President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday that the economy won’t have a future if it doesn’t lose its dependence on raw material exports.
“Russia needs to move forward, but there hasn’t been this kind of movement yet,” Medvedev said during a meeting with political party leaders in Sochi.
“We’re hovering in place, and the crisis clearly brought this home,” he said, Interfax reported.
The Russian economy plummeted much faster than that of many other countries when the crisis hit, and this is because the structure of the economy hasn’t changed and is still based on exporting raw materials.
“We can’t develop like this any further. It’s a dead end,” he said.
Medvedev also called for “intensified talks” with Finland and China on exports of raw timber, saying Russia needs to develop its domestic wood-products industry.
“The situation is outrageous and has been for a long time,” Medvedev said. “We continue to ship raw timber for export and processing isn’t being developed. To a great extent, this is the result of the position of our neighbors.”
Medvedev is scheduled to meet on Tuesday with his Finnish counterpart, Tarja Halonen, in Sochi.
Also at the meeting, Sergei Mironov, head of the A Just Russia party, suggested that high-value purchases should be officially declared by all Russian citizens in order to fight corruption, Interfax reported.
“One should declare his or her expenses, for example, for purchases valued at more than 200,000 rubles ($6,300),” Mironov said.
Medvedev’s position on the suggestion wasn’t immediately clear.
A decree signed by Medvedev in May requires that senior government officials make their earnings declarations open to the public.
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