OREANDA-NEWS. On 17 July 2009 was announced, that recently Oleg Deripaska spoke on several occasions to Western media outlets on topics ranging from situation in the Russian economy to international relations to nuclear energy. Below are some of the comments he made during these encounters.

On Russian - US relations and cooperation

"We did not have enough time to actually learn about each other. I think if someone wants to promote better relations and create opportunity for better understanding, they should start with education. Our kids could go freely in both directions - from United States here to learn science, literature, history. From Russia to the United States to have an opportunity to attend business schools and universities to learn your way of doing business, bioscience, molecular biology, other important disciplines in which the United States are very advanced. It has to be a people oriented opportunity. It will take time".

On nuclear energy development

"Twenty years ago, at the university, one very prominent academician told us: "You will have a great time because in 38 years our civilization will solve the problem of energy". His idea was that we should develop more stable reactor based on pressurized water, then we will develop breeding reactor which uses even more plutonium, then will use gas reactor which creates even higher temperature, then we can break molecular of water into oxygen and hydrogen and have for free an enormous amount of resources based on hydrogen fuel and cell elements. Unfortunately there were many problems - your Three Miles Island, our Chernobyl. And they caused a very bad public perception. That is why most investments got canceled. This academician thought 24 year ago that we need 35-40 years to be able to get to those happy times. Now we actually moved forward maybe 5 years, no more. It will take a lot of time, but there are more opportunities because new technologies are available and we can create smaller reactors. Of course it won't be a case-sized battery but we are on the right track. I think it is important to support the research and it is not so easy because you need to train people. I've been once at General Electric nuclear facility and saw that workers are ageing, average age is over 55 and it is getting higher, the same situation is in Russia. The countries where progress I expect to be achieved rather quickly in the near future are Japan and France".

On crisis, Russian economy and business

[Do you think that Russia has missed its chance to rebuild economy and diversify it?]

"Yes and no. Yes - we could go much faster. Russian cities and economy need modernization. But at the same time, if you look back 18 years, when Russia was Soviet, with Soviet economy, could you imagine such a quick transition from socialist type of society to the present stage? Maybe a lot of things were done wrong but it was peaceful process, it created a lot of opportunities. Maybe it is our fault that we didn't use all these opportunities".

"Today you have to live with very low commodity prices, weak demand, insufficient financing, high cost of financing, and we have to accept that consumption pattern will be different. Even in Russia where we have, maybe, ten times fewer cars per thousand inhabitants than in the United States and we lack important infrastructure".

"We fight waste in terms of environment, in terms of long-term development of infrastructure, project resources. I don't believe that we can grow with the same speed as we were able to grow in the last ten years. We must adjust and fight waste - reduce dependence on resources, make our economy more human, more friendly in terms of environment, in terms of long-term development of infrastructure which would be less harmful to the nature. It is a critical challenge for Russia, for me, for our businesses".

"I believe that we inherited very complex and ineffective infrastructure, civil and business infrastructure from the Soviet Union. It was a planned economy, a lot of bottlenecks, huge waste of resources in terms of energy, raw materials, and we must fix it. We've been perhaps a little bit reluctant to do it more quickly because of high commodity prices and now we should face it and think about environment, about reduction of pollution, about new safety standards. Although the crisis is also a waste of time and opportunity, I think it will create a proper direction. Even the government will be more focused not just on fighting over resources, but also will be more focused on ways to promote business".

[How much worse this crisis can get?]

"The crisis is very severe. Russia suffered a lot. The problem of Russia is that we've been so much dependent on the commodity prices and on the demand for commodity at the international market. And on foreign credit which fueled our growth in the construction, agriculture and other sectors. Unfortunately Russia wasn't prepared for this crisis. It was like a great thunderstorm".

"We are still in the middle of it. Unemployment may hit 15 million people, demand is very weak and Russian economy still needs to find the bottom".

"Today we have to work in the environment where we have low prices for major products and weak demand. We should focus more and more on the Russian domestic market, on how to develop services and products for our needs and this is, I think, the most challenging. We must face this reality and work with this reality".

[Are you optimistic that one day this country and its commodities will be back at the top?]

"I am positive (about the economy) because our companies are very competitive. We've seen sign of support from the banks which are aware of and understand our problem. But I don't believe that prices will come back to the same level".

[How long will the crisis last, in your opinion?]

"I think no less than 5-7 years. I believe that we will be more efficient in terms of cost. The government will adjust the tax regime, will fight furiously with corruption and bureaucracy, otherwise we will see a completely different set-up. People are now more openly discussing what is wrong because it now touches them as well in almost every aspect. I believe that the government will listen to the voice of business, to the voice of people and will adjust".

Problems of one factory towns in Russia

"Someone should care about the business. Someone should care about how to create job opportunities, how to promote small and medium-sized enterprises. It is a task for regional, federal authorities. My task should be to take care about my companies: how to make them profitable,and how to work with low demand, how to cut cost and create a new product, create new opportunities in terms of the markets. Now a lot of regional governors and mayors know that this is their responsibility too and not just a problem of businesses and companies".

"We need small and medium-sized enterprises in service industry, construction, which will use hundreds of opportunities that exist in Russia. We need to build an atmosphere to promote such companies and give them opportunity to employ the people who are very experienced, highly trained and motivated to work. Russian labor resources are highly qualified. We have businesses in more than 25 countries and I can tell you that Russian human resources are very qualified for quite a complex work. It is unfortunate that due to a lack of social and institutional infrastructure, credit resources for small and medium-sized enterprises are not available, there are still a lot of barriers, and the registration process remains complicated. It is a problem of inefficient atmosphere which can't promote private enterprises' growth".

"Regional authorities actually understand now that for them the only chance to survive economically and politically is to promote small and medium-sized businesses, and new investments. This is the only way. When you have a rich budget, you don't care about small companies paying taxes. But the situation has changed. So I think now there is an opportunity for Russia. It won't happen over night, I am afraid it will take 5-7 years, but I hope we can do this".