MOSCOW. May 19 (Interfax) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday gave his first major televised Q&A press conference since taking office. The news conference took place at Skolkovo, around which Medvedev is pushing for an innovative center to be developed.
The session, a favored format of Medvedev's predecessor Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, covered a wide range of issues, but observers hoping for an announcement on candidacies for the 2012 presidential elections were left disappointed.
However, Medvedev did promise journalists that his announcement on whether or not he will seek re-election will come soon. He said that he and Putin, widely expected to run for the presidency, were like-minded people who had a close understanding of each other, although he admitted the pair had some differences regarding the pace of modernization of Russia.
Medvedev said that if he does decide to run for re-election, he hopes for support from the parties that nominated him for the first presidential term, and said that the emergence of Mikhail Prokhorov's Right Cause party in the parliament would broaden the representation of the right-wing circles, thus benefiting the State Duma and democracy. Other efforts to that end could see a return to the practice of electing the Federation Council, Medvedev said.
One of Medvedev's answers of which observers took note regarded Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his future release from prison - Medvedev said he sees absolutely no danger to society in the jailed former Yukos head's release.
Presidential election
Medvedev said that his statement on whether he is going to run for re-election might come soon.
"The election tradition has its rules, and I will follow these rules. If I decide to make such a statement, I will make it, just as I said recently in an interview with our Chinese partners. Not too much waiting time is left in this situation, and this statement will be made quite soon," Medvedev said.
Medvedev said time is not yet ripe to announce whether or not he will take part in the upcoming presidential race.
"Such decisions must be made precisely at the moment when all prerequisites are ripe for that, when this will have the final political effect," Medvedev said
"Precisely for this reason, while deciding on the announcement of such decisions, one should select a format somewhat different from a press conference, although this would look very spectacular and enticing," Medvedev said.
Medvedev said some have prematurely understood his words that he wants to teach and to share his experience after leaving office, as his readiness to quit as president.
"I will definitely stop being president sooner or later. I have never shunned the prospect of sharing my experience as president and as a government executive. This would be useful, I think. But some have taken this as my wish to wave my hand to all and say good-bye. This is not so," Medvedev said.
But he confirmed that he would like to teach in the future.
"I will teach by all means because I like this job. It is interesting and useful. It's a good job," he said.
Medvedev said that he and Putin are like-minded people on matters of the country's strategic development.
"My relations with my colleague and political partner Vladimir Putin are not just what is usually called a 'tandem.' This is indeed a relationship that has lasted for more than 20 years. We know each other quite well and feel good. We are really like-minded people, we have very similar approaches to the key issues regarding the country's development," Medvedev said.
At the same time, that does not mean that "I coincide with him on everything," he said.
Democracy
Medvedev said that if he does decide to run for re-election, he hopes for support from the parties that nominated him for the first presidential term.
"If I run for president, I surely would like to lean on certain political forces, I mean political parties," Medvedev said.
There are not too many political parties in Russia, and this is quite an advantage, he said.
"Whom should I lean on? If I go for this, I hope to lean particularly on those who nominated me before as well," Medvedev said.
When asked whether he believes the president can set up his own political force, Medvedev said: "Yes, I think he can, and there is nothing bad in this."
Medvedev reiterated that he believes the president of Russia will inevitably be a member of some political party in the future.
When Medvedev was running for president in 2008, he had been nominated by United Russia, and his candidacy was also supported by A Just Russia, Civic Force, the Agrarian Party, the Greens, and Patriots of Russia.
Meanwhile, the presence of the Right Cause party in the parliament would broaden the representation of the right-wing circles, thus benefiting the State Duma, Medvedev said.
"I think that our political sector will only gain if it increases in size, if, apart from those who represent left-wing views in the State Duma, and the central party, there will still be representatives of the right-wing conservative circles. Then our parliament will be more representative. And that is the main thing," Medvedev said.
