billion of Empty Promises to the People

Speaking in the Federation Council at a sitting of the Council of Lawmakers, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that Russian bureaucrats 'stop lying and stop making empty promises to the people.' He stressed that the authorities intended to help this process by clearly marking out which powers lie with the central government and which with the regions and by carrying out necessary reforms. According to experts, in a variety of programmes Russian bureaucrats have made promises that cannot be kept to the value of 3 trillion roubles (about USD 100 billion).

'If we wanted to fulfill everything that we have promised to the people, everything that has been set down in law, what would the Russian budget have to be? Who knows? Only experts know. Nobody knows exactly. So much has been written out over the last few years that we still can't work it all out,' said the President emotionally, departing from the speech his aides had prepared. 'We need to set out who has what powers and stop deceiving the people,' Putin summed up.

He also believes that regional MPs should be elected according to party lists. 'So that when people go to the polls, they don't just elect a good person, but a good person with clear political beliefs. And so that this person is doubly responsibility to the country, to the voters and to the party, on the basis of the ideas which he takes to the polls,' said Putin.