OREANDA-NEWS. September 19, 2008. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Good afternoon, colleagues,

I am pleased to have this opportunity to meet with you to discuss the issues of most relevance today. You all represent the main civil society organisations in our country. There are people here from the Public Council, religious leaders, heads of public organisations, members of creative unions, cultural figures, members of the scientific and education communities.

You make an influential group of people and I would like to take this chance to discuss with you issues concerning our country’s development today. That this meeting brings together such a broad range of organisations is not a chance decision but is connected to the situation in our society since August 8 and the dramatic events that took place in the Caucasus.

We will talk about this publicly first and more confidentially later. But the first thing I want to say to you, and I hope that everyone will hear, is that our society’s development priorities really do remain unchanged despite the tragic events of August. Indeed, what has happened has only made our priorities more important than ever. No new external circumstances and even less any pressure on Russia from outside can turn us from our strategic course of building a free, progressive and democratic state and society.

We will tolerate no delay in pursuing our goals of developing the economy, encouraging business activity and increasing creative and personal freedom on the pretext that the country is in danger and ‘surrounded by enemies’. There will no such thing. This choice of ours, a choice long since made, it was not decided in order to please this or that country but is the hard-won choice of our people. 

Second, innovative economic development is our crucial task today. In today’s international situation modernising our country is our primary goal. There is simply no other way to build a strong and influential Russia. I discussed this and several other issues just recently with business community leaders. But new ideas and developments need to come not only from the business community. The business community can provide support, but the ideas should come from the sectors you represent, science, education and culture.

Over these coming years, the entire state system will focus on searching for innovators, coming up with and developing the most interesting new ideas. We need to create new incentives to encourage the emergence of advanced social and economic models

Freedom provides the key to innovative development. This is related to the idea of competition. The winners today are those who give more freedom for intellectual development and who protect intellect from anything that could restrict and confine it. This is our common task and we will work on it.

Third, we will continue to implement the national development concept for the period through to 2020. This development concept is based on an innovative approach and personal self-realisation. But no concept or document of any sort should be taken as dogma. Change is always possible and we are ready to study any proposals you may have and support them if a consensus is reached.  

Fourth, we will work consistently to strengthen our national security, modernise our army and raise our country’s defence capability to an adequate level, a level that we will set in relation to the current situation. This is not something we can measure once and for all.

Fifth, even amidst the rapid changes in our world we are always ready to continue dialogue with all of our partners without exception. I have spoken about this on numerous occasions when speaking to the press, and I have set it out in our five main foreign policy principles. We will work towards ensuring that the new world order respects international law not in word but in deed. I have spoken about this too already. Humanity did not spend the twentieth century in vain, for the lessons of the great tragedies the century brought opened the way to developing a system of international law. I think that not only should we not forget the foundations of international law, but we need to work on implementing it in practice, in our relations with all other civilised countries, taking into account the current reality and the lessons of the Caucasus crisis too. 

One of the goals of today’s meeting is to hold an open discussion on the situation in the world and the situation in our country following Georgia’s aggression in South Ossetia. As I have already said before, it is clear for us that it is not the Georgian people who are guilty of aggression and genocide, but the criminal and irresponsible regime that started this war. This is a distinction we need to make clear in international relations and also at the human level. 

Our peoples have had fraternal relations for centuries now. More than a million Georgians live in Russia and consider it their homeland, and we value that fact that they have shown understanding for the actions the Russian Federation was forced to take.

Of course, propaganda, including the propaganda that accompanied the Georgian regime’s military campaign, has had a negative effect, but we are confident that the Georgian people can see reason and we will do all we can to restore normal human contacts and relations.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who condemned this act of aggression, everyone who responded to the calls for humanitarian aid and support.

I also want to say that at this difficult time for the country our civil society has shown itself to be responsible and mature and has once again proven that civil peace is one of modern Russia’s greatest achievements. The events that took place had no effect on our country’s stability and did not spark xenophobia or interethnic strife, and this is also very important. This shows that our democracy is developing and is capable of defending itself as a political regime and form of state organisation.

We will work consistently and with thoroughness on the objectives we have set and will promote the creation of a progressive and democratic society. I especially want to stress this. This is true civic spirit and genuine patriotism. 

Patriotism, after all, is about helping the country succeed, and thus helping each family and each citizen succeed, helping to modernise the state, helping the country establish itself as a technological leader and promoting its intellectual development. Only in this way can we truly improve our people’s lives.

These are just a few opening remarks. I would like to give the floor to you now. Some things I will comment on later, and perhaps add some more extensive remarks on issues that interest you.

* * *

Before letting the members of press go, I would like to make a few remarks before we begin our informal discussion. As far as an assessment of the situation goes, there have been many assessments already. I will perhaps add some further comments later, but one thing is absolutely clear today, even for those who do not say it aloud, and that is that the current security system has broken down and, unfortunately, has proven completely ineffective. If this is the case, humanity has two options: either act without rules based on the idea that a small number of countries with big military power will dictate the rules, though this is a bad option, or try to build a modern new base for international cooperation. 

I have already said this and I say again now that the idea of drafting a pan-European security treaty has become even more relevant after the events in the Caucasus. This is something clear even to those who have said in private talks with me that nothing of the sort is needed, for NATO will take care of everything and make all the decisions. But what has NATO decided, what has NATO taken care of? All it has done is provoke a conflict. 

The second point I want to make is also something I have spoken about already. People say now that finally they are showing their true face, the authorities have thrown aside their masks and Russia has reverted to its typical authoritarian regime leaning towards dictatorship, the hawks have won, and no further proof is needed.

We realise what motivates this talk. In effect, we are being pushed towards a development road based not on full, normal, and civilised cooperation with other countries but on autonomous development behind high walls, behind an iron curtain. I want to make it clear that this is not our road. We have no interest in returning to the past. We have made our choice, no matter what the words of those who interpret these events as suits them best.

Third, the world today is open and global, politically and economically. The economy is global. We know that when a crisis happens, a big crisis, the depression that affects the United States today, all market economies face problems. This is what the main economic players should be working on now.  

We discussed this issue in part during the G8 summit in Japan, but our partners did not wish to make these issues a key priority on the agenda. Perhaps if we had been able to agree on some common rules in the crisis situation the consequences of the depression on the American stock and financial markets would have been a lot less severe. Of course, there is no way of fully avoiding this cyclical downturn, but the impact could have been lessened. This is an issue for the international agenda, something we need to work on. We need to make headway on these kinds of big projects and not try to play clever. We need to act as honest partners. It’s easy to tell others what to do. I go into the Internet this morning and see that our American friends are saying that they will continue to provide assistance to teachers, doctors, scientists, trade union leaders and judges in the Russian Federation. The judges especially struck me as something quite exceptional. What do they mean exactly? Are they planning to buy off our judges or something, support corruption? If it is joint programmes they are referring to, such programmes are usually carried out with countries that share a similar vision of the main processes underway in the world. If things continue in this direction we will soon see them choosing our presidents for us. 

But regardless of all this, we are committed to full dialogue. We are not trying to teach anyone any lessons. We would like others to listen to our arguments and we want our international partners to understand the difficult choices we have made of late. We will continue to work on this regardless of the various foolish words we hear from different quarters.