1 Annual Big Press Conference Part 1
July 18, 2001
President of Russia V.Putin
The Kremlin,Moscow
VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon,
As you know, with the summer recess the active political season of the first half of the year has ended. However, many news agencies and individual journalists have recently applied for meetings and interviews we have had more than a thousand requests. I have managed to meet with many of your colleagues and to talk with them. But of course I could not meet all these requests individually. So, my colleagues and I thought we would hold this kind of event to enable everyone to take part. And I would like to thank all those present for the interest you are showing in the political life of Russia and Russia in general. I will do my best to meet your curiosity and to answer all the questions you see fit to ask.I think we might go straight into questions and answers not to waste time because we dont have all that much time.
QUESTION: Mr President, will the Middle East crisis and the situation in the Persian Gulf be included in the agenda of the Genoa summit? And will you put forward any Russian initiatives at the summit?
VLADIMIR PUTIN: You know, the main themes that will be discussed in Genoa are problems of a universal human character. In principle, the G8 leaders have agreed to focus on non-political issues the fight against poverty and disease which pose a particular threat to humankind. Then there are some other humanitarian, technological or man-made problems: alternative fuel, food safety, the human genome, and everything connected with the possible cloning of tissue or human beings and the moral aspects of that problem.
As for political issues, and especially crisis issues, I think that these problems, including the Middle East, the conflicts in the Middle East and the problems in Iraq are sure to be discussed in bilateral contacts and perhaps in a free format on the fringes of the official meeting.
You know our position on Iraq. I can repeat it. We know that the system of sanctions is counterproductive. The main thing today is to make sure whether Iraq is preparing to produce weapons of mass destruction, to be satisfied that this is not the case and, proceeding from that, to build our relations with Iraq. We must persuade the Iraqi leadership to allow observers to monitor the facilities that are of interest from the above-mentioned point of view and to move towards the lifting of sanctions. Endless extension of sanctions or their modification, in our opinion, will not achieve the goal we set ourselves.
As regards the Middle East settlement and the conflict between Israel and Palestine, it is regrettable that the confrontation today has reached such a pitch. It is regrettable that the efforts exerted for many years by the former leadership of Israel and the Palestinian leadership have practically been annulled and the efforts of the international community have been annulled. I agree that today there is no more important task than to stop the violence on both sides. And it has to be done immediately. It is only on that basis that all the other issues can be tackled, and the problems of the region and between these two states are very serious. However, I think it would be very difficult to achieve unless the interests of all the countries in the region are taken into account. So, attention should be given to the legitimate demands and interests of, say, Syria; we should listen to what Egypt says and so on. Of course, we should move towards defusing tensions on the Israeli-Lebanese track.
We know the influence these countries have on various forces in the region. And I repeat, without taking into account the legitimate interests of these states we will not achieve a final solution of all these complex problems in the Middle East. Russia is ready to contribute to the settlement. And I would like to stress that we will try to make sure that none of the parties involved in the conflict suffers as a result of any agreements. That applies to Israel and to our Palestinian friends.
QUESTION: During your recent meeting with the Chinese leader, Jiang Zemin, you discussed the problem connected with the national missile defence system of the United States. Do you see Russia and China acting together if the US goes ahead with these plans?
And another question. Mr President, I envy the ease with which you have resolved the territorial problems with China. Is it now the turn of Japan? How do you see your first meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi?
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9:35В.Путин.Интервью телеканалу ОРТ 07.02.00 Part 4by niknikolay6,124 views
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