Asked whether the Right Cause has any chance of winning Duma seats at the December parliamentary elections, Medvedev said: "I think they have an electorate, and with correct consolidation, they can achieve success."
"But, of course, very many things will depend on how well-coordinated their efforts will be, how popular the ideas they put forward will be, popular among those who potentially can support the Right Cause," he said.
The Right Cause party was formed in late 2008 as a result of a merger between three political forces - the Union of Right-Wing Forces, the Civil Force and the Democratic Party of Russia.
Onexim Group chief and owner Mikhail Prokhorov said in an interview with Interfax a few days ago that he is prepared to lead the Right Cause party.
Upper house
It would be sensible to get back to the practice of electing the Federation Council, Medvedev said.
"I do not rule out that some new ideas will emerge in due time about how the Federation Council should be formed. Let the current system work for now. But never say never. Perhaps the practice of electing the Federation Council would match the parliamentary principle better after all," Medvedev said.
Meanwhile, he possible recall of Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov reflects a normal political competition, Medvedev said.
"There is nothing supernatural about any official's resignation. Sooner or later the career in public service ends for everyone, and presidents alike. One has to prepare for it at the start of the political life," Medvedev said.
The situation around Mironov is the same as around other political figures. "The fact that the United Russia party has some issues [towards the Fair Russia Party] - there is nothing dreadful about it, this is a reflection of political competition," Medvedev said.
Mironov's recall from the Federation Council is "the reflection of the contradictions existing in political life," he said.
"If such a decision is made today, I think Sergei Mironov will have to take it in his stride. Eventually, it will be good both for United Russia and for Fair Russia," he said.
Thus, United Russia shows that is an authoritative force to be reckoned with, while Fair Russia shows that it is an opposition party, Medvedev said.
"In that sense, everyone wins. Let them do the real politics, we have very important elections ahead," Medvedev said.
Government
Medvedev said he considers it wrong "to pull out particular links" from the government team.
"The government is working as a well-coordinated organism, and therefore it is just not very appropriate to pull out particular links from it," Medvedev said when asked why he has not changed a single government minister during his presidency, while a lot of governors have had to leave their offices.
"I have replaced not two dozen but almost half of all the governors," Medvedev said. It is wrong to serve 20 years, and "nobody comes to power for good," he said.
"Those who have such illusions usually do not end up very well," Medvedev said.
"The situation in the center is not much better than in the regions," but every decision "has its own logic," he said.
"When we discuss the government's work, I talk about the work of the government as a whole rather than individual ministers. The government is working as a team," Medvedev said, adding that he criticizes the government quite often.
At the same time, he noted that, as president, he possesses certain powers, "including the power to form a government and dismiss it."
"I have not changed these powers and have not abandoned them," he said.
Federal ministers must not be dismissed for individual flaws in their respective ministries' performance, although this approach does not mean ministers will stay in their offices indefinitely, Medvedev said.
"I don't think it is correct to subject federal-level executives to punishment immediately for individual flaws, because the system they are in charge of did not necessarily take shape in their time after all," Medvedev said.
Medvedev was answering a Norwegian reporter's question about whether, in his opinion, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and Prosecutor General Yury Chaika should be held responsible for the recent corruption scandals connected with their agencies.
"But this does not mean that I will not do this. Obviously, rotation will be needed at the ministries sooner or later," Medvedev said.
Medvedev also refused to rule out that the procedure of appointing regional governors could be changed in 10 or 15 years.
"Awhile ago I said that this procedure should not be changed at all. Now I am not so certain. I believe that it would be right to keep the procedure the way it is in the near term, for the foreseeable future, because it allows the country to run quite efficiently," Medvedev said.
"But I admit that after a certain number of years, this procedure can be changed, if not by me, then, say, by those who will be working in the next 10 or 15 years," he said.
But this requires "the maturing of preconditions," he said.
High-profile cases
Medvedev said he sees absolutely no danger to society in former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky's possible release from prison.
At the same time, he did not elaborate on prospects for such an event.
