Medvedev concerned with unemployment in Russian south

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting with the unemployed in Elista that programs supporting employment need to be continued, and regional authorities should finance them, RIA Novosti reports.

Medvedev held a meeting with unemployed citizens in the Kalmyk Republic, who are being taught the basics of business.

The president said that the market stabilized and the program for support of citizens willing to engage in business is better than unemployment relieves. He noted that 305 of the Russian population are countrymen.

Medvedev announced a series of events on state policy to support employment. He visited a set of employment centers and had meetings with government members. The president held the first such meeting at an employment center in Moscow’s Strogino District on February 4. He visited the Center of Professional Education at Krasnoznamensk on the outskirts of Moscow in February. At a meeting with parliament parties in February Medvedev discussed employment as the main topic. In Elista, Medvedev said that Russia still has a high level of unemployment, 5.7 million according to the International Labour Organization. The level in the Kalmyk Republic is 15%, which is high, compared with the central part of Russia, he said, Interfax reports.