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Press conference following the G-8 summit (excerpted)
President Vladimir Putin
The Kremlin
June 11, 2004

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QUESTION: Russia has an indisputable interest in taking part in the G-8 from a foreign policy point of view, but in terms of domestic policy, what does the G-8 give Russia?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: I think it gives Russia quite a lot. First of all, the G-8 is a forum for coordinating positions on the key issues in the world today. There are two key issues for Russia: international security – a subject to which we devoted seventy percent of our work – and economic cooperation and developing the global economy. I won’t go into all the details here, but I think you will agree with me that these are issues of immense importance for Russia. Finally, our meeting here gave us the opportunity to exchange views on the state of our respective economies and our plans for developing our national economies. I think that Russia has an undoubted interest in knowing what plans are ahead for the world’s biggest economies because this will have a direct effect on how the economic situation develops in Russia itself. There are also other issues that have a practical interest for us. We discussed not only the situation in the Middle East, which in itself is of importance for Russia in terms of our interests in that part of the world, and we discussed not only Iraq. We know how acute these problems are and how they affect the whole spectrum of international relations. We also discussed, for example, the problems in Afghanistan, the issue of drug trafficking from Afghanistan. This is all of practical importance for us. We also discussed more down to earth matters such as a global initiative that would make available to us quite serious sums of money to finance the dismantling and treatment of old nuclear submarines decommissioned from the Armed Forces. We have already begun this work. Incidentally, Russia has allocated $470 million for this purpose. We allocated this money ourselves and have already received $200 million from our partners. We finalised our positions here with our Canadian partners and signed the according agreement. I think our other colleagues have also become more aware now of how we can continue this work together. From an environmental point of view there is no need, I think, to spend a long time on explanations: we have been keeping decommissioned nuclear submarines at conservation bases since the 1960s, and so this is a very topical issue for us.

That is a just partial list of the grounds for affirming that the G-8 is of use for us.

QUESTION: Is the global partnership a myth or a reality? Will we see some practical results?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: We are already working with Germany. The Germans have said they want to take part in work in our Northwest region, and we are working with the Japanese in the Far East. One submarine has already been dismantled and treated and we are now starting on a second contract. Concrete work is underway.

QUESTION: Some experts say that the G-8 has already outlived itself and that the decisions it takes have no binding force. What is your view on this?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: The G-8 never did take binding decisions. Remember the G-8 summit in Cologne that decided to write off several billion dollars of Russia’s state debt, and nothing of the sort happened in the end. This has always been one of the G-8’s shortcomings, but this makes it no less attractive and Russia still has good reasons for taking part in it.

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QUESTION: Regarding Iran, there has been a rapprochement of the Russian and U.S. positions over the last year and increasing caution about what is happening in Iran. But Russia has still not abandoned plans to complete construction of the nuclear power station at Bushehr. Was this question discussed during your meeting with President Bush, and under what conditions could Russia stop work at Bushehr?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Russia will stop work at Bushehr if Iran ignores the international community’s demands to make its nuclear programmes transparent and to expand its cooperation with the IAEA. So far, Iran is complying with these demands and is fulfilling all its commitments to the IAEA, and so we see no reason to stop our cooperation with Iran.

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QUESTION: During the summit there were various publications in the American press suggesting that Russia does not deserve to be a member of the G-8. Would you say that Russia has now solidly established itself as a member of this forum?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: I don’t pay any attention to these kinds of publications because they are linked to U.S. domestic political affairs and to attempts to put pressure on President Bush on this or that question. I heard that in the run up to the elections his political rivals often criticise him for the situation in Iraq. I think, and I deeply believe this, that they do not have the moral right to criticise him for this because they carried out exactly the same policy. It’s enough to remember the events in Yugoslavia. They did exactly the same thing. And now they don’t like what Bush is doing in Iraq. You know our position on Iraq. That’s a separate issue. What I am saying is that some of the publications coming from this or that side are dictated by internal political considerations. As for Russia, we are not banging on any doors and nor are we running away from anywhere. Russia, as you know, is one of the world’s biggest nuclear powers. This was and will remain the case so long as the international situation and our own national security concerns demand this. It seems to me that resolving such issues as non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in general - and this was one of the main subjects we discussed – would be simply not serious without Russia’s participation.

Russia has a developing market and developing economy. I would hope that the efforts we are making to ease the tension in the energy market are not just of interest but are of vital importance for our G-8 partners. There are other aspects too that I think make Russia’s participation in the G-8 attractive not just for us but also for our colleagues.

As for the question of whether it is all really necessary or not, that is a separate issue. We have our own views on various international forums, including this one. I already mentioned the G-8 summit in Cologne that was to have written off billions of dollars of Russian debt, but what happened to that decision? So, I think we take a simpler attitude towards such things.

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