If the second sentence handed down to Khodorkovsky and former Menatep head Platon Lebedev last December takes effect, the two will not be set free earlier than 2017.
Medvedev has also instructed chief prosecution and security officials to investigate the death of Hermitage Capital employee Sergei Magnitsky.
"The Russian Prosecutor General has briefed me about the requests that exist [from Switzerland]," Medvedev said.
He has instructed prosecutors "to deal with it," he said.
"I will not hide it, I discussed this matter with the heads of other law enforcement agencies of our country, namely, with the head of the Investigative Committee and the FSB (Federal Security Service) director," Medvedev said.
"This case must be investigated," he said.
Asked whether Russia will assist the investigation that Swiss prosecutors are conducting upon a claim by Hermitage about tax fraud by Russian officials, Medvedev said: "Russia will assist any procedures based on the law, including the procedures occurring in Switzerland."
The Magnitsky death case "contains a very sad element - the death of Magnitsky himself, which also needs to be investigated, why it happened," he said.
"And in that sense, the investigation has made substantial progress: I was told that very soon the investigation will reach a conclusion about the circumstances surrounding Magnitsky's death," Medvedev said.
"As for the content of this case itself, including possible tax and other crimes, because things there are not as simple as the media portrays them, this also needs to be investigated to identify a circle of persons involved, both Russian and foreign," Medvedev said.
A full, objective and comprehensive inquiry into this case should be "carried out quickly and its results made available to the public," he said.
Modernization
The insufficient results of the country's modernization should push the Russian leadership to work even more in this direction, Medvedev said.
"Have we achieved anything supernatural? No, we have not. And I think that this is precisely what should push me and my colleagues in the government to work hard, day and night, and try to change the very life of our country," Medvedev said.
Modernization is a crucial area of Russia's development, and "this must lead to a fundamental change in the country's situation, and not just to our celebration of some jubilees," Medvedev said.
Modernization is a process, and the main thing is "to achieve a new quality of our country's development. In my view, modernization is not simply a gradual development and consolidation of the achievements we have made over the past decade; it should be a fundamental change of the situation," Medvedev said.
So far efforts to achieve this have failed; however, "that does not mean that we need to change the banners and talk about a new wave of modernization. Modernization must go on, and the five priorities outlined by me remain as technological but very important areas of work," Medvedev said.
Unlike Putin, Medvedev believes that modernization could go slightly faster.
"The truth is always born from contact, sometimes the clashing of some positions. And in regard to modernization, my position may be slightly different from the prime minister's. As far as I understood, he says he believes that modernization is a quiet, gradual process. I believe we have the chances and the strength to carry out this modernization faster, without detriment to what has been done, and achieve a good result. But this requires a lot of hard work," Medvedev said.
Strategically, our [Medvedev's and Putin's] views are largely the same, he said.
"Our sets of values are very similar. We both want our country to be modern, effective so that people can live a normal life, so that reasonable and feasible decisions can be made, so that rights can be respected, so that we have a diversified, modern, modernized economy," Medvedev said.
However, this does not mean our views are absolutely identical, he said.
Energy complex
Medvedev addressed a number of energy-related topics, including the stalled Rosneft-BP deal, high oil prices, suspected collusion on the refined product market, and international energy deals.
Russia is interested in high but not over-inflated oil prices, Medvedev told the press conference.
"Russia is interested in oil prices that are high within and not beyond reason. Prices are getting higher and higher and ultimately, this could have the reverse effect," Medvedev said.
The global economic crisis struck when oil prices hit $147 a barrel in 2008, he said.
Medvedev told viewers he does not rule out the possibility of collusion on the domestic oil products market and has suggested restrictive measures to stabilize the situation.
Gasoline prices have risen along with the prices on other oil products, he said.
"The government is working to come to grips with this. There might be collusion somewhere, but in principle it is a reflection of trends on the oil market," Medvedev said.
