G8 summit to be dominated by education, energy security - Putin's aide
01.01.70
Text of report by Russian external TV service NTV Mir on 18 April
[Presenter] The problems of education and energy security will be closely linked at the forthcoming G8 summit, scheduled to take place in St Petersburg this summer. The president's aide and his personal representative for G8 matters, Igor Shuvalov, who appears in public extremely rarely, was explaining today why Moscow had offered to link these two subjects - this is to do with an ambitious task to re-orientate the Russian economy.
[Shuvalov] Russia is the only country which has such huge hydrocarbon resources, on the one hand. On the other hand, it has a great important history of higher education, professional education, which exists now in the Russian Federation. These are, of course, Russia's pre-revolution traditions and higher education in the Soviet Union, and what we have now.
We are showing that Russia, with its tradition of innovation, can and must convert its economy in the next few years from a raw-material one to one which will be based on knowledge.
[Presenter] Shuvalov said that, moreover, in the near future Russia is planning to pay special attention to the development of the nuclear energy sector. The president's aide agreed that this is potentially dangerous for the environment. He stressed that the authorities will be prepared to take into account all recommendations by civil society.