all too far away from resolving the situation. with am a can they still be used. we also have. systemic. regular meetings between u.s. and russian officials on ukraine could they become the fifth member of the normandy for. that and i have a question on the ukrainian politician mr sarkozy what is he what is his future role in ukraine awatere the prospects for the ukrainian for ukraine in general last fall of the minsk agreements indeed it has demonstrated low efficiency due to the first and foremost constructive position of the current kiev authorities they don't have any desire to implement those agreements they don't want to launch a real full fledged political process. and again the ultimate goal is to have

a new law on the special status of dawn bus and again the there's been a law that was approved by the parliament on the special status but it's not been enforced due to a number of reasons so although there was an agreement on that particular law we know the provisions of the law passed with the u.s. the u.s. which is a full fledged member of the resolution process regardless of whether the are part of the normandy for format or not the are deeply engaged anyway they have a lot of information do we need to formally incorporate them into that format well i've never posed that decision and it's but it's not up to us to agree on not on that. i'd like to reply to the avoidance

of doubt that you raised. that well you speak russian fluently in so it means they're mentally wise but scarred to start is not that far away from ukraine if you don't take the geographic principle you asked for the tragedy in ukraine or that's the tragedy. i agree with fully agree with you again what has been the reason for it that it was the. constitutional takeover of power. and some part of ukraine disagreed with it and the opposed that. when ukraine said so wanted to move towards europe but the authorities started to use special services and then they launched

a full blown army operation there are no russian. army troops there. but there are militia groups that are. self-sufficient and they're ready to counter any major. offensives against us so that we believe that this. fully meets the interests of the people who reside on those territories why because if they don't have this opportunity the massacre that you just it would be worse than in this robbery it's a massacre and that's will be conducted by the so-called nationalist battalions ukrainian nationalists battalions they were nothing would stop it i wish some of the europeans recommitted mean. to turn to international human rights groups but you know those nationalists battalions when we start by. international.

human rights groups that's for the peace keepers well mr parish. talked about the need to. officials i agreed with it immediately but the always he said no. they don't have this experience they don't have the stuff and they don't want to give weapons begin to give arms to the fishes because they would be the victim they would become the targets for both sides then mr poroshenko said that the u.n. forces should protect the security of the sea officials i agreed with then and we even submitted a draft resolution so what they're saying that there would be u.n. official u.n.

troops to secure. that. officials and then i had a telephone conversation with ms merkel who said that the o.c. officials move around on barcelona this shouldn't be just un troops on the disengagement line and she asked me to would do. to agree to the deployment of the un troops on the border of ukraine and russia and i thought about of that i are told yes i agree and we adjusted our u.n. security council resolution at that and now it turns out it's not enough still there but basically they just want to keep that territory and the international control we don't have anything against that but it's up to the kiev authorities to give authority should agree with the leaders of those territories and again no international mediation in the world history has been able to resolve

those issues direct contacts i need it but the key authorities have been trying to avoid them as for swaps of prisoners change of prisoners i agree that people have suffered a lot and there are many innocent people. do you really feel that that is done on the initiative of donbass they just were shelled recently just yesterday shelled by the ukrainian army or was it not the army but some nationalists battalions we don't know who shelled donbass yesterday. and they're not always good relations between the nationalists battalions and the regular ukrainian army. but i'm a bit east in the. what you mean the. true offices that they. have the ultimate goal to protect the nation from.

outer threats from external threat they should be or should be gauged in some domestic conflict but there is for the exchange of prisoners mr chook is in charge of it instructed by mr poroshenko. as he was invited to a monastery and he was asked. to. use his leverage with the leadership of the two unrecognized republics the lugansk and donetsk republics so they. agreed to that exchange so we had that conversation. and then mr medvedev to with cons after the consultations with here of. gave a list of sixty seven people on once on the one side and three hundred plus on the other side this was the least provided by the craniums and we all agree they all

agreed to it so that's how it was but then they said no it's bad we need to modify that list and they froze everything once again ok let's do it just let's do it we can take the next step later on. christmas coming new year is coming up let's do this goodwill gesture let's make this goodwill gesture now and saakashvili what mr saakashvili has been doing. is spitting. in the face of the georgian nation and spitting in the face of the ukrainian nation he was a person who was president for an independent state and now he's running around. squares and saying army ukrainian. circus really has been shouting he's ukrainian does ukraine not have true authentic ukrainians and ukraine has been. putting up

with it you know it's so pathetic my heart is bleeding when i'm looking at it. how far or close we are you might disagree every person has his own opinion the slavic world has gone through its ups and downs. russia has gone through its ups and downs it's composed of like sixteen or thirty two slavic tribes but then surely. the nation of ruth. came before us and key of that was the center of that nation and that gives me reason to think that. fundamentally we are one of the same nation. we are one of the same people but as we developed. ukraine was really close to world western border. and it developed in its own way.

