25 September 2003 23:01
Putin addresses New York Stock Exchange
Addressing US businessmen at the New York Stock Exchange, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Wall Street was
a symbol of the US energy and business initiative, ITAR-TASS news agency has reported. "It remains a most important
nerve of the common economic organism of the planet," the agency quoted him as saying. The "Russian and
American economies are different, but they are an inseparable part of this organism". "There is a whole range
of tasks - from strengthening the world financial system to developing promising energy sources - in the solution of
which we are equally interested," he said.
Putin also said that the political and economic possibilities of Russia and the United States could form a stable
foundation for global financial and economic order. He said he hoped for a breakthrough in Russian-US economic
cooperation in the near future, Interfax news agency reported . "We have every reason to hope for such a
breakthrough in our business partnership. In the first six months of 2003, Russian-US trade turnover increased by over
one-third," he said, adding, "we see that US business has started to believe in the possibilities and
advantages of the new Russian economy". "A new direction has started to take shape in our cooperation in such
areas as the development of municipal infrastructure, housing markets and mortgages". "Industries which
determine the future of the world economy are beginning to play a more noticeable role in our business
partnership", the agency quoted him as saying.
Putin noted the role of the Russian-US round table on information technologies, where, he said, "work is under
way not only in specific commercial projects, but also in countering the illegal use of new technologies for terrorist
purposes".
On the subject of oil transit, Putin expressed interest in "the profitability of the northern sea route"
along which oil can be shipped to the USA. He described the development of the pipeline system as "a high priority
in the economy" for the Russian government, according to ITAR-TASS.
"We are developing our opportunities also in the south of Russia - in the Black Sea. Terminals are being built
in East Siberia and the Far East," Putin said. However, "there are difficulties in the Black and Baltic Seas
regarding the environment". That is why Russia is interested in the profitability of the northern sea route since
oil can be shipped to the USA along this route, the agency reported him as saying.
Another Interfax report quoted the president as saying that the state could limit oil supplies to world markets if
oil prices are unfair. "The state has tools with which we are able to regulate oil supplies to world markets.
Pipelines and railways are in the hands of the state," Putin said.
"If we see that oil prices are unfair, we will use those tools," Putin said, answering questions put by US
businessmen. He also said that Russian oil supplies over the next five-seven years may come to account for more than 10
per cent of US oil imports.
Touching on the new system for issuing visas, Putin called on American business to influence the US administrative
apparatus in order to ease the visa regime. "There is a limit beyond which there is no common sense," he said,
adding that even the fight against such a serious threat as terrorism did not justify the new rules for issuing
visas.
"The state has to react to this (threat of terrorism), but this creates certain difficulties in establishing
business ties," Putin said. Some questions in the application form for receiving a US visa are perplexing, Putin
said. "If it is a female, she has to answer a question whether she has been engaged in prostitution," he
said.
Sources:
ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1535 gmt 26 Sep 03
Interfax news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1534 gmt 26 Sep 03
ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1611 gmt 26 Sep 03
ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1601 gmt 26 Sep 03
© BBC Monitoring
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