Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, I’m very glad to see you. Your company is quite large, and very famous. As I understand it, this is the only media group that is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This says a great deal about your enterprise. And in general, your products are known and loved the world over, including in Russia. I am more or less familiar with the terms of your deal with 7 TV. And I hope that your collaboration will prove to be interesting and beneficial, from a commercial standpoint as well, and that it will set a positive precedent on the Russian media market.
Robert Iger (via an interpreter): Thank you very much. It’s a great honour for me to meet you. Walt Disney himself brought his products to this country in 1930, so our cooperation with Russia goes back a long way. But the step we are about to take marks the beginning of a brilliant future. There is no doubt in my mind about this. We’re highly optimistic about developments in your country, and we're sure our investment will pay off.
Our aim is not just for the Walt Disney Company to become a player on the Russian media market, but also to build a Russian branch for it. Of course, we’ll be bringing in our own expertise, but we also hope to engage our Russian counterparts who specialise in television, film and cartoon production. This is an exciting new project for us, and we appreciate the support that we have been provided with.
Vladimir Putin: I hope that the project will be a success.