Command to the ships: Putin ordered an audit of the tanker fleet
It is planned to complete pumping of fuel oil from the stern of the Volgoneft-239 oil tanker after its crash in the Kerch Strait next week. This became known on January 23 at a meeting between Vladimir Putin and members of the government. Rosprirodnadzor expects to assess the damage caused to the environment within three months. So far, the Cabinet of Ministers intends to allocate up to 1.5 billion rubles to the Krasnodar Territory to reimburse the costs of eliminating the consequences. Vladimir Putin also ordered an audit of the tanker fleet and the regulatory framework for sea and river transportation of petroleum products. Among other topics is the indexation of pensions by 9.5%, which the president announced the day before. Anton Kotyakov, the head of the Ministry of Labor, said that it would affect about 39 million pensioners, and a total of 40 social benefits would be indexed.
Authorities will have to restore 280 hectares of beaches in the Kuban after a fuel oil spill
Tanker Volgoneft-239
Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Saveliev personally visited the disaster area and plans to head there again soon.
— Tomorrow we will fly with the members of the commission to the emergency site in the Krasnodar Territory, where we will inspect all the facilities on site and hold a meeting. I'll let you know about the results of the trip," he said.
According to him, as of 8 a.m. on January 23, more than 1.1 thousand tons of fuel oil have already been pumped out from the aft part of the Volgoneft-239 tanker, which is stranded near Cape Panagia, and 300 tons remain to be removed. Pumping is scheduled to be completed by January 31, Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit said. The project of lifting fragments of sunken tankers is still being developed by specialists. Thus, accumulations of fuel oil are still being noted by employees of the diving units of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Maritime Rescue Service at the bottom, as well as in the water column, said the head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexander Kurenkov. However, the method for collecting it has not yet been determined. Earlier, the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport reported that divers had not detected the release of fuel oil from the tanker Volgoneft-212 that sank in the Kerch Strait.
On the evening of January 23, the situation with fuel oil emissions on the shores of Anapa, Taman and the Crimean Peninsula had stabilized. However, with the end of the storm, small fragments of it steadily eject on some parts of the beaches of the listed zones and on the southern shores of the Sea of Azov, says Roman Pukalov, director of environmental programs at the all-Russian public organization Green Patrol.
Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vitaly Savelyev
— We are waiting for the next storm by the weekend, the situation may change. The south-westerly wind will blow, the surface layers of water will be carried to Anapa beaches. The fuel oil that has sunk to a depth of several tens of meters is no longer subject to wind transport. It is dominated by the main Black Sea current counterclockwise in the basin of the sea. Together with the water masses, fuel oil is moving from Anapa, Taman and the Kerch Strait towards the shores of Crimea and further west," the expert told Izvestia.
According to Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Saveliev, so far no new large-scale emissions of fuel oil from tankers in the Kerch Strait have been recorded. Nevertheless, the authorities will have to restore 280 hectares of beaches in the Kuban, which will require about 840 thousand cubic meters of sand, which is four times more than they have taken out today, said Alexander Kozlov, head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation.
— Three quartz sand deposits near Anapa are priority locations for the fence. They were chosen based on logistics, sand quality and reserves. The regional authorities are starting to develop project documentation for the phased restoration of the coast. In addition, engineering protection of beaches will be provided," the minister said.
The Russian government will allocate up to 1.5 billion rubles to the Krasnodar Territory to reimburse the costs of eliminating the consequences of the fuel oil spill, Alexander Kozlov said. The compensation will cover the costs of emergency rescue operations and transportation of contaminated soil to a temporary site for waste storage and disposal, he said. Rosprirodnadzor expects to assess the damage to nature from the fuel oil spill within three months and expose it to the perpetrators of pollution in court. At the same time, the final estimates of damage to wildlife and natural ecosystems can be announced only after the elimination of all fuel oil emissions. However, it is already known that 49 dead dolphins were found after the tanker accident in the Black Sea, but it is still necessary to determine the exact causes of death before March, when cetacean migration begins in the Kerch Strait.
Following the discussion of this topic, Vladimir Putin instructed Vitaly Saveliev to pay special attention to the revision of the regulatory framework for the implementation of sea and river transportation of petroleum products. The Russian leader also gave the task to conduct an audit of the tanker fleet.
The ships that were wrecked and put on a voyage were not ready to go to sea, the strength characteristics of the hull were not ensured: until the investigation is completed, it can only be assumed that the mechanisms, equipment of the vessels and the structural strength of the hull were not sufficiently checked, said Alexander Spiridonov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Industry and Trade.
is a huge environmental disaster. Therefore, the regulatory documentation needs to be finalized so that such incidents no longer occur. This also applies to the technical inspection of ships before departure, and the responsibility of the captains of the ships themselves and seaports, which should also allow the ship to sail only after its readiness is confirmed. There is also the issue of maritime insurance. This is a very sensitive issue, and now there are some difficulties with insurance of transportation of petroleum products and petrochemicals. Major inspections should be carried out not only of the tanker fleet, but also of the entire cargo fleet for compliance with the technical readiness of vessels to carry out regular cargo transportation," the deputy told Izvestia.
