And now about the event that gathered over 500 journalists from all over the country in the Northern Capital. The center of attention on the 4th Media Forum of the All-Russia People's Front "Truth and Justice" is development of independent journalism. Vladimir Putin answered questions from the forum participants until noon. They asked about the relationship between press and authorities, Internet regulations, medical issues, the roads, the sanctions, and about the unsolved issue of the deceived investors. Pavel Zarubin is reporting.
Over 500 journalists from all over Russia. Today they have a chance to ask Putin any question. There is a massive crowd by the entrance. Media forum began at 1 pm. At that time St. Petersburg lived its regular life. Journalists came with questions that bothered them and their regions the most. Our optimization is conducted under the slogan "Liquidate everything". Liquidate anything that's still left and that might still work for people. Find the time to ask our new authorities what they want from the people. And why they're taking our medical care away. It's too bad that such processes take place in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.
Although in general, in the country, the improvement is obvious. If that weren't true, we wouldn't have such high birth rates and such low mothers' and children's death rate. It wouldn't happen. I'd like to later discuss the issue of medical care in the region with the Minister and authorities of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. We will have a separate conversation on the subject. People don't have any back communication. There is no clear feedback. In Sverdlov Oblast they eliminated the election of cities' mayors. We could of course solve the issue and bring everybody back into the same mainstream or stable. I wouldn't want that, I'd like to let the local officials find and work out a way of forming authority, which would be the most acceptable for this specific region. We have a multi-national country.
For instance, in some Federal subjects in Caucasus, there are traditionally 1, 2, 3, 4 majority ethnic groups and they must all be represented in the authorities. It's been like that for decades, maybe even for centuries. But sometimes these issues must be solved on their own. Should there be any additional regulations for what's happening online? One of the journalists reminded, that the worldwide web has its benefits, but it also has threats. That's why they have such harsh filters in China, for example. This unkempt quasi-free Internet surfing no longer exists. So we shouldn't criticize what they do in China. They have 1,5 billion people. 1,5 billion!.. Go and try to control 1,5 billion people. Napoleon once said, "China is sleeping, and let them sleep for as long as possible". Well, China's been awake for awhile now. And these processes need to be controlled. We have certain restrictions, which everybody knows about. That includes suicide propaganda, child pornography, terrorism propaganda. People were afraid, like Vysotsky used to say, "Even the war parade is now banned. Soon they'll ban everything to hell." But no, nothing's banned. Everything is functioning and functioning well. In my opinion, these restrictions are enough for now.
The general idea should be that "illegal things are not allowed". There were almost no international topics today. And only once, in an agriculture question, they asked about the western sanctions. I base my actions on the premise that these sanctions aren't forever. And if they do, we'll always limit the market flow of the merchandise that we can produce ourselves. We don't limit everything from every single country. We carefully choose what to limit. We used this sanctions to fight back, but not to harm ourselves, but to help ourselves. This definitely helps us. One of the most resonant regional topics is the issue of the deceived investors. A lot of those who suffered from the Su-155 real estate development received help. We're very happy, very pleased that we have out own place now. Thank you, everybody.
In 14 regions the building weren't completed. People were left with no money and no place to live. That's 14 regions. Within the past year, construction is complete in 10 of them. But there is still a lot left to build in the remaining regions. Part of that will be finished by the end of this year.
Everything will be finished by 2018. We will properly control the situation. Not long before the Media forum the President talked to the Laptev Sea shore. They are about to begin drilling the northern-most well in Russia's Arctic sea shelf. Right now in the eastern part of the water way of the Laptev Sea begins the major project of opening a whole petroleum bearing province. I know that this is complex work, a highly technological operation. This is just the first well. There's so much more to come. I want to wish you luck and success with this beginning. Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, we ask your permission to begin drilling the first search well in the eastern Arctic region. Begin. Begin drilling. The drilling has begun. We'll report job progress to you. The potential of the Laptev Sea, according to preliminary estimates, is about 10 billion tons of oil.
