Д.Медведев.Интервью российским телеканалам.24.12.08.Part 3

Interview with Russian Television Channels.Part 3
December 24, 2008
The Kremlin, Moscow

Интервью ведущим российским телеканалам
24 декабря 2008 года
Москва

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: I was thinking of course about how my life was about to change. This was very important for me. In what way was my life about to change? I had been working for quite some time already in different state posts and in various capacities had had occasion to make a large number of important decisions, some of which I think had a very significant impact on this or that situation. But I was very much aware that my life would change after I took the oath and legally became the new President of the Russian Federation. Ultimately, the final responsibility for what happens in the country and for the important decisions taken would rest upon my shoulders alone and I would not be able to share this responsibility with anyone. I would need to be a part of all of these obligations 24 hours a day. All of this was going through my mind. K.KLEIMENOV: Looking at the biggest challenges Russia has faced since you became President, aside from the Georgian aggression against South Ossetia, the world economic crisis looms largest. This is what everyone is talking about today. How well prepared do you think we were for this turn of events? DMITRY MEDVEDEV: I think that we were quite well prepared. If we go back in time a little and recall my speeches during the summer, at the [economic] forum in St Petersburg, for example, and on a number of occasions, with my colleagues in Japan, we said quite clearly, face to face, that the situation on the financial markets could take this serious and dramatic turn. We were assured that everything would be ok, but this was not the case and we are forced to recognise now that our predictions turned out to be true. It would have been better had we been mistaken. As for our preparedness, we were aware that this turn of events was a possibility. Over these last years we have done a lot to strengthen the economy and develop the social sphere. Our gold and foreign currency reserves are the third-biggest in the world. This creates a decent safety cushion and gives reinforcement to our economy, financial and currency system. We have suffered a considerable blow, it is true, because financing was so suddenly cut off and access to a huge number of foreign credits ended. We have a market economy and most of our companies borrow money not only on the domestic market but also abroad, and so the crisis has inevitably affected the overall situation. But overall, I think that our work over these last eight years has not been in vain. We would have been in a much more difficult situation had these preparations not been made. Just think back to 1998. The 1998 crisis had its roots in the Russian economys internal problems. The current crisis, unfortunately, has its roots in the state of affairs in America and a number of other big economies, and in an international financial regulation system that has not always proved adequate over these last years. So, I can say that in general we were prepared. There is another conclusion to draw from this crisis, and that is that our economy has become part of the world economy. This is what we sought, but it is something that has both benefits and drawbacks. As we know, world economic development is cyclical in nature. There are growth periods and there are downturns. The world economy is a global economy, and today it is really a super-global economy. There has never been a crisis like this one in human history. There can be no comparison to the Great Depression or the crises of the 1970s-1980s. Those crises were different in nature and more local in scale, affecting one, two or several countries.In todays completely globalised economy system failures in one country, especially a country as important as the United States, sent instant ripples through Western Europe, China, Japan, and Russia too. In this sense we are part of the world economy. This has given us some important growth advantages, but it also has its drawbacks. We therefore need to do everything possible to ensure that the future configuration of financial relations, the future financial architecture, will be fairer, more modern and better suited to todays conditions. D.KISELYOV: We were better prepared than many, but we can't afford to be complacent when the whole planet is caught up in the battle. Russia has its various national particularities, and they apply to anti-crisis measures too, the ones being taken now. Is it possible to assess the effectiveness of these measures, and what are the specific features of Russias anti-crisis measures?

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