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PUTIN ADDRESS A GOOD SIGNAL TO FOREIGN INVESTORS

MOSCOW, April 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin's address to the Federal Assembly (parliament) is a good signal to foreign investors, head of the American-Russian Business Council Eugene Lawson said in a RIA Novosti interview.

It was a remarkable speech in many respects. The president's most important signal for foreign business is that Russia is in need of foreign investments, he said.

It is very important that the president spoke of tax organs and the need to restrain their powers. It is theme Number One for foreign investors, he noted.

Everybody agrees that the powers of the tax services in Russia are too broad. If the Putin address is followed by legislative steps to limit them, this will make the position of foreign investors in Russia more stable, Lawson stressed.

The head of the American-Russian Business Council said that it is also crucial for the foreign business community that Vladimir Putin focused on the problem of Russian bureaucracy.

It is a serious problem indeed. If practical changes now follow, this will create a favorable climate for foreign investments, the expert said.

To Lawson, prospects of Russian-American economic cooperation were discussed on Sunday at a meeting between Russian and American experts, arranged by the Council for the External and Defense Policy of the Russian Federation and the RIA Novosti agency.

Overall, I'm optimistic about Russian-American economic cooperation. We have a set of specific energy projects, very good opportunities are open for the development of the infrastructure in Russia and in the field of high technologies. Much is said about big bilateral deals. However, cooperation between medium-sized enterprises is also extremely important and in this field, too, we have many joint projects, Lawson said.