OREANDA-NEWS. July 23, 2009. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Good afternoon dear colleagues,

Today we are meeting for a different reason than normally. First of all, I am glad that young United Russia deputies are at this meeting.

Despite the fact that the work in parliament (unless we count the possibility of an extraordinary session) and other regional and local legislatures is almost finished, I would nevertheless like to talk to you about how your work is going, the legislative initiatives I have put forward, and those which have been supported, adopted and now are, so to speak, a fact of life. For this I would like to thank the United Russia party and all present here.

United Russia has become the force which strongly supported changes in our political system. Of course these are not some kind of preternatural changes, but in my view they are nevertheless important.

As you will recall, the work we've already done has lowered the barrier for parties to enter the State Duma in certain situations. In addition, parties that win regional elections will have the right to propose a candidate for regional governor to the President. This is a very essential innovation that is about to go into effect. Soon it will be time to begin consultations on this subject. We’ll see how this mechanism functions. I hope that it will be able to create clearer political conditions and of course help ensure that we come up with the best choice for the head of a given region.

Important mechanisms related to controlling the authorities have been established, in particular a mechanism for discharging heads of local governments. We haven't used this mechanism yet, but obviously it will be employed at one point or another because there is a reason for this sort of monitoring mechanism, and in some cases it represents the only solution.

We have relaxed requirements on the minimum membership for party organisations. We have initiated certain measures related to media access. In my opinion this on the whole represents a good package. Once again I would like to thank everyone that has been involved in this concerted effort.

We have dealt with other things as well. Yesterday there was a meeting of the Commission for Modernisation and Technological Development of Russia's Economy. We talked about nuclear industry sector and supercomputers development.

Russia has a great deal of experience in these areas. In the field of atomic energy we are perhaps up there among the leaders. Nevertheless, if we do not build on this advantage, if we do not invest money and intellectual resources in this area, we will quickly lose our lead.

So the conversation yesterday was useful. If it's all right with you, I suggest that we discuss the priority areas that I highlighted as essential for the development of our nation and our economy in the years to come.

United Russia has a lot of experience working with young people. Let me say again how pleased I am that our meeting is taking place in this format. As a matter of fact I suggested this because I have been meeting with all the parties. Of course I met with United Russia first because it is our leading political force. But this is my first meeting with its youth wing so I hope that you will feel free to say whatever is on your mind, despite the fact that the presence of your seniors and their somewhat draconian views might be intimidating. I hope that this will not affect the quality of debate.

That's all. Dear friends, I hope that we will be able to touch base and have a good discussion.