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Putin lashes out at 'hysteria' against Russian investment in Europe
By Dario Thuburn
AFP
MUNICH, Germany
Petroleumworld.com 10 12 06
Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at "hysteria" against Russian investment on Wednesday after being rebuffed on a bid to boost Moscow's role in troubled European aerospace group EADS.
Critcism of growing Russian investment is "a childhood illness" and "hysteria," Putin told an investor conference in Munich on a visit to the state of Bavaria, Germany's economic powerhouse.
"The Russians are coming not with tanks and Kalashnikovs in their hands. They are coming with money and they want rights," Putin said to applause from the assembled German industry chiefs.
"Companies in Europe, including some German firms, that are having trouble can get by without major shake-ups, without mass job cuts, if they bring in Russian investment," Putin said.
Earlier Wednesday, Putin received a firm rebuttal to his efforts to raise Moscow's five-percent stake in EADS, which has its German headquarters in Bavaria.
"In certain strategic sectors of the economy there are some limits to mutual participation," Bavaria's premier Edmund Stoiber said after talks with Putin in comments that broadly welcomed Russian investment in other areas.
In his later comments at the investor conference, Putin returned to the issue of EADS and said that "increased co-operation is in the intrests both of Russia and of Europe."
Putin's visit is part of a concerted Russian effort to strengthen economic links with Germany, mainly by holding out the prospect of increased energy supplies in exchange for access to European markets.
Germany, Russia's largest trading partner, is preparing to take over the presidency of both the European Union and the G8 group of industrialised nations, giving it a leading role in shaping Western policy towards Russia.
Russia's economy is currently buoyant from oil and gas export sales, growing at around six percent, while Germany is struggling to carry out much-needed economic reforms.
Germany forecasts GDP growth this year at between 2.0 and 2.5 percent.
"From being a major consumer of Russian energy products, Germany can become a major centre for their distribution... The German economy has an interest in this," Putin said after meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel in Dresden on Tuesday.
During his visit, the Russian leader has offered to route gas supplies from Shtokman, the world's largest gas field, to Europe through Germany, snubbing the United States.
Major deals have also been signed this week.
On Wednesday, German electronics giant Siemens announced it had struck a deal worth 450 million euros (564 million dollars) with Russian holding Renova to carry out infrastructure projects in Russia.
Putin is accompanied by a delegation including Economy Minister German Gref, as well as Oleg Deripaska, chief of aluminium giant Rusal, and Alexei Mordashov, head of steel firm Severstal.
Bavaria accounts for 14.4 percent of Russia-Germany trade turnover.
Turnover between the two countries reached 32.9 billion dollars in 2005 and grew 30.6 in the first six months of 2006 compared to the same period last year, according to Russian figures.
But the fallout from the killing on Saturday of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, whose death has sparked outrage at the state of press freedom in Russia, continued to cast a shadow over Putin's visit.
Members of Germany's Green party, who were due to attend a dinner with Putin later Wednesday in a restaurant near Munich, pulled out in protest over the murder and held a small demonstration outside the Residenz palace.
"It's important that Russia becomes a democracy because it's our neighbour. The climate is not very good for press freedoms there," Sepp Duerr, a local Green party leader, said at the protest.
Merkel, who has vowed to pursue a tough foreign policy line with Russia, expressed shock at the murder of Politkovskaya and said press freedom "is an important aspect of countries where democracy is developing."
Putin had a close personal and working relationship with Merkel's predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, who is now heading up a project led by Russia's state energy giant Gazprom to build a pipeline between Russia and Germany.
AFP 11 1705 GMT 10 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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