Vladimir Putin

"LandepNews"

Vladimir Putin

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced in a speech delivered at an investment conference sponsored by VTB state-controlled bank meant to put the investors’ mind at ease that his country was better prepared to face the new wave of global crisis than it was back in 2008.
Putin’s speech is the first economic-policy address since the congress of the United Russia party, when he was asked, and accepted, to run for another term in the office of president of the Russian Federation.
Putin spoke of tightening the fiscal policies, and about the necessity of facilitating the foreign investment to the point of fostering a “new industrialization” in Russian economy.
The Russian PM said that the economy is now prepared to face different scenarios, unless 2008, when the economy was hit hard by the wave of crisis, suffering the most significant contraction of the major economies in countries of the size of Russia.
On that occasion, Kremlin had to implement a serious multi-billion bailout package, which in the end bounced the economy back, but the shock continued to keep investors skeptical about Russia.
Russian economists had to downsize the growth forecasts after the Russian currency and the stock prices have been challenged by the changes in the global markets. Police uncertainty and a hostile business environment have piled up to the capital flight from Russia.
A representative of the global fund giant Capital Group asked what was the purpose of investing in Russia, when the major Russian investors choose to place their money in economies from Western countries. “If your elite is not investing in Russia, why should we?” Nadia Wells asked.
Since Medvedev took office he laid down a program intended to diversify the dependence of Russian economy on oil. To attract investors, the president demanded on various occasions that the transparency be increased, and the courts become more professional. Medvedev’s plan, however, produced little results for the economy.
Putin announced that he would continue the investor-friendly policies of the incumbent president, stating that there would be a “gradual” engagement of problems like reducing corruption and cutting the state’s role in the economy.
During the speech, which lasted for almost an hour, Putin barely mentioned the name of Medvedev, while pledging that he would work with battered Alexei Kudrin, the finance minister who was forced to resign after the president asked him to.
Kudrin made a statement in which he said he would not participate in a cabinet led by Medvedev days after Medvedev and Putin announced they would switch places next year.
The comment made the incumbent president angry, leading him to demand the finance minister to resign, which happened a few hours later.
The analysts in Moscow believe that the president is taking hard the fact that he had to keep his end of the deal cut with the Russian prime minister when he became president.
Attempting to play down the “emotional” conflict between Medvedev and Kudrin, Putin said he would endorse his 20-trillion ruble defense buildup, which the finance minister has criticized on many occasions.

Thank's for link: