#6 - JRL 7224
Putin outlines Russia's energy ambitions at award ceremony
ITAR-TASS

St Petersburg, 15 June: Russian President Vladimir Putin is sure that "Russia with its enormous resources is capable of becoming a most important link in the system of global energy security".

"We are interested in the world energy market being transparent and stable and not subject to sharp shifts as economic conditions change," Putin said at a meeting with the winners of the Global Energy prize and officials from Russian and foreign energy companies.

He also said that "long term plan for the development of our energy base would be adopted in the near future". "I mean Russia's energy strategy up to 2020," the president said.

Putin explained that "this document will set out the main elements of state policy on the use of energy resources and define the basic parameters for cooperation between the state and business in this area".

"We intend to improve the financial, legal and information mechanisms of international energy cooperation," Putin stressed.

[A report by Interfax news agency, Moscow in English 1520 15 Jun 03 quoted Putin as saying that the energy resources that are being spent today are non-recoverable, and the very process of energy production and consumption often entails negative consequences, primarily environmental ones.

"If the current energy consumption growth is maintained, our successors are likely to face a global energy crisis as early as several generations from now. But this will happen only if we fail to consolidate the efforts of all countries, the business, and academic communities in developing science and technology branches that are capable of guaranteeing the future of the power industry," the agency reported Putin as saying.]