7 Ежегодная большая пресс-конференция Part 19 В.Путин (Putin)

7 Annual Big Press Conference Part 19 February 14,2008 President of Russia V.Putin The Kremlin,Moscow And a second question: what advice, if any, have you already given Medvedev about how he should develop relations between Russia and Finland? Thank you. VLADIMIR PUTIN: I have worked with Dmitry Anatolyevich for more than 15 years and I would never support a presidential candidate if he needed this type of advice. Dmitry Anatolyevich is a mature politician. I know the position of head of state and I would assure you that our relations, if he is elected president, will be very harmonious. I would never encroach on the role of head of state, I think this would be harmful and counterproductive. Of course, I have the right to express my views. We supported our relations with the first President of Russia right up to the death of Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin and he was neither Prime Minister, nor member of the State Council. But I must tell you that all of our meetings with him were very useful to me. And certain things, certain advice that he gave or not even advice, rather he simply expressed his views on some issues, including international ones were important to me, because he was a knowledgeable man, an experienced man I do not consider it censurable listen to his opinion. But in the end the last word and, therefore, the responsibility for the decisions lies with the first person, the head of state. I simply have no doubt that Dmitry Medvedev is a man who can make decisions, I am certain that this will be case. At the same time, of course I have the right to express my views on certain issues. With regards to Finland. Finland is our traditional, good and reliable partner. Our trade turnover has been steadily growing. I think it is no secret that contracts by the Soviet government were the factor that enabled certain branches of the Finnish economy to develop: namely shipbuilding and communications. You know how many contracts Finnish shipyards received from the Soviet Union. I would very much like to see that positive attitude and neighbourly spirit characteristic of our relations preserved in the future. There is no reason to doubt that this will take place. I am sure this will be the case. We have certain issues that we have been dealing with recently, such as lumber. We understand the concerns of our Finnish partners, and understand that Finnish enterprises must receive raw materials, but you have to understand our point of view. We also want to promote processing in our country: this is something normal, natural. We do not want to damage the Finnish economy. But we are thinking about how to develop advanced processing capabilities within Russia. You said that you listened carefully to my speech at the State Council. Today colleagues recalled that I was referring to innovative development and, in the case of raw materials, this refers to advanced processing. And what should we do? We don't have any other way. But we will try to take such decisions so as not to injure our partners, but rather to seek these decisions together. With regard to the fact that something smells of oil or gas. We know how, say, our American partners conduct a dialogue in Europe: they go to certain countries and urge them not to take our raw materials, or they try to find some new energy delivery routes that bypass Russian territory, and in this way to put pressure on these countries. This is already a political matter. I think it is a bad policy, a stupid one not just because it is unprofessional, but also because the politicisation of the issue masks things such as payments and other issues such as where to get the energy from. I have already said and Europeans are well aware of the fact that in the UK resources almost exhausted, and they are fast being depleted in Norway. Where should they come from? In Germany, for example, they have decided to gradually close nuclear power plants, and they do not want to develop coal either: too dirty. Gas is what is left. And where to get it? From Algeria, from Qatar, but their gas is mainly destined for the North American market since energy needs are predicted to grow there. No one is sure what will happen with Iran there are constantly problems surrounding Iran. And every year Iran, say, breaks off its deliveries to Turkey, and we constantly compensate for these missing supplies, and did so this year as well. There were abnormally cold temperatures in Central Asia: we fixed this issue and no one even noticed. We did so without any noise or political showmanship. The North Atlantic bloc is examining issues related to energy security based on the supposition that Russia is clearly unfriendly. We see this. Why is this? Have we ever breached our obligations? No.