Putin thanks Russian govt for good work, especially during coronavirus pandemic

MOSCOW. May 6 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the work of the resigning Russian government on Tuesday both during the pandemic and with regard to economic development.

"I came today to thank you for our joint work over the previous years. We remember how it all started, I mean how your work in this team, as part of this staff started. It began just before events that were unpleasant for all of us, related to the coronavirus pandemic," Putin said at a final meeting with the Russian government, which will resign on Tuesday.

He noted that the coronavirus infection began to be addressed several weeks after the government was formed. "It was a very difficult, I would even say challenging ordeal for the country, for all of us, for the whole world, actually. I should note that together with you, we passed through this trial then with dignity," Putin said.

At that time, all of the country's resources were mobilized in the field of healthcare, the entire social sector, industry and the production of everything required to counter the coronavirus. "And in general, I reiterate once again, we went through it with dignity. A great deal was done by the government to organize appropriate work in the economic sphere as well, because along with specific production, decisions had to be made that affected the economy as a whole at the time as to what to close [and] what not to close," Putin said.

He recalled the process of resolving issues in road construction. "To close it, not to close it, how to do it, what to do with staff, including with creative teams, how to support them under conditions when we had to limit their work, and so on. There were a great number of questions, and as a whole, the problems with supporting entire huge enterprises, entire sectors of the economy, they [the decisions] were balanced and timely," Putin said.

He noted that all of this was a satisfactory result both in terms of dealing with the coronavirus and for the economy.