"We use market methods to respond to emerging problems. The Government and the Bank of Russia have sufficient reserves to protect the Russian currency and the financial system."
"We have prepared a special computer programme to follow progress on each facility. The programme will also give an overall view of the whole project, enabling us, the International Olympic Committee, and you as its representative to monitor the general picture and particular activities daily and even hourly."
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met his Belgian counterpart Yves Leterme in Sochi
"I cannot help but mention that our growing trade has reached $6 billion. I was particularly pleased to see the increasing Belgian investments in the Russian economy. Importantly, some of them are direct."
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon
"It is a real pleasure to have all our supply agreements being observed at the highest level. Even more important is that the sales turnover between our countries grew nearly threefold during the past five years, to be more precise, 2.8 times. In absolute units, this figure could even exceed what we currently have. The following lines of cooperation appear promising: aviation, space, transport infrastructure, agriculture, engineering industries, chemistry, culture and education."
Events for 18 september 2008
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting with top executives of foreign companies
"I am well aware that the predictability and stability of economic policy is vitally important for business, and I would like to emphasise that despite certain political events of some urgent and even critical nature, Russia will not change its economic development model. Our policy will remain unaltered, there will be no closed market or economic mobilisation. We will not take any politically motivated decisions or actions in the economy, and we are trying to make our plans as open and clear as possible."
"We must study everything that concerns the preparation for the Beijing Olympics. Our Chinese partners' best practices are to be meticulously analyzed and taken into consideration. It is also important to follow organisational differences in preparation for the Vancouver and London Olympics."
Nord Stream is a big European project aimed at solving urgent energy problems. I am sure the project will contribute to the development of both Russian and European economies.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had a conversation with Russian Railways CEO Vladimir Yakunin
The delivery of fuel, the issue of certification and the dividends which the company planned to keep and hand over to the state were discussed during the meeting.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev
"Russia and Bulgaria have strong long-standing ties. In the recent years we have managed to increase the mutual trade volumes by more than 30% last year in the face of many difficulties. According to our current statistics, Russia is the top exporter to Bulgaria and ranks fourth in sales turnover between our countries."
