Putin had a meeting with business community representatives

Vladimir Putin met in the Kremlin with representatives of the Russian business circles and associations.

Meeting with representatives of the Russian business community in Kremlin.

The meeting was attended by over 50 business leaders, CEOs of leading private companies and companies with government participation, banks and public organizations.


President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon,

Before we start working and take our seats let us wish a happy birthday to VTB President Andrei Kostin. Please accept our sincere congratulations. I would like to present you with this watch. Although modest, it is called “Chimes.”


Good afternoon, colleagues,

You know we do not meet often but still regularly get together in approximately the same line-up and compare our positions on the developments in the economy and in specific sectors.

Vladimir Putin at a meeting with representatives of the Russian business community.

I must say that despite certain limitations, including external restrictions, the Russian economy is stabilising. As you know, it is perfectly obvious that it has overcome the recession, is gaining momentum, and has been growing for several quarters running.

As you also know, we planned for fairly modest growth of about 0.8 percent. In the first quarter of the year the GDP increased by 0.5 percent but it has already gone up 2.5 percent in the second quarter. Investment increased 6.3 percent, which is the highest since the second quarter of 2012. Naturally, this is a good foundation for future development. Importantly, inflation is fairly low – less than 4 percent, which I would call the lowest in history.

President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

Industrial production is increasing. Its growth was 2 percent and certainly looks very impressive in some sectors. The manufacture of semiconductors has increased by over 24 percent, computers by 64.2 percent, grain harvesters by 31 percent, cars by 21.5 percent, buses by 16 percent, freight carriage by 78.5 percent, sunflower oil by almost 20 percent and knitwear by 23.5 percent. As I said, this growth is being recorded during historically low inflation.

Naturally, it is important to understand why this is taking place and maintain these positive trends. This is actually what I would like to discuss with you. Considering that external restrictions still exist and may even be extended, I would like to hear your opinions on this situation, your assessments and proposals.

This is probably all I need to say for now.

Thank you.

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Presidential Aide Andrei Belousov and Russian Railways CEO Oleg Belozerov before the meeting with representatives of the Russian business community.

Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Russian business community representatives.

Vladimir Putin visited Yandex

Vladimir Putin visited the office of Yandex IT company in Moscow, Russian leading internet service IT company. 

Vladimir Putin and Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh.

Vladimir Putin was accompanied by Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh. Yandex COO Alexander Shulgin and CFO Greg Abovsky told President Putin that the company has about 7,000 employees with average age of 30 years. Most of them have graduated from Russian leading universities. Yandex marked its 20th anniversary on the 23th of September, the day when the Yandex search engine was launched in 1997.



Russian President was briefed on the main areas of the company’s operation, such as Yandex.Search, the most popular search engine in Russia, artificial intelligence projects and the company’s online services in telemedicine, education, business and transportation.

Vladimir Putin in Yandex office, watching at the voice assistant Alice.

One of the company’s latest projects is voice assistant called Alice, which provides weather updates and answers questions about city routes. You can use voice commands or type in your questions. Alice is a unique device: unlike other voice assistants, it can simply chat. Alice is not based on the keyword recognition principle but analyses large volumes of information before providing an answer. Alice will be available on October 10.

Vladimir Putin and a driverless car made by Yandex.

Vladimir Putin was also shown a working prototype of a driverless car that uses Yandex software. President Putin watched the car drive in the company’s yard.

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Vladimir Putin visited Moscow office of Yandex IT Company. With Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh.

Vladimir Putin is shown a working prototype of a driverless car during his visit to Yandex Moscow office.

Vladimir Putin visited Moscow office of Yandex IT Company.

Vladimir Putin with Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh in Moscow office of Yandex IT Company.

Russian President in Moscow office of Yandex IT Company.

Putin met with President of OPORA Russia public association

Vladimir Putin met with Alexander Kalinin, president of OPORA Russia public association for small and medium-sized entrepreneurship.

Vladimir Putin at the meeting with President of OPORA Russia public association Alexander Kalinin.

Among the topics discussed were the introduction of cash registers that report fiscal information to tax agencies in real time and economic consequences for small and medium-size businesses of implementing the initiative to make the minimum monthly wage equal to the subsistence level.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr. Kalinin, first of all I would like to congratulate and all of your colleagues on the anniversary of one of the most active organisations supporting small and medium-size entrepreneurship in this country.

