Russia needs a stable environment for steady growth and development, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

"Everybody would like this development to be steadier and more effective, but our goal is... forging a stable environment for progressive development," Putin told the Valdai Club, an expert forum for international specialists on Russia.

"We do not need upward and downward leaps, leaps to the left or to the right - we jumped enough some 20 years ago," he said at the meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

"Fertility has risen, mortality is declining; we have seen increased life expectancy in Russia over the last four years," Putin noted.

"For the first time in the last 15 years we have steady growth in the birth rate," the Russian premier added.

SOCHI, September 6 (RIA Novosti)