President Putin Calls for Change in Economy Structure

The structure of Russia's economy must be changed; there has to be "movement away from the lopsided primary-commodity state into a new high-technology state of the economy," President Vladimir Putin told a meeting of the Presidential Council for Science and High Technology.

The President's opinion is that the nation's science has a potential well beyond the needs of the country's economy. For this reason, he said, there must be talk "of a linkup with the world economy, pushing for a place in the sun for" the academia.

That, the head of state indicated, must become a mission for the Cabinet.

At the moment, noted Putin, it is hard to dispute that the Cabinet is in fact getting its act together, although the results, notably in the economic sphere, "might have been better." The Cabinet's economic team actually acknowledges its errors, the President added.

He went on to point out that if Russia was to move away from lopsided primary-commodity economy, it had to advance science and push for a place for Russian intellectual products on the world markets, where, come to that, they must be sold "not for pennies, but for real money." The head of state then stressed the importance of control in the area. He said he viewed it as a major priority for the Presidential Council for Science that ways be found of creating new functioning of the scientific community.