According to the official site of the President, president.kremlin.ru, Vladimir Putin has worked for 2494 days. He has managed to accomplish 9906 deals (the number of positions mentioned in his schedule), with moving from one destination to another and work with documents excluded. Workdays account for 85% of all days of the year (common people usually have 70% of workdays). The majority of the deals regarded meetings with different people (37%). Every year Russia’s PMs were the leaders in terms of the frequency of meetings with the president – he received them as often as twice a week on average. Visiting various sights, and telephone talks take an important place in the schedule (10-11% each), with participation in ceremonies and sessions accounting for 8-9%.Public speeches have been part and parcel of the president’s life. Vladimir Putin has delivered speeches 1900 times and said 2.2 mln words within the eight years. Assuming that he pronounced some 160 words per minute, he had to spend 230 hours on giving speeches.
Trips and visits of the President are an indispensable part of his work. Vladimir Putin covered a 1.4 mln km distance (it means that he could travel round the Earth 35 times). His longest journey was the one of 2007 on the route Moscow – Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky – Jakarta (Indonesia) – Sydney (Australia) – Abu Dhabi (the UAE) – Moscow (36.500 km in total). During his term in office Vladimir Putin visited 54 countries (Ukraine – 16 times, Germany – 12, Kazakhstan – 11, France – 9, Belorus – 8). The favourite destinations of the President in Russia were St. Petersburg (38 visits) and Sochi (34).
Vladimir Putin paid much attention to his staff: 60 people have managed to work as ministers for the eight years. Three PMs (Mikhail Kasyanov, Mikhail Fradkov and Victor Zubkov) and three Chiefs of the Presidential Administration (Alexander Voloshin, Dmitry Medvedev and Sergey Sobyanin) have been changed. Only five Deputy Prime Ministers and Ministers who were in the government early 2000 are still in office (Alexey Kudrin, Sergey Shoigu, Alexey Gordeyev, Leonid Reyman and Nikolay Patrushev).
Besides, Vladimir Putin has worked much with documents. He has signed 1.853 Federal Laws, 46 Constitutional Laws, rejected 39 bills, issued 13.006 decrees and 5.299 orders. In sum, the President signed 20.243 documents of that kind, that is 8 pieces daily.
04–04–2008 – MOSCOW - RIA Novosti political commentator Dmitry Kosyrev - Those who followed the NATO summit in Bucharest had every reason to expect a "second Munich," that is, one more address in which President Vladimir Putin would tell the global audience what Russia thinks of the West's attitude to it. But there was no Munich in Bucharest, and it had not been planned. Drafting his last presidential speech before a major world forum, Putin intended from the very start to balance out Russia's discontent with NATO's actions with its proposals on future relations between the two sides. The Munich conference was a relatively open forum unlike the Bucharest meeting. This time, Putin did not deliver a public speech. He addressed the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, which his presence turned into a summit. The media were groping for information about Putin's speech. One of the sources was NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer; others were from the Russian delegation. So, what did the Russian president talk about? Here is the first half of his speech about Moscow's grievances. He called the extension of the alliance a "direct threat" to Russia - a very serious warning. Russia does not have the right of veto, and it is not seeking it. States should be able to hear each other's concerns without any vetoes. NATO should not ensure its security at the expense of the security of other countries, Russia included. NATO is a military alliance, and as such it should display restraint it the military sphere. If NATO continues approaching the Russian borders, Moscow will take "necessary measures." Russia has seen repeated violations of international law - it is enough to mention the bombing of Yugoslavia, or Kosovo's unilateral recognition. As we see, there are no sensations, everything is obvious. Now let's turn to the second half of the speech, where Putin voiced Russia's proposals for cooperation with NATO. Having suspended the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) last December, Russia is ready to resume it on the basis of reciprocity. The Iranian problem should be resolved on the basis of transparency - hardly anyone can imagine Iran attacking the United States. Instead of cornering the Iranians, the world community should find another approach. NATO and Russia could cooperate on Afghanistan. He spoke highly about the participation of warships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Operation Active Endeavor in the Mediterranean, and pointed out that for Moscow cooperation with NATO is an informed choice. This is about all, or at least the main points. Not a single sensation - Russia has been telling NATO about these things for many years, but NATO has turned a deaf ear to them, and has been implacably