Putin on Positive Trends in His First Year in OfficeAssessing the first year of his presidency, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday the tasks and goals set for this period have been "fulfilled on the whole, but I wished we had done better" on some issues.Putin made it clear on Monday that he did not attach much importance to such interim dates and preferred to spell out results rather than trends. "It is too early to rejoice at results," he said, but "we can note an overall positive tendency." Asked where he could have done better, the president said: "It' s first of all the living standard of the population, although there are obvious improvements." "It is just that we started from a very low point and this is why we cannot rest on our laurels," he added. Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov said on the same day that Putin' s first year in office was devoted to the strengthening of the Russian Federation "which was beginning to burst at seams." "It becomes clear today who should do what in Russia, what the functions of the federal center and governors are," he said. Seleznyov also lauded the president for paying so much attention to war veterans and the people who created the economy of the former Soviet Union and Russia. |
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