6 Annual Big Press Conference Part 19
February 1,2007
President of Russia V.Putin
Round Hall,the Kremlin,Moscow
VLADIMIR PUTIN: When we met the President of Georgia recently in Minsk we asked the question: why do we need the CIS and what is it for? And together, in general, we saw that if the CIS and its instruments and mechanisms did not exist, then we would not meet with Mikhail Nikolaevich and would not be able to talk about the problems between our countries. And even at that meeting we basically laid out the fundamental problems, and generally and as a whole, moved towards normalising relations.
Despite the difficult energy dialogue we have nevertheless managed to solve that problem. We understand our Georgian partners desire to, shall we say, receive gas for below market price. And we gave them the opportunity to quietly, without any confrontation, try and solve this problem you certainly know this. Talks with Azerbaijan, with Turkey... We are delivering to Turkey. Iran did not deliver a large amount of gas to Turkey last year. We do not know the reasons for this. Our Turkish friends asked that we increase deliveries and we greatly increased them. Because we know what is happening in the region. We quietly waited while all consultations where carried out and then agreed on a market price of 235 USD per thousand cubic metres. Quietly, without any theatrics. We respect the position of our Georgian partners. We sent back the ambassador as planned and we hope that this will act as the first step towards resolving all our problems. When we see the drum roll in the Georgian press on this occasion that the ambassador returned, that we have won well, alright, let them feel that way. We react very calmly to this. The most important thing is that it supports the normalization of relations.
NATALIA GALIMOVA (Moskovskii komsomolets): I have the following question. One of the main intrigues of the future State Duma elections will be the results of the rivalry between two parties United Russia and Fair Russia. But in the few months since the founding of Fair Russia, we have heard an exchange of spiteful comments and a show of force from the representatives of both parties. But it doesnt seem to me that we are seeing the most important thing in a political struggle. I mean the struggle between ideologies, between programmes. Vladimir Vladimirovich, in your opinion, is there a difference between the ideologies of United Russia and Fair Russia and do you consider the present rivalry between these parties to represent a real political struggle? Thank you.
VLADIMIR PUTIN: How mature the political battle is depends on the maturity of the people taking part in it. I can see the difference. Theres no point making a secret of what everyone knows, namely, that I played a direct part in creating United Russia, helped this political party develop, helped in its creation and formation. I began this meeting by talking about the results the country achieved last year. If you noticed, I used the words for the first time and record figures on a number of occasions, and this reflects the reality, the facts.
I am not going to heap praise on anyone, but these results would not have been achieved if there had not been understanding on key issues between United Russia and the government. No matter how much we may criticise the members of the State Duma, United Russia has played a considerable part in Russias consistent progress and development over these last years. At the same time, however, I would welcome the emergence of another political force. The difference between them, as I see it, is that United Russia represents a more liberal and right-of-centre view, as far as economic policy is concerned, in any case, though many social-democratic tendencies are also evident, as I have seen clearly in work on various draft laws. Fair Russia, on the other hand, is much more of a socialist, social democratic party in all policy areas. This is perhaps not yet completely evident, just as United Russias right-of-centre liberal vector is not completely evident, perhaps. They need time.
Overall, I think this political battle is good as a matter of principle, and the fiercer the competition, the better. I hope, of course, that it will be an intense political battle that does not resort to various types of mudslinging, insults and so on. I very much hope we will be able to avoid this during the 2007 parliamentary election campaign.
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В.Путин.6 Ежегодная большая пресс-конференция (Putin) Part 20by niknikolay789 views
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