Vladimir Putin's speech:

Dear friends, colleagues, Comrade Zhang Guba (head of the National Energy Administration of China), our Chinese friends!

The idea for this project came about six years ago. I remember during one of his visits to Moscow, our great friend and my own personal friend, Chinese President Hu Jintao, raised the possibility of this project. At the time, we were deliberating about the route - would it pass the southern end of Lake Baikal, or the north, where specifically? Then we found that yes, although there were many difficulties, they could be resolved.

I hope our Chinese friends will also inform President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao of our event today marking the completion of the Russian part of the project.  

But our Chinese friends need to do a little more work. The work, however, is also significant - lay 930 km of pipe across the territory of the People's Republic of China and complete tunnelling under the Amur River - these are all complex high-tech operations. But we are absolutely certain that this year Russian oil will flow to China.

I want to point out that this project is not just about delivering Russian crude to China; it is really a multi-faceted project that strengthens our energy cooperation. Our Chinese partners are involved in oil production in the Russian Federation, and Russian companies are shareholders in the oil refineries and the distribution network in China.

This is an important project for us because we are starting to diversify where we send our energy commodities. Until now, we had been shipping it mostly to our European partners. Even today, our European partners receive somewhere around 120-130 million tonnes of Russian oil.

We still supply only a small amount to the Asia-Pacific region. The commissioning of this section of ESPO (the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline) will supply 30 million tonnes and the expanded ESPO will supply up to 50 million tonnes. But this is already considerable competition for European routes.

This project is important for our Chinese friends and for Russia. For China it means stable supplies and a better energy balance, and for us it means access to new and promising markets in the Asia-Pacific region - in this case, the very promising and rapidly developing market of China.

Our cooperation with China, of course, is not limited to hydrocarbons. Our military-technical cooperation is valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. We are also expanding the supply of machinery and equipment from Russia.

Regarding energy, Russia is probably China's main partner in the field of civilian nuclear energy, and here the delivery of Russian equipment is valued in the billions of dollars. By the way, our cooperation with China in this sector is multilateral. In the same field of nuclear energy, European partners, including the German company Siemens, also make a significant contribution to this joint work. But for us, for Russia, of course, the most important work in this region is that which helps the eastern regions of Siberia and the Russian Far East to develop.

And, of course, projects like this bring us closer to achieving this. All told, 700 billion roubles alone will be invested in the construction of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline system. This pipeline segment alone employs 7,000 people, 5,000 of whom are local professionals. Above all, 700 billion roubles of investment in this project are for the construction of infrastructure - roads and power grids. This entails professional development of personnel and a large amount of work to develop the region.

I want to congratulate you all on the completion of this milestone, and I want to thank you for the quality work that you have performed, for your professionalism, for your dedication. Because building such a facility in the harsh weather conditions here is really a tremendous achievement. This is evidence of professionalism, courage, and perseverance, and love for your work. Thank you very much. Congratulations!

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After the opening ceremony for the Russian section of the Russia-China Pipeline, Vladimir Putin was asked about his Lada Kalina car

Question: Mr Putin, is the Lada Kalina a good match for the roads in Russia's Far East suitable?

Vladimir Putin: It's a great match, perfect.   

It's really a good little car; I'm surprised. I didn't expect it to be like this. It's not noisy, rather powerful for its size and weight and very comfortable. It has everything - air conditioning, airbags, a GLONASS global positioning system and good fuel efficiency. It's very comfortable. It's a good car.

Bye.