Lionel
Barber, editor of the Financial Times, Neil Buckley, Moscow bureau chief,
and Catherine Belton, Moscow correspondent, interviewed Dmitry Medvedev,
president-elect of the Russian Federation, in the Kremlin, Moscow, on March
21 2008. Below is an edited transcript
FINANCIAL
TIMES: Mr President Elect, what will
be your top three priorities when you take office?
DMITRY
MEDVEDEV: I think these priorities are
completely obvious. The main one is to continue the social and economic
course which has emerged and evolved in our country in recent years. The
goal of this course is to improve the quality of life for all Russian
citizens.
We have managed to turn around
the economic situation - we have become a much stronger state in this
regard. Russia has joined the seven
biggest economies in terms of purchasing power, but that’s not all. The main
challenge now is to translate these economic successes into social
programmes to show that developing the economy improves the lives of every
Russian citizen. In recent times we have begun to implement some social
programmes in the areas of education and healthcare and I believe that it’s
very important to maintain and develop these programmes, getting on with the
full-scale modernising of work in healthcare and education, as well as
making it possible for the majority of Russian citizens to improve their
housing conditions, which is also very important. And finally,
Russia has pursued and
will be pursuing a well-balanced foreign policy, aiming to defend its own
interests in a non-confrontational way, so that Russia’s
positions will contribute towards strengthening world security. Thus there
are several priorities – to maintain economic stability, to develop economic
freedoms, to promote social programmes and to ensure that
Russia sustains its position in
the world.
. . . . . . .
.
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