it has a lot of identity its language in slang which in a culture. and russia she loves that they feel that it's part of its own culture. not. take the nineteenth century there were a lot of people who said that she crane used to be independent. needs to have its own path do they have the right to say so yes perhaps yes that was part of the empire. and you know there was a policy to introduce the russian language with the russian culture to impose it on the ukrainians. but. you know back then we didn't have such a line in the passport has the nationality of ukrainians who were no different no different whatsoever and whatsoever. from russians.

ukraine joined the russian empire in sixteen forty five there were three regions and you go off and. the modern day is on their three regions say they've been part of the russian empire for a long time and thanks to being part of the russian empire got many new lands we had the russian turkish war we had you know world war one world war two but then the ball should be decided that all territories around ukraine should belong to the newly established republic of ukraine. so following world war two. the western regions. were incorporated into it and in one nine hundred fifty four crimea was also incorporated into it in violation of the legislation there was in place back then. and that it.

was an illegitimate illegal decision. what followed was a referendum by the ukrainian people i'm sure will. leave behind some people say that ukraine should rather develop an independent state it's fine if people think. it's fine you need to support it it's counterproductive to go against the will of the people but take. the trends in the world. we're seeing a reverse trend people of different identities people of different cultures of different languages are coming together the same is happening in the u.s. the same is happening in north america the same is happening in europe the same is happening in asia. where. so we need to come to an

understanding of what is good for both of us and what is counterproductive for both of us some wants tore us apart we need to come together because because it's sort of the same it's good to me earlier. thank you mr prescott for. an ear to. the eurasian economic union that will turn three years old shortly. this process a launched in twenty fourteen which was a difficult time when oil prices plummeted and the west launched sanctions more against russia. i think that this. this integration process was due to western sanctions imposed on russia now this is why. we were unable to preserve and clear advantages of combining our product and labor markets what do you think about. it what do you think are the biggest

achievements for the eurasian economic union and if you the u.s. imposes a new sanctions on russia how will the. affect the prospects of the year you ask for the region economic union it's sheer achievement a major one. which leaves you can always hear a lot of criticism of. the war the figures tell us is that we have taken the right decisions and we're moving the right way. domestic turn has been growing. up. not if. you just have the figures but twenty nine percent up twenty nine percent.

even with those countries who just recently joined the union they also demonstrate some positive results. in russia but it. is up one point six total p. . is up one point eight. the total g.d.p. of the year asian economic union that's a very good figure. we're seeing changes for the better. in the structure. of our trade turnover take belarus one. expert. due to. their exports to reach an economic union countries that machinery but. once a. great cultural goods. beller is now has the right to get twenty four. million.

tons of oil and x. poor it. abroad. and gets the marginal. us that when you has revealed new for their own budget and that's billions of dollars so we're moving the rights were there are some issues that are have been resolved. but. some exemption this relates to collect you can add she. and it to sources but we have a clear timeline the year on year. the clear roadmap the details when we will reach full liberalisation we're also have a road map on the customs. procedures and rules.

negotiations are pretty slow but i hope that we will soon introduce. electronic declaration of. transported through our territory so that's we can. register them and track their movement we're also need to introduce joint checkpoints customs. customs areas which i don't think it's bad when we have customs officers from kazakhstan or belarus and work for some time and doesn't undermine the principle of sovereignty just makes the operations of the customs service more transparent and certainly we procedure is trying to procedures must be introduced.

with what's called to resign now there's a question about the utilities sector i guess. let's talk about the more practical issues for a moment. thank you very much for this opportunity others he could call for is on. mr putin good afternoon i would like to start with a very short a request just a couple of sentences and we have a program. proving you living conditions landscaping programs. urban areas so please. maintain funding for such programs there really necessary and my question about the utilities sector in recent years so many people have been complaining about growing in tariffs where is the quality off services remains quite low so my question to you is what needs to be done in the utilities sector to avoid such

complaints in the future think you there's another question. you have a chance so. you call a good twenty four website mr putin because you've got despite all the active positive developments in the utilities sector there's a big black hole. certain. utilities company managing companies they collect the money from people but they don't. make payments to utilities companies and then they go bankrupt then disappear even in kaluga region the authorities do their best to keep an eye on this problem but the situation is really poor at the local level we're no longer able to deal with this