"The government has my instructions to deal with this and bring down oil product, gasoline prices. Imposing tougher duties may help for a time, but not forever," he said.
A lack of attention to legal details caused the problems in the transaction between Russian oil major Rosneft and Britain's BP, Medvedev said.
"I don't know what the final fate of the Rosneft-BP deal will be but those who took care of the preparations should have paid attention to the nuances of shareholder agreements and legal issues," said Medvedev.
"The transaction itself is interesting to me," Medvedev added.
He said that the deal's organizers should have carried out more concise due diligence on the governmental level.
"To my thinking this wasn't done, which, in the final analysis, has led to complications and clashed between shareholders.
"This should have been avoided and earlier agreed upon," the president said.
"I will happy if there's some kind of coalescence. This in itself would be good for our country," Medvedev said.
Russia is willing to consider amending the terms of gas deliveries to Ukraine, but until specific decisions are approved, existing agreements must be carried out, Medvedev.
The price of gas is formed according to "well-known economic laws on the basis of generally accepted pricing formulas. And these formulas should be applied," Medvedev said.
"That doesn't mean that we shouldn't make plans for the future and not consider the possibility of, say, various kinds of interesting economic projects, which would ease the situation," he said.
In relations between Ukraine and Russia "there is no unmoving position: 'only that price and that's it,'" he said.
"Propose what you believe is correct and we will consider these options. But until some major formats for cooperation are approved, the agreements that were signed several years ago remain in effect. Contracts must be fulfilled. That is clear," he said.
Russia and China have excellent cooperation prospects, Medvedev said.
"I think our relations are excellent. As my partners from China are saying, we might have never had such advanced and good relations," Medvedev said.
Hopefully these relations will remain cordial for the next few years and decades, he said.
"For us, relations with China are not some passing factor, but a long-term priority. We are political partners, we are economic partners," Medvedev said.
"I think the development of large energy and other projects between our countries is vital, which is why I believe that the prospects for our relations are simply excellent. We just need to keep the pace and work to have new joint interesting projects, including humanitarian ones," Medvedev said.
Russia and China collaborate as members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), and trade has reached $60 billion. There is an agreement to bring this figure to $100 billion, Medvedev said.
European issues
A common visa-free space incorporating Russia and the European Union would be a logical step to further develop relations between Russia and the EU, Medvedev said.
"If we have, in fact, formed a common economic space with them, it would be quite logical for us to form a common visa-free space. I will work to attain this goal," Medvedev said.
"This would guarantee successful development of economic relations with the EU and other European countries," Medvedev said.
Medvedev said he is not worried by Ukraine's possible European integration
The Ukrainian leadership should decide sooner or later with which countries it would like to develop close and strategic relations, Medvedev said.
"I am absolutely not worried about Ukraine's European integration. After all, this is a sovereign country, and it is up to you to choose where to integrate. Go to the European Union if you want to and if you are welcome there, or go to other places if you wish," Medvedev said.
"The only thing I can say for sure is that if Ukraine, for instance, chooses the European path, it will certainly find it harder to reach some solutions within the framework of the common economic area and the Customs Union composed of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, because this is a different integration association," he said.
"Well, you can't be everywhere. Either here or there. You can't sit on two stools at once, you have to make choices," he said.
IT
Medvedev has instructed the Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service to organize a meeting with representatives of the Internet community to discuss legal and technical ways to counter hacker attacks.
"Law enforcement agencies must acquire a legal and technological instrument to track down hackers and bring them to account," Medvedev said.
"I hope this meeting [between law enforcement and the Internet community] will take place soon. This is a reminder to my colleagues in law enforcement agencies," Medvedev said.
Medvedev said he believes that during his time in office he "did not come off the ground" and did not lose the freshness of perception of reality.
In order to stay in touch with reality and remain a common-sense person, "one needs to keep the freshness of perception," he said.
"How can this be achieved by a head of state? He has to travel a lot, talk to people a lot and receive true information," Medvedev said.
