4 Annual Big Press Conference Part 13
December 23,2004
President of Russia V.Putin
The Kremlin,Moscow
VLADIMIR PUTIN: First and foremost, the state should withdraw from the economy where its presence is absolutely unjustified, where officials get the so-called status rent, meaning taking money just for holding their seat, where they hinder the development of small and medium business, and so on. This certainly is a complicated task, because everything has always been done at the level of bureaucrats in Russia, which had a planned economy. But we must tackle this problem. These fundamental changes should be accompanied by reforms in law enforcement, the selection of personnel which we have already discussed, and by raising the prosperity of officials so that they value their job.
You know that we have greatly increased the salaries of top officials. Some people criticised us for doing this, but I think you will agree that it is unthinkable for persons who deal with billions in state money to receive a miserly salary. It is an abnormal situation. When the welfare and possibly the very lives of millions of people depend on the decision of an official, he or she should not be paid a pittance. So, I believe that our decision was correct, but it should cover all of our officials, including municipal ones.
This block of problems, including those concerned with harsher criminal prosecution though there should be certain limits that we must not cross here all of this, plus the creation of an atmosphere of social intolerance of such crimes should produce a positive effect.
A. TSIOLIS (Mega Channel, Greece): You have recently met the Greek and Turkish premiers and probably discussed Cyprus. What do you think of the statement that Russia would not veto UN Security Council decisions on Cyprus, though most Cypriots are against the plan of the UN Secretary General? Many people explain your decision by the fact that you have very good economic relations with Turkey. I would like to know if Russias stand is changing in this direction. Is this possible?
VLADIMIR PUTIN: There is one way that would solve all the problems: Let us energetically develop economic relations with Greece too. And this would remove such suppositions and concerns.
You know that nearly two million Russian tourists, though I may be wrong with the exact numbers, visited Turkey this year. This is a good figure. Russia sends the second largest number of tourists to Turkey after Germany, and it may be even moving ahead of it. This is serious part of the Turkey economy. And why is that? Because Turkey introduced a normal, humane visa system for Russian tourists. I used it too, some 8-10 years ago. I came to the border, had my passport stamped, and nobody even asked me where I was going to live. I paid about 10 dollars and was free to go. I had a hotel room and spent two weeks there. But it is impossible, or rather, very difficult to go to Greece and this is not us who should be blamed for this.
We have very good relations with Greece, but our economic relations should be upgraded to the standards of our political ties. Our military-technical cooperation with Greece is developing better than with another NATO state, Turkey. This also points to a confident nature of our relations. We do not intend to curtail or reduce them, but Turkish contracts account for $12-14 billion in the contract portfolio of the construction sector of the Russian economy. And where are the Greek companies? Who stops them from working actively on the Russian market? We shall welcome and encourage the development of our economic relations, and I think that we should not reduce economic ties with Turkey but develop economic contacts with Greece. This is the first point.
Second, about Cyprus. We have always proceeded from the assumption that only Cypriots, both Greeks and Turks, can determine their future. It is true that we vetoed the UN Security Council decision during the voting you mentioned, and we did it to preclude any [outside] pressure during the referendum. Today we support Kofi Annans Cyprus plan. We believe that the Greek part [of the island] has additional instruments now that it has joined the EU, while Turkey is only thinking about joining it. Cypriot Greeks can use these instruments to solve acute problems on their island. I repeat and stress like in all other conflict zones, including in the former Soviet states, we proceed from the belief that these problems must be solved by the people who live in the said territory in the interests of everyone who live there.
A. ZHESTKOV: You are often asked about freedom of speech in Russia. What do you think about attempts to regulate the Internet in this country? Do you think there is a problem with freedom of speech in Russia, and if so, where is it most accentuated, in the capital or the regions?
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