Speaking at the Council, which Mr Sobyanin heads together with Christine Lagarde, the French Minister of Economy, Industry and Employment, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister said, in particular, that the crisis could not but tell on the development of bilateral cooperation, and Russian-French trade turnover somewhat dropped at the beginning of the year. At the same time, he pointed out that trade between Russia and France considerably increased last year and surpassed $22 billion.

Mr Sobyanin is confident that Russian-French cooperation will continue to develop, covering new areas. "All cooperation projects will be implemented in full. This refers, in particular, to the launch of a Soyuz spacecraft from the space centre in Kourou, French Guiana," he stressed.

Mr Sobyanin also expressed Russia's concern about the energy situation in Ukraine, "because Ukraine is not pumping gas into underground storage facilities". According to him, "this could create a problem in the winter period." "The situation is linked with Ukraine's financial problems. We hope that our European counterparts will help Ukraine to take care of this problem," Mr Sobyanin said. He recalled that Russia had already applied to the European Commission, proposing that they jointly extend help to Ukraine. "We hope that the problem will be solved in a regular way, because this is necessary for the stability of energy supplies to Europe," Mr Sobyanin stressed.

                                               * * *

Prior to the Council's meeting, Mr Sobyanin and Mr Lagarde visited the Paris Air Show in the Paris suburb of Le Bourget, where Russia for the first time rolled out its Sukhoi Superjet 100 passenger airliner. It is the chief presentation event at the famed show in 2009.

Mr Sobyanin and Mr Lagarde held a meeting there, during which they discussed cooperation in the aircraft industry and also climbed on board the Sukhoi Superjet 100, which on June 15 made its first demonstration flight at the show.

After talking with the crew and trying out the roles of flying personnel, Mr Sobyanin and Mr Lagarde spoke highly of the airliner, which has been developed jointly with French companies.

"This is a splendid aircraft," Mr Sobyanin said. "The most impressive thing about it is that all its instruments are easy to read and operate. The pilots that tested it and have flown to Le Bourget say that its controls are simple and reliable and forestall any problems," Mr Sobyanin said.