President-elect Medvedev speaks to the world

Three weeks after Russia’s elections, the newly-chosen president Dmitriy Medvedev made his first public address to the Western world in an all-encompassing interview to London’s Financial Times.

In his interview, the President-elect seemed to touch on nearly every major issue of Russia’s current domestic and foreign policy. Dmitriy Medvedev answered a wide range of questions on different topics, essentially laying out the entire program of his future presidency. Some commentators noted that Mr. Medvedev was committing himself to a firm political course that will define Russia’s position on the international stage for years to come. Mr. Medvedev’s easy conversation style and his willingness to answer provocative questions gave the world the first glimpse at what the new leader of Russia is truly like.

Mr. Medvedev began the discussion by outlining his priorities: “The main task is to continue the social and economic course that has emerged and evolved in our country in the 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 programs, to show that developing the economy improves the lives of every Russian citizen.”  

“We have recently begun to implement some social programs in the areas of education and healthcare, and I believe that it is very important to maintain and develop these programs, getting on with a full-scale modernization of the healthcare sector and improvements in the area of education. Also, we need to make it possible for the majority of Russian citizens to improve their housing conditions. 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 to strengthening world security,” Mr. Medvedev declared.

Summing up, the Russian President-elect said “thus there are several priorities - to maintain economic stability, to develop economic freedoms, to promote social programs, and to ensure that Russia maintains its position in the world.”

Global economic crisis

   “I am certain that we have adequately prepared ourselves to withstand the various problems that have emerged on the world’s financial markets. What makes us confident is that over the last eight years we have managed to create a stable macroeconomic system. Our financial reserves, our gold and currency reserves are higher than ever before, reflecting the overall state of affairs in the Russian economy. We are insured against fluctuations occurring on the commodities and stock markets, although we’re not closed off from the complexities being experienced by the world economy,” Mr. Medvedev remarked.

The President-elect further noted that Russia must carefully look out for the stability of its own economy. “We must watch over the stability of all financial indexes. We must make sure that our budget is well-balanced. We must not allow any ill-considered expenditures. And we must be thinking about how to strengthen our own financial and stock markets. Today, both are islands of stability in the ocean of financial turmoil. Foreign investors’ interest in Russia’s financial and stock markets is as high as ever, and we welcome this kind of investment.”

Dmitriy Medvedev also did not leave out the subject of inflation and state price control. “Strictly speaking there was, and is, no price freeze in the classical sense of the term. Indeed, agreements were signed at the end of last year about the level of mark-ups used by retailers, so as not to exceed reasonable market limits, but there was nothing beyond that. First, these decisions were adopted not by acts of the government; these were agreements between sellers and producers of agricultural produce. Second, they covered no more than 10 to 15 percent of agricultural products.”

Who will make decisions?

“I think, the point is not who says the final word, but what the political and the legal systems of the Russian Federation look like. This system sets out quite clearly the respective areas of jurisdiction of the two principal levels of power, that of the presidency and the executive. The scope of authority of the president is different. It is the constitution itself that predetermines the answer to the question of who makes decisions on what issues,” stated Mr. Medvedev when asked whether President Vladimir Putin, who will become Russia’s Prime Minister after his final term, will have the ultimate decision-making power.

“It is the president who sets out the main directions of domestic and foreign policy. He is the commander-in-chief; he makes key decisions on forming the executive branch. He is the guarantor of rights and freedoms of Russian citizens. The government has its own very extensive field of business. The government implements all economic activities, adopting the most important decisions in the economy. The government’s jurisdiction is quite extensive and its structure includes a considerable number of executive agencies. The government’s job is complex, large, and challenging. It is completely obvious that the government has enough of its own business to attend to. In other words, it’s all simple. Russia is a presidential republic with strong executive authority.”

Mr. Medvedev was also asked if he feared the possibility of a two-person government in Russia. “Russia’s history knows practically no examples of a successful leader at the peak of his popularity moving on to a different position. However, President Putin said from the start that he would strictly adhere to Russia’s constitution and would only serve for two terms. This means that at last Russia is seeing the formation of a fully-fledged tradition of respecting all procedures that follow from the constitution and other laws. The incumbent president is an effective leader and he is ready and able to continue to work to advance the development of our country, to make sure our development continues in the direction, in which it set out eight years ago. That is why this tandem, or this team of two, was formed between the presidential candidate and the Russian President as a possible future Prime Minister. I am confident that our tandem will prove to be effective.”

