United Russia congress to discuss implementation of president’s decrees

A congress of the United Russia Party plans on Friday to look into the situation with the implementation of presidential decrees issued in May 2012 after Vladimir Putin’ election as president, inviting for that government officials from the social and financial sectors. These documents concern, first of all, the social sphere - development of the healthcare, education and housing and utility sectors. A plenary session of the congress will be held on October 5 under the chairmanship of the party leader, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Meanwhile, delegates have already begun discussing the party agenda. On Thursday, President Putin and Prime Minister Medvedev arrived at the Bor countryside retreat to meet with the participants in the forum. Putin, who led the party from 2008 to 2012, thanked the party for the support. Over these years, the party has become “reliable support of the state, and I what to thank you very much for that,” he said addressing the gathering. The head of the party’s State Duma faction, Vladimir Vassilyev, told reporters on the sidelines of the forum that it had been very important to hear this appraisal from the president. He said media reports were often saying nowadays that Putin was “distancing himself” from the party, and that is why it was important for the party members “to hear that the party was responsible for the course pursued by the country, the president and the government”. “It was a conversation of likeminded people,” he said. The secretary of the party’s General Council, Sergei Neverov, said “the results of the conversation will lay the foundation for the priorities we will outline for ourselves for the next year”.The congress is to make a planned ten-percent rotation of the party’s leading bodies and fix its tasks for 2014.