Vladimir Putin met with members of the Council of Legislators in the Tavricheskiy Palace

The main discussion topics included the improvement of legislation in the field of countering corruption, regulation of commerce and import substitution, and parliamentary control in the field of regional politics.

President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin met with members of the Council of Legislators of the Russian Federation at the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

The event, traditionally hosted in the IPA CIS headquarters in the Tavricheskiy Palace, was dedicated to the Day of Russian Parliamentarism celebrated in the Russian Federation on 27 April.

Vladimir Putin congratulated the legislators on the 111^th anniversary of the Russian parliamentarism and stressed the good performance of parliament in the Russian Federation.

In the run-up to the VIII Nevsky International Ecological Congress, President Putin also spoke on the importance of environmental efforts referring to the fact that 2017 was declared the Year of Ecology in Russia. Russia's overarching goal is a staged transition to ecologically sustainable development. In this regard, we need to address the issues of hazardous emissions to the atmosphere, recycling and energy-saving, development of cities and rural areas.

Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council Valentina Matvienko spoke on the upcoming 137 IPU Assembly that will take place in St. Petersburg this October and the IPA CIS initiative on the establishment of the International Day of Parliamentarism.

Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin noted that streamlining the Russian legal framework and enhancing the quality of law-making and law-enforcement was one of the priorities of the Council of Legislators.

At its meeting, the Presidium of the Council of Legislators discussed children's health, public policies on energy saving, and regulation of the public control function.

"Ensuring information safety of children is a highly relevant issue", stated Valentina Matvienko. She invited MPs to think on the ways to promote this topic among international institutions involved in crime prevention such as the IPU, the IPA CIS, the OSCE PA, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

IPA CIS Council SG Alexey Sergeev attended the session and events.