Guest
Excerpts from an Interview with the Chief Editors of the Newspapers Komsomolskaya Pravda, Izvestia, Moskovsky Komsomolets and 10 March 22,2001. Moscow. Интервью главным редакторам газет «Комсомольская правда», «Известия», «Московский комсомолец», «Труд» 22 марта 2001 года. Москва. For instance, when I came to Vietnam I was struck by the way we were welcomed everywhere by ordinary citizens. Such things cannot be orchestrated or artificially programmed. Why forfeit such a potential of friendship? It is a very important thing. And while we have forgotten about Vietnam our enterprises have been operating there and extracting offshore oil. Last year that enterprise contributed 500 million dollars in hard cash to the Russian budget. Before my visit to Vietnam its government decided to transfer to the enterprise another oil-bearing area on the continental shelf, which previously was given to another company. They took it away from that company and gave it to our there are other important factors. Take Cuba. We have facilities worth billions of dollars there, which have been mothballed. We spent 30 million dollars alone to mothball an unfinished nuclear plant last year. Are we going to spend 30 million year after year? We have to make up our minds as to what we want to do with these the same is true of every country. Take North Korea. First, it is our neighbour. And we have a vital stake in stability, peace, order and prosperity on the peninsula. The adjacent regions of the Russian Federation depend on that. And not only the adjacent regions. We have agreed in principle with South Korea and North Korea on linking up the Trans-Korean and Trans-Siberian Railways. That would greatly improve the economic performance of the Railways Ministry and of the regions the Trans-Siberian Railway passes through, and would in general boost Russias economic we should proceed not from some arcane considerations, which we ourselves do not quite understand, but have our feet on the ground and know where our interests lie and act : A question about relations with the United States. How valid are the fears that with the return of Bush, Bush Jr. this time, to the White House we may see a cooling of relations and a return to a cold or semi-cold war? Spy scandals, State Department declarations about our human rights and free speech record, the issues connected with NATOs advance to the East, not to speak of the plans to create a national missile defence shield. How do you see the future? And what is the short-term and longer-term outlook? How well-grounded are these fears?VLADIMIR PUTIN: Russias foreign policy will be devoid of any great power chauvinism. We are committed to promoting equal relations with all countries. But Russia of course will pursue an independent policy and will take its rightful place in international affairs, given its geopolitical position, the size of its territory and its military and economic potential. The United States is of course one of our main regards the new Administrations policy towards Russia and our relations with the United States, I dont think we should over-dramatize things. In any country, and the States is not an exception, when a new Administration comes to office the policy of the previous White House incumbents undergoes a revision. We hear some critical assessments of the previous , I repeat, I would not over-dramatize things. We differ on some international issues, key issues in the sphere of security, and that applies to our assessments of the 1972 ABM Treaty. We believed and still believe that the Treaty and its fundamental elements form the cornerstone of international security today. We will insist on it and we count on a positive dialogue with our American US President recently said that Russia was not an enemy or an adversary of the US. I think that is a positive signal, we have not missed it and we treat the States in the same way. I repeat: we look forward to a positive dialogue.
