Word: medvedev
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Months of infighting between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev over Russia's budget ended on Monday - with Medvedev on top. At a meeting with senior government officials, the President announced a strikingly pessimistic set of spending priorities until 2012, based on conservative estimates suggesting that Russia will remain hampered by the economic crisis into next year and beyond...
...Russian leaders have also expressed concerns about the E.U.'s Eastern Partnership program, which was unveiled earlier this month and aims to deepen economic and political ties with six former Soviet states, including Ukraine. At the E.U.-Russia summit in Khabarovsk over the weekend, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said E.U. officials had "failed to persuade" him that it was not harmful to Russian interests. "What confuses me is that some states ... see this partnership as a partnership against Russia," he said...
...leadership," he wrote. In fact, other experts suggest, such belligerent talk is meant more as a corrective threat than a potential course of action. But even if Moscow has no immediate designs on Crimea, the continued flow of baleful utterances from the Kremlin does reflect a desire for what Medvedev has called Russia's "privileged interests" in the region to be respected - in terms of politics, business and culture...
...Medvedev said Russia could help with some of the cost, but not all. "When it comes to credit, let us help syndicate the corresponding money for Ukraine, but this should not be only Russia doing this," he said. "At the end of the day, it is not us who have problems paying." Yet, observers see Medvedev's comment as more of a barb than as a viable suggestion. "I would be surprised if the E.U. felt that [helping Ukraine purchase gas from Russia] was an appropriate use of their funds," says Niall Trimble, director of The Energy Contract Company...
...basis for the energy dialogue between the E.U. and Russia in the future, and to emphasize the need for new ad hoc arrangements in the format proposed by Russia," says Dmitry Orlov, head of the Agency for Political and Economic Communications, a Moscow-based think tank. During the talks, Medvedev reiterated that Russia would not participate in the current version of the document. Because of Medvedev's steadfastness, Orlov believes the E.U. is "now ready to consider new positions on energy questions." (See TIME's special package on the Russia-Georgia...