Russia saves the world again

Even the United States, which is traditionally considered “Russia’s worst friend”, has decided to “step up a dialogue with the Russian Federation on the key energy issues” within the framework of the G8 agreements. Director of Russian Affairs of U.S. Department of State Mary Warlick sounded quite enthusiastic while speaking about the Russian economy on Wednesday last week. “Russia’s trillion-dollar economy is now the world’s ninth largest economy in terms of value, and inward investment in the Russian economy has exceeded $67 billion over the first half of 2007 – it’s a lot more than the total amount of foreign capital inflow in the first ten years following the collapse of the Soviet Union,” said Mary Warlick. “Russia has more than $400 billion in foreign reserves, that’s the world’s third richest country in terms of foreign reserves,” added Mary Warlick.

	Russia saves the world again
	BREAKING NEWS Israel launches massive military operation against Gaza Strip America chooses its future Russia to retrieve its status of world's strongest superpower
	Astounding photos of planes overcoming sound barrier More...

“Who could foresee this kind of development mere five or six years ago?” said the director of Russian affairs. Warlick also said that “our economic relations are quickly turning into a street with real two-way traffic.” There is logic in the statement since “such U.S. leading companies as Boeing, Conoco-Philips, Exxon Mobil, International Paper, Alcoa, Ford, General Motors” and others “are quickly extending their presence on the Russian market.” Warlick also mentioned “good progress” made in the talks on Russia’s ascension to the WTO.

By and large, our nearby and faraway partners are hopeful about doing business with Russia as the complex crisis of the world economic system unfurls. At times a monkey wrench is thrown in the works (Lukashenko recently imposed restrictions on the export of foreign-made cars, and U.S. Congress resumed looking into some issues related to the Yukos case, for reasons unknown).

It appears that Russia has managed to gather enough evidence to prove its competence as a significant economic power. The efforts of Russia’s current leadership should not be underestimated. Quoting Mary Warlick from Washington would be just to the point: “Who could foresee such a development mere five or six years ago?”

Alexander Radugin
Pravda.ru BigNess

Translated by Guerman Grachev
Pravda.ru

Become a member of Pravda.ru online community