Such information is provided by quality journalism and the Internet, he said.
"I receive information directly from people - through the network, through blogs, through Twitter, through other resources. And as you know, they really tell the truth there. Before me nobody was looking, so I am certain that I have not come off the ground, and in that sense, I am not facing that risk. And I believe that any other leader who succeeds me should do the same, because such are the laws of information life in today's world," Medvedev said.
"I would very much like to conclude after finishing my job that my picture of the world has not changed. I still hope that I remain, in that sense, quite a common-sense person who sees the world not through rose-colored glasses but knows it in quite earthly categories," he said.
Medvedev travels extensively across the country. "I am probably the first Russian leader who has visited all the territories, all the constituent federal regions in our country. This helps understand the problems, this is a vaccination, if you like, because no matter how many fences they put in your way, it is still clear that behind these fences there are sometimes hovels, people who are unhappy about the local authorities, sometimes federal authorities. The main thing here is to keep the freshness of perception," he said.
Social sphere
Medvedev said he sees his task during his time in office as radically improving living standards, diversifying the economy and departing from reliance on commodities.
"We have not achieved a radical improvement in the situation of our people. We developed but not as fast as we would like to. We are dealing with social issues, but we have very many other problems: we have a high poverty rate, we have people living below the poverty line, who account for about 13%," Medvedev said.
Besides, attempts to diversify the economy in recent years have failed. "We were unable to depart from commodity growth, we were unable to sufficiently change our investment climate," he said.
"This is no cause for desperation, but this is the agenda for our future work," he said.
Among the achievements during his three-year presidency, Medvedev cited the prevention of an economic downfall during the global financial and economic crisis, as well as the foreign policy course, including during the Georgian-Ossetian conflict in 2008.
"I would like to rate as an obvious and important achievement of these three years the fact that in this most difficult time for our country over the past decade - the period of global financial crisis - we have not lost the thread of the country's development," Medvedev said.
The administration has managed to keep all key economic and social programs and to prevent dramatic deterioration of the social situation. "On the contrary, we have recovered fairly quickly and are moving forward," Medvedev said.
Another achievement is Russia's foreign policy course, which "led to the weakening of tensions with a whole host of states," he said.
"We were able to defend ourselves, defend our independence and sovereign approaches. I mean the most complicated events, including the 2008 events. I believe that this was very important for the country, so that the country does not break up and feels strong," Medvedev said.
However other countries may interpret the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, "this was important first and foremost for ourselves," he said.
Other issues
Bankruptcy law should take into account the specifics of the agricultural sector, Medvedev said.
"I believe that introduction of bankruptcy procedures in the farm sector must be approached very carefully," Medvedev said.
Medvedev pledged to consider "how to change the law as it pertains to declaring an agricultural producer to be insolvent and carrying out receivership. There should be specifics," he said.
Agricultural enterprises "differ very much from retail, industrial enterprises," he said.
"Simply banning [bankruptcy] would probably be wrong," Medvedev said when asked about enacting a moratorium on bankruptcy at agricultural producers during fulfillment of the Food Security Doctrine.
The tax system and issues associated with local administration should also account for the specifics of the farm sector, he said.
Elsewhere, Russia reserves the right to withdraw from the new strategic arms reduction treaty in case the United States continues pressing ahead with deploying a missile shield in Europe, he said.
"The new START treaty has a direct reservation that further development of missile defense would be tantamount to breaking strategic parity, and it may be suspended and even terminated," Medvedev said.
"I would like to draw the attention of all of my NATO partners to this and say: We are prepared for cooperation. But we also hope that we will get guarantees that the potentials are not targeted against us," he said.
Finally, Medvedev said that subsidizing of the North Caucasus will continue until a competitive environment has been established in the region.
"The priority of supporting the North Caucasus certainly remains. Subsidies are a temporary measure, but they will remain until the competitive private and public industrial sector and a proper service sector start working there," Medvedev said.