Page 9 - ATD16APRIL2016

WORLD NEWS 9
Problems fixed all over Russia after appeals on Putin’s showÂ
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures after speaking to the media after his marathon call-in TV
show in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, April 14, 2016.
NATALIYA VASILYEVA
Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) — In just
one day, roads of a Sibe-
rian city were repaired,
swindled fishery workers
got wads of cash and a
child prodigy was invited
to go to a Crimean summer
camp. One thing made it
possible: President Vladi-
mir Putin’s Thursday call-in
show where distressed Rus-
sians brought their prob-
lems to the leader.
Putin’s annual television
show has evolved in the
past decade from a no-frills
call-in program to a four-
hour marathon with callers
pleading for help and tele-
vision crews going live from
far-flung outposts.
And for one day, things get
done.
In the first call, a resident of eral immediately flew to
the Siberian city of Omsk
complained about the
state of the roads. Within
hours, officials in Omsk
reported that they had
already got down to re-
pairing the road. By Friday
morning, the local govern-
ment reported that it was
repairing roads in all of the
city’s districts all day and
night. Television footage
Friday morning showed
road workers briskly laying
Saturday 16 April 2016

Child prodigy Ilya Rayevsky an outlet for speaking your
may not be owed billions, mind and shedding a tear
but he got his problem — there is no other shoul-
(AP Photo/A. Zemlianichenko) solved too. The 8-year old der other than Putin’s to cry
complained to Putin that on,” leading business daily
he was too young to get Vedomosti commented.
a place at summer camps The Kremlin on Friday laud-
for gifted children in Sochi ed the hasty efforts of local
and Crimea. officials to respond.
“Ilya, this is a bad mistake,” “We are keeping tabs on
Putin replied. “It shows that it,” Putin’s spokesman Dmi-
people in charge of this try Peskov told reporters.
were not child prodigies “We should not demonize
themselves. We will put it official agencies and of-
right.” ficials. People are doing
Hours later, Rayevsky got their jobs but of course they
an invitation from the edu- sometimes fail at it, there is
cation ministry to pick the a lot of responsibility and
camp of his choice. work to do. What is impor-
Putin’s call-in show is “a tant is the willingness to put
form of psychotherapy, things right.”q
asphalt.
In the Far Eastern city of Bi-
robidzhan, all it took was a
recorded video appeal to
Putin about the lack of an
indoor skating rink for local
officials to start scrambling:
the governor told local me-
dia he would be meeting
the boys on Friday to “per-
sonally find out what issues
the young athletes face.”
In arguably the most gut-
wrenching complaint, a
group of fishery workers
told Putin via a video-link
from the island of Sakhalin
that they were kept in con-
ditions close to slavery last
year when they went to
work to a remote island off
the Russian Pacific Coast
and are now owed millions
in back pay.
A deputy prosecutor gen-
Sakhalin while the local
governor sat down with the
workers after the show. Ear-
ly on Friday the company’s
executive, Alexei Popov,
was shown on Rossiya-1
apologizing to the workers,
saying that he had no idea
they were unpaid. He then
handed out wads of 5,000
ruble ($77) banknotes to
the workers in a 20,000 ru-
ble payment to each work-
er.