VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
On September 9, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a meeting on the aircraft industry in Ulyanovsk. Military-Technical Cooperation bulletin presents excerpts of the meeting record revealed to the media.
The day after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had hours-long meeting with political analysts and journalists and members of the Valdai Club, the same group attended another meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev. Speaking on Russia's role on a global scale, the Prime Minister and the President actually switched roles: Putin elaborated more on Russia's domestic and foreign policy, while Medvedev spoke on strengthening the rouble, the national economy and investment appeal. This re-casting of roles came as no surprise to meeting attendees.
Western Europe lacks its own foreign policy. The United States wasted time and money training Georgian soldiers. Russian fuel and energy can be redirected to the East. These were the main points of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's remarks at a meeting with foreign political analysts.
"Did you expect us to wipe our bleeding nose and bow our head down?" "What did you expect us to do, wield a pen knife there?" "Did you expect us to fight with slingshots?" If the West thought that such would be the Russian response to Georgia, it was sorely mistaken, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin explained to the Valdai Discussion Club yesterday. He reassured leading foreign experts on Russia that Moscow had no imperialist ambitions and was willing to stay in contact with the West, but that, at the same time, contacts demanded reciprocity.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with 45 members of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday. President Eduard Kokoity of South Ossetia and President Sergei Bagapsh of Abkhazia met club members shortly before the meeting commenced. The Valdai Club brings together major foreign political scientists and journalists, such as Alexander Rahr, an expert from the German Council on Foreign Relations; Professor Anatol Lieven of King's College London; Professor Nobuo Shimotomai of Hosei University, Tokyo; and Dr Nikolai Zlobin, Director of Russian and Asian Programmes at the World Security Institute in Washington, to name just a few.
Yesterday in Sochi, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cut short with a witty and graphic rebuke renewed Western attempts to depict Russia as an aggressor. He said at the Valdai International Discussion Club that the conflict in the Caucasus was also conditioned by Europe's lack of a clear-cut foreign policy stance.
Yesterday, during his meeting with western political scientists and journalists, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin responded to the accusations of "disproportionate use of force" in Georgia. Meanwhile, South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity stated that his republic will "certainly become part of Russia". Later Mr Kokoity said he was misunderstood, but Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov believes that Mr Kokoity's statement could be interpreted in only one possible way.
"Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned domestic aircraft makers that duties on all civil aircraft imports could be abolished if the Russian industry "acts too slowly"."
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to Ulyanovsk yesterday was totally devoted to civil aircraft building. The Prime Minister visited the Aviastar aircraft factory, examining the Antonov An-124 and Tupolev Tu-204 airliners produced there. Mr Putin highlighted that import duties on foreign-made aircraft could be reduced if domestic plane makers are unable to speed up aircraft production.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a meeting on the civil aircraft industry. As Kommersant had predicted the day before, the participants discussed the possibility of abolishing aircraft import duties. Although the Prime Minister did not support the initiative directly, he warned the aircraft manufacturers that this could be done if enterprises continued with low output. Experts and participants in the meeting say, however, that the yesterday's outcome was rather favourable for the Russian aircraft industry.
