Putin comments on goals of energy reforms

Reforms in the electrical energy sector should create conditions for attracting private investments in this sector, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in a live interview on Russian central television and radio channels today. He thinks that the state should retain control over atomic energy and the transfer and distribution of electricity. The President specified that "the share of the state in the energy generation by hydroelectric stations will not be reduced and private capital will be attracted only to a small sector of heat energy generation." He also noted they would balance the difference in payments for energy between residents and industrial facilities and increase electricity prices for residents, however, only as incomes of the latter grew.