President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues,
Today, we will discuss further efforts to ensure law and order and public security in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, and in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.
This is of course a multifaceted issue that is directly linked to Russia’s national security and sovereignty and the prospects for the development of these regions. Most importantly, it is related to the lives of millions of people who are going through serious and severe trials.
Our goal is to integrate these historically Russian lands of Donbass and Novorossiya into the economic, legal and education space of our country as soon as possible.
Efforts are already being made to restore housing, roads, education, cultural and healthcare facilities. Industrial and agricultural businesses and enterprises are being relaunched, new jobs are created, pensions and benefits are paid on a regular basis. The preferential mortgage programme with an interest rate of 2 percent is now available.
As you know, I visited Mariupol recently and reviewed the progress of recovery. Construction is being conducted on a large scale, and people are working even at night. You can see that the city is changing, but it is important to carry out positive changes in all cities and villages in all four regions. A long-term programme for the socioeconomic development of these regions of the Russian Federation is being drafted for this purpose. Today, I want to ask Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin to report on what has been completed and what still needs to be done.
At the same time, I will repeat that the situation in these regions remains tense. The Kiev regime continues to commit grave crimes against the local civilian population. They spare no one, subjecting cities and towns to missile strikes, artillery and mortar shelling.
They carry out regular terrorist attacks against government officials and law enforcement officers, journalists, public activists, school and university teachers. The neo-Nazis and their collaborators’ activity has expanded beyond the new constituent entities as crimes have been reported in other Russian regions as well. We have every reason to claim that the potential of third countries and Western intelligence services has been used in plotting the sabotage and terrorist attacks.
In addition, purely criminal elements, including organised crime, drug traffickers and financial swindlers, to name a few, are trying to exploit the situation in the DPR, LPR, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.
To be continued.
Source – The Russian Kremlin: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/70870