About 39 million pensioners will receive increased payments in February
Other topics of the meeting included the fight against the elimination of spring floods. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, 64 regions of Russia were flooded in 2024, with water levels reaching record levels in some areas. For example, the spring flood in the Orenburg region last year became the most abundant in the entire history of observations in the region. The Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation continues to provide housing for people affected by floods in the spring, Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services Irek Fayzullin reported.
According to him, in the Orenburg region, which suffered the most, 28,145 houses were flooded, 3,487 of them were declared lost as a result of the work of the commission, 18,363 houses were repaired. In total, more than 18 billion rubles were allocated from the federal budget to eliminate the consequences of floods in the Orenburg region. Now the engineering infrastructure has been restored in all affected areas, the heating season has begun in accordance with the regulations, said the head of the region Denis Pasler during the meeting. Nevertheless, Vladimir Putin instructed the Presidential Administration and the Prosecutor General's Office to check the work of the Ministry of Construction and local authorities to overcome the consequences of last year's floods, explaining the decision was "not some kind of distrust," but the need to obtain information from various sources.
The social agenda was also touched upon. In particular, the recent decision of the head of state on pension indexation. Anton Kotyakov, Minister of Labor and Social Protection, announced a 9.5% increase in more than 40 social benefits, compensations and payments.
— Taking into account the task that you set yesterday, the Social Fund is already recalculating the size of pensions, increased payments will come to all 39 million pensioners in February, and at the same time the additional payment for the month of January will be transferred. The funds will be provided to citizens according to the usual delivery schedule — from the 3rd to the 25th of the month, that is, each pensioner will receive increased payments at his usual time. The necessary documents have already been prepared and submitted to the government," the minister said.
The total amount of additional funds for increasing pensions and social benefits is about 300 billion rubles, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at a meeting.
Prosecutors rejected 2/3 of the unscheduled business inspections
The results of improving control and supervisory activities were also discussed. Since 2019, the government has been working to reduce the administrative burden on businesses. Of the 318,000 rules and regulations in force at that time, 143,000 were abolished, and the rest were updated. According to Vladimir Putin, this procedure in Russia should be modern.
— It must be at a high level, it must be carried out using modern technical means, <...> It must protect society, the state, and citizens from everything that is called dishonesty — both from the state and from anyone, including including commercial structures, but it should not restrict freedom, should not be bureaucratic and [should] not interfere with development," the head of state said.
Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov, who was reassigned to this position the day before, said that the supervisory authority authorized 12 times fewer business inspections by regulatory authorities for 2025 than in 2019, the "pre-pandemic" year: 36 thousand versus 442,000. It is noteworthy that Rospotrebnadzor proposed the most unjustified inspections last year, he noted. In addition, prosecutors rejected more than 84,000 unscheduled business inspections last year, or two-thirds of those proposed by regulatory authorities.
— Some of them are simply absurd. For example, the Office of Rospotrebnadzor in the Altai Republic [planned] an on—site inspection of compliance in a roadside cafe with sanitary requirements for nursing homes and hazardous industries," said Igor Krasnov.
Instead of inspections, specialists can also come with a preventive visit, when the inspector only gives recommendations on how to eliminate violations and does not issue fines, explained economist Valery Korneev.
— The goal of the reform is precisely to completely switch to a risk-based approach, in which inspections are not carried out at facilities that comply with mandatory requirements. The key tool of this model is risk indicators: they are defined in such a way as to separate bona fide and legitimate businesses. For example, questions may arise if a pharmacy sells several times more prescription drugs than its neighbors," the economist explained.
Which regions are among the top three in terms of quality of life
On the same day, Vladimir Putin attended a meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) via videoconference. This structure was created on the initiative of the head of state back in 2011: its purpose is to help implement large—scale ideas for the development of society, business and the state.
The meeting, in particular, discussed the updated strategy of ASI activities until 2030. Earlier, the president instructed to develop a document based on the logic of the agency's active participation in the implementation of national projects in Russia. The agency's previous development strategy was designed for 2022-2024.
Vladimir Putin noted several areas that ASI needs to take into account when implementing initiatives. Thus, he called for focusing on spreading best practices in supporting motherhood and childhood and creating conditions for large families, as demographic challenges remain key for the country. It is important to propose a set of measures to improve the quality of life in small towns. We are talking about models for the development of education and healthcare, improving the environment, creating a modern living environment, and restoring cultural heritage sites.
In 2024, the ASI conducted an annual assessment of the quality of life in the country's regions. Thus, 47 regions of the Russian Federation have improved their results in it, said Svetlana Chupsheva, General Director of the agency. The rating contains the results of sociological surveys and indicators collected using geoanalytical tools to determine the quality of the living environment. Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tatarstan topped the ASI rating on the quality of life of the population. Among the "newcomers" in the top twenty are the Republic of Adygea, Kaluga and Murmansk regions. More than 50% of the respondents expressed satisfaction with housing conditions, landscaping of parks, cleanliness of streets and public spaces. According to the results, more than half (54%) of respondents say that over the past three years, their village has become more comfortable to live in.