moving towards the Russian borders. Moscow should not feel any triumph about the Bucharest summit's previous decisions - to suspend the Membership Action Plan for Ukraine and Georgia. This is a trifle because in December this process will be resumed. But Scheffer's words about NATO's inevitable expansion are important, and NATO's decision to regard the missile defense system as its own brainchild rather than an American idea imposed on Europe is a serious symptom. The Bucharest summit has shown that NATO and Europe or the West in general, have even more problems than it seems at first sight. Muslim Albania's NATO entry is part of the conflict between the West and the Muslim world, and its solution is nowhere in sight. The well-concealed contradictions about NATO's participation in missions in Afghanistan point to Alliance's military insolvency, and its ambiguous position of an accessory for the American war machine. The Bucharest summit is the hardest of all. NATO is beset with problems - Paris and Berlin feel Iraq-related mistrust of Washington (despite the change of leaders in France and Germany), Polish-German and Greek-Macedonian relations remain complicated; NATO is reluctant to aggravate relations with President-Elect Dmitry Medvedev; and Ukraine and Georgia do not fit NATO's criteria in a whole number of parameters. It is hard to be an American or European today. For several centuries, the Western civilization nurtured illusions about its eternal leadership and supremacy over all other cultures. But this era is coming to a close, and it is time for the West to adapt to a new reality. But for the time being this adaptation is more in the nature of panic in front of the imminent invasion of a poorly reinforced fortress - "All those who can bear arms should come inside, and the bridge should be lifted. There is no point in reacting to the signals from the aliens, no matter what they suggest." This is how NATO behaved with Russia under Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin. No internal NATO problems matter when it comes to relations with Russia. NATO has never listened to Russia. Nor does it heed Russia's concerns now. This was the argument of those in Moscow who opposed Putin's visit to Bucharest, but the other view prevailed despite all skepticism. This is why there was no "new Munich" in Bucharest - one was enough.
January 23, 2008 - Russia Today - Sliding stock markets and fears of a global recession are likely to dominate talks at the annual economic forum, which opens in the Swiss city of Davos on Wednesday. Also on the agenda are the legacies of Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush, the outgoing presidents of Russia and the U.S. respectively. Although the Davos forum hasn't officially started, several meetings have already taken place on the sidelines. Later, delegates will hear opening remarks by the Afghan president Hamid Karzai and a welcoming speech by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The main subjects of the forum will then be discussed at a plenary session. The corridors at the Congress Centre will be swarming with the great and the good, including about 27 heads of state or government, 113 cabinet ministers, hundreds of chief executives and bankers. Altogether, about 2,500 participants will attend. The Russian delegation includes the Russian Finance Minister, Aleksey Kudrin, the head of Sberbank German Gref and representatives of large Russian businesses. This year’s theme sounds, as usual, somewhat blurred - ‘The Power of Collaborative Innovation’. To put it simply, it’s global tensions - both political and economic. Business leaders will focus on private equity investors and the growing power of India, China and oil-rich nations, including Russia. Lee Howell, Senior Director, Head of Asia and Head of Global Agenda at the forum says Russia has an important role to play on the key issues. Among those under discussion in Switzerland include climate change, energy security, arms non-proliferation, the war on terrorism, and sovereign wealth funds. “The assumption is that if the U.S. economy slows down, then it will have an adverse impact on global growth. The hope is that there will be a decoupling and that it will come from the BRIC economies, and the R in BRIC is Russia,” Lee Howell added. But with turmoil on the world's stock markets, Russia is unlikely to top the agenda.
24.01.2008 - [Neftegaz.RU] - The French oil company Total said Tuesday that it was facing budget problems on a major liquefied natural gas project in Iran and that it was reviewing plans with the Iranian government. "We are reviewing the project with the Iranian government, and it could take some time," said Philippe Boisseau, president of gas and power at Total. He declined to give an estimate on the latest cost of Pars LNG, which will be the Islamic Republic's first liquefied natural gas export terminal or say when Total might make an investment decision. Pars LNG would be fed by developing part of the giant South Pars gas field in a project, but construction costs have spiraled throughout the energy sector. The terminal was due to start in 2009 but has been pushed back to at least 2011.