Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday rejected the prospect of a new Cold War with the West and said Russia wanted further integration into the world economy.
”We favour … rational integration into the world economy and we see any attempts at throwing us back to the times of the Cold War as a direct threat to our modernisation project,” Putin told investors at a forum in southern Russia.
”We are interested in attracting more foreign investment. Although of course we want a mutual approach — a readiness by our foreign partners to accept investors from Russia,” Putin said.
Putin also defended the Russian economy amid volatility on its stock market.
Russia ”now has a completely different level of development of its economy and its financial system, a different, qualitatively higher level of stability for both the state and the national business community”, he said.
”We have seriously raised the effectiveness of our financial institutions, we have cleaned the market of problematic credit organisations. We have experience in quick reaction to the situation by financial authorities.” — AFP
