Excerpts from the interview:

Question: The Russian Far East is a unique region with fabulous natural resources. You have seen huge salmon close to the shore with your own eyes. The fish suffer terribly from poaching. The annual economic damage exceeds $4 billion. The Far East also abounds in timber and other riches. How can we give it a new lease of life?

Vladimir Putin: You know what a tortuous road the region has travelled after Russia incorporated it. Attempts to develop its economy have been made since very long ago-but only slight attempts. Thus, the only railway to connect the region with European Russia was built in 1904-and not before the danger of war with Japan appeared.

The railway was built for military not economic and social reasons. Before, Russians could reach their own part of the Far East only via the Indian Ocean. What economic progress could one speak of?

The region has no united gas or electric utilities as yet, and is beyond the national power grid. The Chita-Khabarovsk railway is being built to this day.

Much work has to be done. That is evident. It is no less evident that the Far East and Eastern Siberia are not merely Russian treasure troves but also essential parts of the global economy, and will be under Russian sovereignty as before.

The present situation forces us to develop the region-not merely to stop the flow of migrants leaving it but also for objective reasons, including rapid Asian-Pacific development within the global context. The economic future of the world belongs to the Asian-Pacific region-at least, that is how things look now. Russia is part and parcel of that region.

Today, we attended the first junction ceremony at the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok gas pipeline. I think you saw it too. It is one of the first steps in the gasification of a region that possesses 35 or more trillion cubic metres of natural gas, by expert analysis.

Professionals might say it is only a rough estimate-but it is impressive. The Shtokman deposit, about which so much is being said, possesses 3 trillion cubic metres-and is considered one of the richest gas fields in the world. What can one say about 40 trillion, then? No other country has so much!

To gasify East Siberia and the Russian Far East, and include them in the national power grid is an ambitious job on a par with the largest industrial projects in Russian history. We are embarking on it now.

It will affect not only the Far East proper but also the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Yakutia, the Irkutsk Region, Sakhalin and Kamchatka. Small towns and large cities will receive gas, and the entire economy of that part of Russia will be boosted. So we will guarantee its future with our joint efforts.

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Question: Not only is the Government plan for anti-crisis action of interest but also the extent to which the plan is being implemented. Do you think the Government is withstanding the test of the crisis with all the manual manipulation?

Vladimir Putin: I don't think we always need manual control-the system works. On the whole, I think the Government is doing rather well.

This does not mean I have no suggestions for my colleagues. As I said at a Government meeting yesterday, for instance, the funding of particular economic branches is uneven. Our funding does not always work efficiently because of bureaucratic procrastination, because of belated tenders and overdue paperwork. But we understand the routine-we have seen these problems before. On the whole, however, the Government is responding to the national and world economic situation efficiently enough.