Fifteen years have passed and you and your colleagues have done a lot of work in cooperation with the Government of the Russian Federation and the Presidential Executive Office.

You are directly involved in elaborating draft laws, bylaws and other acts that impact business directly or indirectly, primarily small and medium-sized entrepreneurship. I would like to thank you and your colleagues for your active participation in these efforts and for working with us.

I know that you held an anniversary forum quite recently, the other day, where you also discussed specific issues that are of interest to people involved in business. In this context I would like to discuss a couple of issues separately today.

The first issue deals with the introduction of new cash registers that report fiscal information to tax agencies online in real time. I know that some business representatives voiced different ideas and concerns that the transition to the new registers does not take into account the peculiarities of the business conducted by certain small and medium-sized companies. These cash registers are already being introduced, and the next big step is planned for the middle of next year. I believe it will affect almost two million business owners. Let us discuss this issue to see what you think about possible solutions.

And the second important issue (you certainly know this as well) is our decision to make the minimum monthly wage equal to the subsistence level. This is one of the fundamental decisions that, I believe, should ensure that basic human necessities are not out of the reach of the wages that some of our citizens still continue to receive.

President of OPORA Russia public association Alexander Kalinin.

But at the same time this decision will have an economic impact on small and medium-sized businesses that must pay the corresponding taxes to social funds. It is necessary to be very careful here so as not to create more problems by solving one and not to create difficulties for small and medium-sized businesses and self-employed people.

I suggest that we discuss these issues and then any other matters that you consider important.

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Putin met with representatives of foreign business community

Vladimir Putin met with foreign business community representatives on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the meeting with representatives of foreign business community.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin

Friends, colleagues, I am happy to greet you here.

First of all, I want to thank you all for meeting here in Vladivostok, Russia, for showing interest in working in the Russian market in general and in the Russian Far East in particular.

Today here, there are representatives of many countries from the Asian region and our colleagues from European countries. Some of you have already started working in Russia and the Russian Far East, while others are in the final stages of the decision-making process.


I know that you have projects in a wide variety of fields, including transport infrastructure, mining, the processing industry, healthcare and a number of other industries that are interesting in terms of business for participation in these projects in the Far East of the Russian Federation.

Such meetings are always of great value for me and for my colleagues from the Executive Office and the Russian Government. They make it possible not only to build trust, which is extremely important, bearing in mind that business to a great deal relies on trust between all participants in this process. But it is also important to hear your opinions, your assessments of business conditions in Russia, in the Russian Far East. I mean if there are any problems that require special attention from the authorities of regions or cities or the Russian Government in general, what needs to be done to improve the business climate in the country, what administrative procedures are still hindering and are to be streamlined.

Vladimir Putin met with representatives of foreign business community.

So, feedback from those who work and want to work in Russia is important to us.

I once again cordially welcome you all, and at the beginning of our meeting I would like to toast your health and success.

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Putin had a meeting with Russian and US business leaders.

Vladimir Putin took part in the Russia–USA Business Dialogue panel discussion. The event was held as part of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Vladimir Putin had a meeting with Russian and US business leaders.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Renova Group Viktor Vekselberg: Mr. President, allow me on behalf of all participants in the Russia-US Business Dialogue to thank you for taking part in this meeting and to brief you on our discussions.

First, I would like to say that the US delegation at this year’s St Petersburg Forum is the largest ever, which probably came as a surprise for many of us. More than 300 people represent various US companies and businesses at this Forum.

In terms of the discussions we had and the conclusions we came to, I do not think you will be surprised since participants in this discussion from both sides were adamant in calling for stepping up business ties, saying that they all firmly believe in the lasting benefits of cooperation and the complementarity of Russian and US businesses. They also supported various cooperation and collaboration frameworks, especially in areas dealing with new challenges for the global economy alongside traditional ones. I am referring to IT-related challenges. Russia and the USA have extensive expertise, making it extremely important to promote cooperation in this area, as was pointed out during today’s meeting.

To conclude, the business community spoke out in single voice in the hope that solutions at the political level will pave the way for improving and further promoting our economic relations.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to begin by thanking both the Russian and American organizers of this event. It is a pleasure for me to welcome you all.

I would like to thank our American friends for coming to this event. Mr. Vekselberg has already mentioned the unfortunate state of US-Russian and Russian-US relations.

