Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has urged federal and regional authorities to be more responsible in solving social and economic issues in the Far East of the country.
Speaking in Yakutia, Medvedev said problems should be dealt with at the local level without referring back to Moscow. “If I weren't personally involved, not a single issue would have been resolved – and that's not because I'm such a hero. That's just because we have to engage the maximum available administrative resources to settle even a minor issue. That's what is very sad and what needs to be eliminated. The enormous number of issues we are dealing with today could have been solved long ago and at other levels. The President has had to spend a lot of time working on them, and the Prime Minister too. But we understand this should be done as a matter of routine,” Medvedev stressed. Medvedev, who is in charge of the country's National Projects, stated that the key issues needing attention were oil and gas, the power industry and housing. In February 2006 President Putin told regional authorities to step up their efforts, but two years on Medvedev revealed that only half of Putin's twelve key reforms have been implemented in the region.