Czech President ready to establish closer contacts with Russian new-generation politicians

Czech President Vaclav Klaus is ready to establish closer contacts with Russian new-generation politicians, Klaus said in an exclusive RIA Novosti interview on the eve of his trip to St. Petersburg to attend the celebration of the city's 300th anniversary.

"We are fully aware of the fact that for objective reasons our political relations have not been intensive enough since 1989," the Czech president said. However, he added, the situation is becoming stable and Russo-Czech contacts are becoming increasingly intensive now that new-generation politicians have emerged on the Moscow political arena. "I, for one, am ready to make a personal contribution to this," the Czech head of state stressed.

When commenting on the current bilateral relationship, Klaus said that he did not think it necessary to "speed it up artificially." "I don't think politicians could assist this by adopting new declarations or statements. This will hardly help," the Czech president said.

According to the Czech leader, it would be better if people themselves found common points of contact between themselves. "The human resource should be used more actively in all spheres, beginning from personal friendly ties and ending in economic contacts. The economies of both countries will benefit from this," Klaus believes.