Of course, as influential world powers, Russia and the US have been keeping the dialogue alive in various multilateral formats, including the UN, the Group of Twenty, which will soon meet in Germany, as well as within APEC and other frameworks, and have continued to cooperate on key global and regional matters. There is no getting away from it, and it is so much better that this process carries on.

However, it has to be recognized that it took decades to lay the groundwork for cooperation that was all but annihilated over the past few years. Our bilateral relations deteriorated to their lowest point since the Cold War.

This could not fail to affect the economy and our business ties. Bilateral trade was modest to begin with, but in 2014–2016 it decreased by 30 percent.

From a realistic, pragmatic perspective, neither Russian, nor American businesses can be satisfied with a situation where mutually beneficial projects are being curtailed. Of course, taking into account the modest trade volumes, this could be viewed as having little importance. However, once we factor in the missed opportunities, it turns out that this was harmful for everyone. In this regard, let me stress that only solid trade and investment ties can ensure a reliable safety net from political oscillations.

Even in the most challenging periods of history, when our two countries represented different political and ideological systems, the United Stated always remained an important trade partner for us. This was case in the early days of the Soviet state, when US businesses contributed to the industrialization effort. This was also the case with the lend-lease program during the Second World War. By the way, modern Russia completely paid off its debt under this program.

Americans are good businesspeople. When they saw big money in Russia with the rise of oil and gas prices, they asked for lend-lease debts to be paid back. We did not want to be greedy, and paid them back. We all have to keep this in mind. Incidentally, we also paid back all of the debts contracted by the Soviet Union, including those of all the former Soviet republics. Russia assumed all these debts and paid them off.

Still, even in the 1970s and 1980s, during the Cold War, we cooperated with the United States.

Today major US companies continue to operate in Russia and to maintain a notable presence on the Russian market. There are about 3,000 firms with American capital in Russia. The total assets of these enterprises amount to about $75 billion, and they employ over 180,000 people.

Interestingly, the delegation of US business representatives is one of the most representative at this forum. Mr. Vekselberg mentioned this, and I would even go further and say that almost a quarter of all foreign companies registered with the forum come from the United States, 144 out of 511. This, by the way, is a record number.

To reiterate, our economic interaction with the United States is balanced and diversified, and focuses on technology-intensive projects. The ongoing projects are in good shape, in general. Thus, from 2014 to 2016, the share of innovative products in Russia’s total exports to the United States fluctuated between 9.7 and 14 percent.

Exports of high-tech services, such as space transport, information technologies, engineering and scientific designs, amounted to about $900 million in 2015, or about one-third of our total exports of services to the US market.

We intend to promote in every possible way bilateral business projects based on equal and constructive partnership and cooperation. We are interested in technology transfers and bringing in international firms to help us expand our domestic industry and infrastructure.

We operate on the premise that such mutually beneficial joint initiatives will contribute to the success of the work we are doing in Russia to step up socioeconomic development, and help us establish on our territory the production of competitive world-class products with a view to exporting them to third countries. Of course, we will do our best to make this business in Russia lucrative for our American partners.

It is good to know that the business communities of the two countries continue to maintain close contacts. Today’s meeting is a good example of this. Last year as well, Russian and US business associations organized several events and roundtable discussions, including those at the St Petersburg Economic Forum.

I believe that improved bilateral relations will benefit both countries. We will continue the dialogue on this with the new US President, Mr. Trump, and the new Administration.

However, success requires serious efforts on both sides. It also takes political will and a willingness to solve problems of mutual practical interest.

I hope that today’s discussion, your initiatives and specific considerations contribute to forming a favorable environment for expanding this complicated task in order to restore trust and constructive dialogue.

Mr. Vekselberg said that many things in business, cooperation and the economy depend on political dialogue. I want to pass this puck to you. Help us restore a good political dialogue. I am asking you on behalf of Russia. I am addressing our American counterparts. Help the newly elected President and the new administration of the United States.

We agreed that I will not participate in your discussion now because there will be a large panel session later. There will be similar questions and similar answers. I would not like to repeat myself and undercut interest in the main event.

I would like to thank all of you for being here today and for thinking, in this direct discussion, about how we can move forward.

Thank you very much and good luck.

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President Putin met with Russian and US business leaders.

Russian and US business leaders.