Gazeta: "Putin as Investment Therapist"
Maxim Tovkailo
Prime Minister doesn't think crisis will hit Russian economy
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has left chilly Moscow for subtropical Sochi. He will spend the next two days convincing the world business community that the economic crisis will bypass Russia, despite the slumping stock market. He met with foreign entrepreneurs on Thursday, and will address an investment forum next Friday and then meet with Russia's top financial managers.
Mr Putin scheduled his meeting with foreign businessmen for Thursday night, so as to have as much time as possible to prepare for a discussion that would seal the fate of the Nord Stream gas pipeline that is to be laid underneath the Baltic.
Gerhard Schroeder, the Nord Stream shareholders' committee chairman, and Gazprom head Alexei Miller told him that the Russian gas monopoly and its European partners would spend 100 million euros to settle relevant environmental problems.
"How much?" the Prime Minister interrupted. "A hundred million exactly," Mr Schroeder repeated. "OK!" Mr Putin replied.
Meanwhile, top officials were gathering at the Rus recreation centre, which hosted a presidium meeting of the Presidential Council for the Development of Sports and Preparations for the 2014 Olympics, which Mr Putin planned to attend.
As they arrived, the council members talked mainly about the Russian stock market. Vyacheslav Fetisov, head of the Federal Sports Agency, asked Interros head Vladimir Potanin how many Vneshtorgbank shares he could have for 600 roubles. "All! And they'll give you a bonus," the industrial tycoon smirked.
The others were no less optimistic. LUKoil head Vagit Alekperov tried to convince the Gazeta correspondent that there was no crisis at all, only "certain difficulties". He and LUKoil vice-president Leonid Fedun were determined to go on buying their company stock.
"Our purchases will show to the market that top managers are confident in the company's future," Alekperov explained. He said he would ask the Government to reduce oil piping and railway tariffs.
Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee, was just as certain about Russia's radiant economic future. When our correspondent asked him whether he had become poorer after Russian companies lost several billion dollars within a few days, he said, "All are getting poorer." Sochi problems are receding into the background in the midst of the financial crisis.
The Olympic Council presidium meeting, chaired by Mr Putin, was held in the same place as the Valdai Club meeting a week before. The Gazeta correspondent talked with Sochi Mayor Vladimir Afanasenkov a few minutes before the meeting began, and the Mayor said that buying land for Olympic projects had not started yet. "The appraisers are not yet ready. We'll start as soon as we have their assessments," he said.
"We cannot afford even the slightest procrastinations. The saying ‘time is money' is perfectly true, though now by ‘money', we mean Olympic gold," the Prime Minister said in his opening address. Then he went back to the Riviera, his Sochi residence, after the meeting, to spend an hour with Sergei Stanishev, his Bulgarian counterpart.
"We shall welcome Bulgarian activities in the Black Sea zone-not only in joint energy initiatives but in military-technical cooperation as well," he said summarising the talks.
As he saw Mr Stanishev off, Mr Putin drove his Mercedes to his home and came back 20 minutes later. Several prominent businessmen were waiting for him-Joseph Ackermann, CEO of Deutsche Bank, Shell's Jeroen van der Veer, Peter Lescher of Siemens, James Mulva of ConocoPhillips, Christophe de Margerie of Total, Koo Bon-Moo of LG, Mitsubishi's Takashi Nishioka, Chevron's David O'Reilly, Anders Dahlvig of IKEA, Tony Hayward of BP and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin, head of the Government Executive Office.
