Russia 100414 Basic Political Developments

RIA: Medvedev ready to submit arms reduction pact to parliament in early May

http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20100414/158570194.html
07:0914/04/2010

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday he is ready to submit the new arms reduction treaty to parliament for ratification in the beginning of May should his counterpart Barack Obama do the same in the United States.

On April 8, Obama and Medvedev met in Prague and signed a long-awaited new arms reduction deal to replace the START 1 treaty that expired in December 2009.

Medvedev spoke at Brookings Institution, a leading U.S. think tank, after the end of the April 12-13 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.

A top Russian senator, Mikhail Margelov, asked the president when the treaty will be submitted to parliament.

Medvedev asked: "When will the Americans submit [it]?"

"In the first week of May," was the reply from the audience.

"We can do it at the same time in the form of a package solution," a laughing Medvedev said.

"In the morning we'll get in contact with President Obama over the phone, and I will ask him: 'Are you submitting it?' If he is, then I will submit [it] too."

In the new arms reduction treaty, the two countries, which possess about 90% of global arsenals of nuclear weapons, agreed to reduce the number of nuclear warheads to 1,550 on each side and the number of deployed and non-deployed delivery vehicles to 800 on each side.

WASHINGTON, April 14 (RIA Novosti)

RIA: Russia ready to discuss further disarmament – Medvedev

http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20100414/158568200.html
02:1714/04/2010

Russia is ready for further discussions on disarmament after a long-awaited new arms reduction pact with the United States was signed April 8., President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday

"As regards further reduction of nuclear offensive potentials... You can have no doubt, we are ready for that," the Russian president said.

Medvedev spoke at a U.S. think tank after the end of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.

WASHINGTON, April 14 (RIA Novosti)

RIA: Russia-U.S. relations better than before – Medvedev

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100414/158568717.html
03:4114/04/2010

Russia and the United States have improved bilateral relations during the past year, President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday.

"I am glad that in the past year plus we have managed to change the atmosphere of Russian-American relations [for the better]," Medvedev said at Brookings Institution, a U.S. think tank based in Washington, D.C.

"I am pleased that I have a part in it," the Russian president, who spoke after the end of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington that gathered over 40 world leaders.

Russia and the United States have been following the route of "resetting" their relations and ridding them of Cold War-era holdbacks since Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama announced the new policy of bilateral ties in April 2009.

The U.S. summit came after the signing of a new strategic arms reduction treaty by Obama and Medvedev in Prague on April 8.

In the treaty, the two countries, which possess about 90% of global arsenals of nuclear weapons, agreed to reduce the number of nuclear warheads to 1,550 on each side and the number of deployed and non-deployed delivery vehicles to 800 on each side.

WASHINGTON, April 14 (RIA Novosti)

RIA: Medvedev sees U.S. shale gas as stimulus for modernization

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100414/158573290.html
11:1814/04/2010

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said he is not disturbed by reports on shale gas deposits in the United States and sees the news as a stimulus for the modernization of the Russian economy.

Gas extraction from shale deposits, seen as an alternative to conventional gas production, is still considered commercially unprofitable by energy experts.

Earlier this month, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported that Poland could become the largest gas supplier for Europe following the discovery of large reserves of shale in the Central European country.

"The fact that our American partners have found new gas capacities, perhaps, is not bad," Medvedev said at the Brookings Institution in Washington after a nuclear security summit.

"It will lead us to be more attentive to our capabilities," the president added.

The Russian president's ambitious plan to modernize the country's economy is one of the main policies of his two years in power.

In an interview with the Russia Today news channel aired today, Medvedev said that some Russian officials might oppose modernization, adding that the process always involves a certain amount of conflict.

"There are always officials who will oppose things, they're in any society during any kind of changes," Medvedev said in an interview with the channel's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan. "Not because they're bad, it's because there can be a conservative mentality."

"People get used to living within certain parameters, so it's necessary to convince some people - and to confront others," the president continued.

"High oil and gas prices are not bad also," Medvedev said. "We are not going to lower them."

Medvedev also said that the global recession had prompted him to launch Russia on a course on technological modernization.

WASHINGTON, April 14 (RIA Novosti)

RIA: Medvedev still counting on Washington's support over WTO entry

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100414/158570984.html
08:4814/04/2010

Russia is counting on the support of the U.S. over the issue of its entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO), President Dmitry Medvedev told a leading U.S. think tank.

Russia has been seeking WTO membership since 1993, and is the only major economy outside of the global trade body.

"We want to enter the WTO, but this needs to be done quickly," he told Washington's Brookings Institution after the end of a two-day nuclear security summit.

He also noted that U.S. President Barack Obama had promised last year to help advance the issue.

"But, unfortunately, there have been no results so far... we are really counting on support to force Russia's WTO accession," he said.

In June 2009, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan notified the WTO of their intention to join the world trade club as a customs union.

Four months later, the three former Soviet republics announced they would resume talks on WTO accession separately, but working from synchronized positions.

"It is entirely possible to harmonize the process," Medvedev commented "Everyone will win from this."

WASHINGTON, April 14 (RIA Novosti)