issue of the federal government needs to get involved thank you very much i know that you've made a decision to introduce direct statements from people to utility companies and this is just the first step in the right direction but this entire sector is highly criminalized in the you need to set it in the well is another question all utilities. because. of about forty seven news dot are you website. november and december are military officers living at military bases throughout the country receive their utility bills their exorbitant in st petersburg region one family had to pay fifty thousand roubles a month this is because of the new managing company coming in military bases

are often the band and. they're not supplied properly you're not aware of the situation we can show you pictures so we can show you those big. my question to you is can you do something about this situation this is just another company introduced by the defense ministry and people have to pay fifty thousand rubles and bills you talk to bills what do you share your concern about military bases will definitely need to focus on that but it's one of the most acute. in terms of. in terms of utility payments and once the army. which is one of the defense ministry quits you know the transfer of the hand over you need to take place in a balanced way but overall that's part of the utility shoes nationwide.

your colleagues that the despite a lot of positive trends there's still a lot of gaps and there was another journalist who brought up some issues so what is meyer to this. i don't feel or the situation is developing in a positive way there are still more problems then. problems that have been solved some of the decisions have been made some changes did take place but that's not enough i think that both the regional and the federal authorities the minister of construction there are a special importance an agency is that to deal with the. utilities they are under performing what is the root of the problem because management property management companies and we've been to lity companies. they get those utility payments and also they get the property payments what's the difference utility payments

go to. management companies maintenance companies gaz bills. power bills. and housing and builds. that the bills should pay everything that happens inside the building itself so they first get the money for everything and then they. pay to their contract and they don't always pay in full and on time then there's little control oversight over it what do we have to do. those. property management those utility companies should not be allowed to get those payments. so they don't manipulate them. there are other schemes they impose some surcharge.

fees the customers disagree with that. and the utility companies have to first have to recalculate it and they would also have to pay a fine a fifty percent fine for the deal but i was wrong calculate. what. we need to take that decision so as i said there are two types of payments utility payments and housing payments as for utility payments. we do have some federal regulation in place but for the past several years. we have seen a four percent freeze so the. first. we've seen some violations i got some data yesterday. eight point eight percent so

why do we have eight point eight percent when we have a limit a cap of four percent. that there's a different situation housing payments there's no regulation there's no cap on payments in this area that. we're seeing those payments going through the roof. but an average of twenty three percent. in some months it's thirty plus percent increase so do we do we need to introduce caps. we need to see introduce the same kind of regulation we have to do it immediately. that we again we need to provide the right conditions for this area to develop. if you want a new construction projects should be introduced to. existing laws should be

maintained here let's continue to see some people from china here in russia and china solo mr putin. i represent chinese international radio and china russia. in march twenty eighth. russia will have a presidential election what do you think the outcome what kind of how will the outcome of this election impact russia china relations or do you think that our strategic partnership is a short term political situations let's take a question from as well. thank you. thank you mr president so i represent the sink or you see agency my name is lou or hi. we know russia and china decided to align their initiatives of one belt one road in the eurasian

economic union but you know that could you please comment on the results of this work after the last year how would you assess the results and the prospects of developing relations between russia and china on my second question the communist party of china has set the goal of the developing new international relations one a future based on equality and mutually beneficial. well relations would you think about there is a russia really to have corporation with china in choosing this. issue but you see of them. first of all the decisions taken by the communist party. just recently some. of my sentiment is very positive. but they're fully corresponds at lawry's very similar to what we offer. as

a development platform for russia's role in the world. so first of all the. economic cooperation the chinese economy has been growing really fast it's been thanks to. the decisions that have been made of the past year. by the current president by the current leader and his predecessors. china wants to be a stable country and they want to ensure. development and based on their development they want to see their incomes of their people grow china is a strategic partner for russia but we have to grow with trade for more than sixty three billion. i mean it's been down

to the situation in the economy globally but i'm sure we will have. even a better results very soon asked for your line moment when you won't build on that one road initiative in the economic union. it's fully compatible. so we have would like to take part in the broader carp ration in asia but we are not going to have been some progress made even today. as we get back to. early i responded. to a question on the arctic china has been really interested in the northern

syria that. the our ultimate goal is to provide for the movement from asia to europe and from europe to asia now if we do that is we will be economically more efficient but we would like to make sure that china. makes use of these benefits chinese now part of some major projects in the arctic we just launched. the first step. of the line of the first stretch of. project it's. to be sixteen point five million tonnes. and that's an annual output and china is one of the major investors and there's no coincidence that.