Large business itself took initiative to make voluntary contributions to Russian budget - Putin

VLADIVOSTOK. Sept 3 (Interfax) - Representatives of large Russian business themselves proposed making a financial contribution to the development of the economy and the social sphere, and the size of their voluntary contributions amounts to hundreds of billions of rubles, President Vladimir Putin said.

"No. I protest. There are no levies. There are voluntary contributions. These are completely different things. This is indeed an initiative from business, these are not levies. I met with representatives of our business circles; people stood up, completely unexpectedly for me, absolutely unexpectedly, and proposed making a certain contribution," Putin said at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum.

"People got up and said, we work in this country, we are citizens of this country, we have amassed a lot of personal wealth, and businesses feel assured despite all the problems. We want to contribute, in today's conditions, to economic and social development, which is key,'" Putin said, adding that this primarily concerned education, healthcare and several other areas of the public sphere.

"And, in general, they didn't ask for anything, they didn't orchestrate this situation in any way. But I'm telling you exactly how things were. And then these contributions went directly to the Russian Finance Ministry, which distributes these funds, I reiterate, primarily for social needs. I want to thank Russian businesses, including my colleagues here, for this initiative. Many thanks," he said.

Asked about the size of such contributions, Putin said the question should be put to Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who was scheduled to return from a business trip to the United States for the G20 financial meeting. "He'll give you the exact figures if he wishes, I won't force him to. But we're talking about hundreds of billions of rubles," he said.