Putin vows to improve people's livelihood, fight extremists
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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spent over four hours talking to the fellow citizens during an annual national question-and-answer session live on Thursday.
According to the session's data center, some 2 million questions were poured to the head of the government, ranging from fighting extremism and drug-trafficking to Putin's unexpected karaoke performance and health of his pets.
As last year's session, domestic issues still played a dominant role in the whole live show.
Focus on domestic issues
In the show, Putin fielded 90 questions, 31 of which were selected by himself.
The majority of the questions were connected to wages rise, improvement of housing conditions, and Russia's population conditions.
Putin stressed Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) would return to pre-crisis levels by the first half of 2012.
Compared with the sharp drop of 7.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009, this year would witness a 3.8 percent increase of GDP, he added, saying he was "satisfied."
Meanwhile, Putin said the industrial output will rise up 8.5 to 8.6 percent this year, after last year's decline of 8 percent.
Putin said he is not ashamed for his work, noting that Russia in 2010 enjoyed the lowest inflation rate in recent history of 8.5 percent.
"This is a historic minimum," the prime minister said.
Putin also talked about the significant drop agricultural output, saying the output will slump 9.9 percent due to the summer drought.
This year Russia had harvested about 60.5 million tons of grain compared with 98 million tons in 2009, he added.
In addition, Putin also vowed to improve people's living conditions, controlling traffic jam, gradually decreasing import of pharmaceutical products, and combating several other domestic problems.
Combating extremists threats
Also, many of Putin's vis-a-vis asked him about political and judicial reforms, or complained for ethnic and social tension.
Puin said Russia must take tough measures against all forms of extremism, urging for a crackdown on extremism and terrorism.
"We must suppress all manifestations of extremism, and our society, including the liberals, must understand that," Putin said.
"Our liberals must realize that there must be order. Otherwise, I'll have to shave their beards off and let them join law enforcement. The state exists for supporting the interests of majority," Putin added in his characteristic manner.
Meanwhile, he also called on Russians to give respect to people in different religions.
It was wrong to judge Caucasian people and other nationalities only on their ethnic origin, he added.
Putin was convinced that the violent riot in Moscow this week by nationalists and football fans was caused by the way the police have handled the case.
Still, he defended the work of law enforcement authorities, saying that they were playing a vital role for the state and it was wrong "to paint the law enforcement agencies all black."
