G8 2006
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Thursday, 02 September, 2010
15:40 GMT 19:40 Moscow
Local Time: 19:40

G8/2006 RUSSIA / PODCASTING



Russian President Vladimir Putin held a press conference following the end of the G-8 summit.

Russia will use all political leverage it has to seek the release of kidnapped Israeli soldiers, Sergey Prikhodko, an aide to President Vladimir Putin and Chairman of Russia’s G8 Organizing Committee, said at a media briefing at the G8 Summit.

Pamfilova discussed the recently held “Civil G8” meeting, arranged as part of the year-long program related to Russia’s presidency of the G8.

PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good evening, I know that my colleagues have already met with their media pools. Practically everything has been said already and all I can probably do now is to sum up our assessment of the results of work together. The Russian delegation is satisfied with these results.

Russian Sous Sherpa in the G8 and director of the foreign ministry’s department on economic cooperation Andrei Kondakov held a briefing in the international media center on July 16.

With several countries working to diversify their energy sources, Russia must maintain an energy pricing strategy that will create a demand for Russian energy for many years to come, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said today during a briefing at the G8 summit. "If we count on high prices, speculative prices that are supported not by economic reality but by speculative trends, we will not only destabilize the situation in other countries, but those countries will not buy our energy," said Kudrin. "That's why we are interested in long-term demand for energy produced by Russia. We are interested in stable and high prices, but not speculative or excessive prices."

In a briefing for international media covering the G8 summit in St. Petersburg, Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko discussed several topics related to energy security and the world's gas and oil supply. He began by saying that the recent Rosneft IPO "will have a positive influence, and it is important for the entire energy supply chain because it will make energy supplies more secure and predictable."

Russian Minister of Public Health and Social Development Mikhail Zurabov briefed the media at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg on Sunday. Mr. Zurabov said that although health issues such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS had been discussed at previous G8 summit meetings, the 2006 summit represented the first time that there had been a global approach to these vital concerns.

Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov held a briefing.

Russia is trying to convince its G8 partners that using force to bring about regime change in North Korea should not even be discussed, said Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Duma, speaking during a briefing for the international media at the G8 Summit. "I was afraid that there might be an attempt to overthrow the Korean regime by force, like in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries," said Kosachev. "We must convince our partners that, regardless of whether we like what the North Korean government does or not, any attempt to change it by force should not even be discussed, and at the same time compromises must be reached on the nuclear program."

Mr. Fursenko said that education is one of the key themes for the summit since it is a vital element to helping foster economic growth throughout the world.

The G8 leaders met with teenagers representing the "Junior 8," or J8, at the Constantine Palace, the main summit venue, on Sunday.

Junior G8 briefing with the G8 leaders held on July 16.

In a briefing to international media covering the G8 Summit in Saint-Petersburg, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov described the current situation in Lebanon with the loss of lives and the destruction of civilian infrastructure as approaching “catastrophic.” Calling on all parties able to bring a speedy resolution to the current crisis, he added: “We must use all means at our disposal to end the shelling of innocent victims and free the soldiers.”

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good evening dear ladies and gentlemen. I am grateful to you for gathering here. I also want to tell you at once that nothing sensational will happen here. We assume that in order to best help us and yourselves, that we should orient ourselves around what is happening today in St Petersburg. The following work has not begun and you already know the results of our meeting with the President of the United States. Along with this I would like to start by expressing my sincere gratitude to all my colleagues, heads of G8 countries, for giving Russia the opportunity to assume the presidency and organize this event in Russia. I am thankful that they agreed to St Petersburg as the place where we will do our joint work. We prepared for this event very seriously and were met with understanding and support from all our colleagues in G8 member countries.

Vladimir Fridlyanov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science, and Andrey Volkov, Head of the Education Expert Group for Russia's Presidency of the G8, shared the G8 Presidency's vision for education in a briefing Saturday afternoon. Mr. Fridlyanov called the development of education, "a vital issue" for the knowledge-based society of the 21st century. Russia wants the G8 to concentrate on upgrading the quality of basic education and creating mechanisms to assess the quality of basic education in developing nations. By focusing on education, Russia is raising a key issue on the global development agenda.

Sergei Storchak, Deputy Finance Minister of the Russian Federation, Director of the Finance Ministry International Financial Relations, National Debt and Financial Assets Department, Sous-Sherpa (Finance), held a briefing.

German Gref, the Economic Development and Trade Minister, held a briefing.

Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov told members of the international media at the G8 Summit that the only way to solve the Middle East conflict is by “returning to the way of negotiations, since on the one hand the seizure of hostages and planning of terrorism by any state are absolutely unacceptable, but on the other hand use of military force in such a volume and on such objects as Israel does is unacceptable.”

Sergei Kirienko, the Head of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency, has hailed the nuclear deal announced today by President Putin and President Bush as "a significant advance in the relations of our two countries". Mr Kirienko stated that the deal would establish a free-market structure for the sale of nuclear fuel between Russia and the United States, while helping to curb the proliferation of nuclear weapons by creating international enrichment centres. He stated that the agreement would form the basis of a peaceful atomic energy future in which countries could harness the benefits of nuclear power while ensuring security and mitigating environmental risks.

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