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#11 - JRL 9130 - JRL Home
RUSSIAN CABINET MINISTERS COMMENT ON PUTIN'S STATE-OF-THE-UNION ADDRESS

MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Economics Minister German Gref has described as "encouraging and fair" President Vladimir Putin's point about the necessity of taking money out of the shadow and reducing redtape hurdles.

Gref, as well as other senior Cabinet ministers, spoke to the media Monday, right after the delivery by President Putin of his annual State-of-the-Union address to the Federal Assembly, or Russia's parliament.

Reporters asked Gref what he thought of such a point being made just two days before the court hands down a verdict to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former CEO of the oil giant Yukos. The minister replied that the intention conveyed was universally appealing whatever the context. "The main thing is to try and translate this into reality," he added.

In reply to this same question, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin pointed out that this was actually the declaration of a policy course.

Asked what Western investors should rely on as credible information, Gref said they had to form their own opinion of things by looking at events actually taking place and contrasting these against their preconceptions. The minister noted that the number of positive changes brought about in recent time gave grounds for optimism.

Commenting on the latest State-of-the-Union address, Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor singled out President Putin's points about amnesty for dirty money, tax payments, and back tax bills as an optimal solution to tax conflicts. The lack of clear-cut rules in these areas has discouraged quite a few foreign investors from bringing their capitals into this country, he remarked.

Speaking of international issues set forth in President Putin's State-of-the Union address, Khristenko said that the protection of Russian expatriates' interests was the point he saw as the most important one. Also, he liked what he described as the "correct" way of setting the task of economic reintegration with Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

Health and Welfare Minister Mikhail Zurabov said he regarded as attainable the objective of raising public-sector pays by a factor of 1.5 within the next three years. In Zurabov's view, the target will be possible to meet even with the current remuneration schemes in place.