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Interview on Ukrainian Television Channels UT-1, Inter and 1 5 October 27, 2004 Kiev, Ukraine Интервью украинским телеканалам «УТ-1», «Интер» и «1 1» 26 октября 2004 года Киев VLADIMIR PUTIN: I already talked about the Common Economic Space. In order to establish harmonised standards in the social sphere, we first need to harmonise application of economic laws. This is what the creation of the Common Economic Space is reveal a secret here on live TV. I met recently with the leaders of the Central Asian republics. We were eating dinner when the President of Uzbekistan suddenly said, If Russia were to agree to transfer some functions, part of its authority, for setting tariffs, standards, for example, to a supranational body, I would not rule out that Uzbekistan would also this is precisely what we are planning to do. We want to find means of regulating some kinds of economic activity and economic relations that would be fair and would not depend on any one country. This implies having our parliaments approve a whole package of decisions. We need to harmonise our legislation and have it work to the same set of standards. If we do this, we can then work on introducing high European social standards for our populations, but the economy has to come :The telephone centre has really hit a peak, I would say. We had 25 calls a minute at the beginning of the broadcast, but we now have around 520 calls a minute and the number is rising. We now have several people on line, and I know we have a caller from Kharkov. Please, go : Good evening, Vladimir Vladimirovich. You have just been talking big-time politics, but this is not the issue. Perhaps it is better to help people have a normal life, a normal life for Russians in Russia and for Ukrainians in Ukraine. What are you doing to achieve this? Thank you. VLADIMIR PUTIN: This is precisely what we are talking about. We believe that we must at least ensure free movement of people, ensure that our economies function effectively, develop better and faster, become more diversified, and that this all contributes to raising our citizens living standards. I want to stress that this is what 90 percent of our work is all about. This is practically all I talk about when I meet with the Ukrainian leadership. The rest is not as important, although there are some problems that do, of course, have to be solved. I mentioned them at the very beginning, the state border issue, for example. I think the issue there was not in drawing the border, but in recognising it. That was the main thing. We had to establish a high degree of trust, a high level of relations between our countries. You will agree, after all, that without this it is difficult to develop relations between states. I think that we have reached this level of relations with Ukraine and that we can now focus our attention on resolving precisely the problems that you mentioned. HOST: We are still receiving calls at the telephone centre. I remind you that we are broadcasting live on three national television channels, Inter, 1 1 and UT-1. You have the chance to put your question live. Please I think we have a call from Kiev Oblast, from the village of Matyushovka, if Im not mistaken. Hello, please introduce yourself. QUESTION: (in Ukrainian) My name is Maria Todosyevna. Good evening, Vladimir Vladimirovich. I have a lot of relatives in Moscow and Moscow Oblast and I would like to go and visit them, but I do not have a passport for foreign travel. Why can I not travel to Russia on my Ukrainian internal passport as I used to do. HOST:Shall I translate the question for you? VLADIMIR PUTIN: No, thank you, I understood. I looked through the questions that came in after this programme was announced, and there are a great many questions regarding travel between Ukraine and Russia. Obviously, this is an issue of concern to very many people. I must confess that I did not fully realise before all that this question involved and just how sensitive the issue is for many problem is that for travel today, including on Russian Federation territory, many documents are used, including documents issued by state bodies, various certificates issued by state organizations. It is enough to have some little stamp, and you can enter the country. But entering the country is only half the question. The problem is that some, not all, people from other countries who enter Russia use their time in the country for economic purposes. According to the Russian Federation Central Bank, for example, foreign citizens withdrew more than $10 billion from accounts in 2003. Just consider that figure. Of that $10 billion that was withdrawn, $2.5 billion was withdrawn by CIS citizens and $1.3 billion was withdrawn by people presenting documents attesting them to be Ukrainian citizens.