Freedom of the press

“I believe that the last eight years have seen our media come a long way. From the rather weak and wilted media that served the interests of individual business groups, or just separate individuals, they have turned into a powerful social force.

Eight years ago, the overall capitalization of the media fell short of even USD 1 billion. I think that now we are talking about tens of billions of dollars, at least USD 50 billion – that is how I would estimate the worth of the media market in the Russian Federation. What is this if not the strengthening of the position of the media?”

When the President wakes up in the morning…

“I can talk you through how my morning typically starts. I turn on my PC to check the news. I look at the web sites of our major TV channels. I look at the web sites of major Russian and foreign media. I look at Russian media sites, some of which have a positive attitude toward authorities, and some of which stand in tough opposition to the authorities. This is a normal global information flow, giving the citizens of Russia, as well as other citizens, the right to access information freely. There are already 40 million internet users in Russia. The point is not just the internet, the point is that, technologically speaking, the media has become different today.”

“I am not trying to present the situation as ideal. There are plenty of problems. There are problems and conflicts, within the editorial teams, problems between editorial teams and owners. As a matter of fact, this is the case in other countries as well. Sometimes, both the authorities and the companies do not like what is being published or said about them in the media. We need to be calm about this, acting within the legal framework that we have, that is, working out legal, corporate norms of behavior of the media, their interaction among themselves, and their interaction with the authorities. That is why I am confident that our media have a very good future,” the President-elect emphasized.

Dmitriy Medvedev: the lawyer-president

Speaking about the need for a legal reform, Mr. Medvedev emphasized that “one direction in which Russia should move is toward asserting the supremacy of law in society. The Russian legal system is fairly young, it is about 15 years old. On the other hand, it is based on the traditions of the continental Romano-Germanic law family and in this sense it was easier for us to build our legislation than perhaps it was for other countries. What do we need to do? We need to assert the priority of laws over administrative regulations. We finally should turn the constitution into a law of direct action.”

Mr. Medvedev thinks that the Russian court system should also be transformed. “We need to have an active and effective court system. Here, there were also negative traditions that formed during the 18th and 19th centuries, and today we have to make all the necessary efforts to insure that the courts in Russia are independent and objective and act on the basis of existing procedural legislation. To a significant degree this depends on the position that the state takes on the one hand, and, on the other hand, on the corporation of judges itself. Judges throughout the whole world are a very respected group of people. For the majority of law school graduates, the position of judge is the summit of a legal career, the crowning of a legal career. We should do all that we can to make sure that those who take the position of judge understand their responsibility for the decisions they make. For this we need two things: modern legislation that contains all the best traditions of laws on the status of judges. The second thing is wages, the incomes of judges. I think that in a fairly short time we can create an extremely effective legal system. In the end, the most important decisions in conflicts between companies, or in civil and criminal cases are made by judges. Our citizens should not fear the court and should go to court whenever necessary.”

Consolidation of society

Speaking about Mr. Putin, Dmitriy Medvedev noted “I learned a lot from the President. Our relations stretch back eighteen years. When we first met, I really was a young person. I was 24, and he was younger than I am now. But he was already much more experienced, having gone though the school of service in Russia and abroad. What struck me first was his meticulous attitude towards information and how he tried to investigate to the most thorough degree every problem that he came across. Mr. Putin makes decisions only on the basis of a complex and overarching analysis. I think this is very important for any leader, and even more so for a president. And here there is something for many people to learn from President Putin.”

“Any leader and any boss should examine a question with great thoroughness. These are exactly President Putin’s qualities and this is why he is such a popular and effective leader. It is also very important that we are tied by friendship and by trust.”

“It is only in this way that we can solve the large-scale problems that face the Russian state and society. Russia needs the maximum consolidation of power, consolidation of the Russian elite, and consolidation of society. Only in this case can we attain the goals we have set in front of us. I am convinced that we will be able to do so.”