OREANDA-NEWS. September 11, 2009. Transcript of the meeting's beginning: Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am happy to be able to meet with you again. I welcome everyone and would like to say at the beginning of our meeting that there are people who seem to be unaffected by the global financial and economic crisis. I am referring to journalists, editors-in-chief and political analysts who look well fed and well dressed. You are still going strong, aren't you? This is a good sign showing that [changes in the situation] will gradually have a positive effect on other sectors and other people.

This past year saw a multitude of different events and newsbreaks. However, we feel that you as professionals dealing with Russia pay special attention to these problems. In fact, many of you have spent many years of your lives on this. Getting first-hand information is an interesting profession.

For our part, my colleagues and I find meetings with you very instructive, as your questions spotlight things that present the biggest challenges and are therefore the most interesting. Just analysing the questions you ask offers rich food for thought.

In addition, it is good to listen to your opinions, which you express one way or another when you formulate your questions, to compare them to our views and to adjust our policy, plans and action.

Like last year, this meeting is taking place on September 11, the day when the United States and the rest of the world suffered a big tragedy - the terrorist attack on the United States. The number of victims was incredible. Like several years ago, we mourn their demise.

You know that we in Russia have recently marked the Day for the Victims of Terrorist Attacks; it was on September 3. Russia knows what terrorism is probably better than many other countries.

I view this as one more reminder of the importance of forgetting about differences and disputes, and uniting our forces in the fight against common challenges.

By the way, you know that I have recently been to Gdansk at the invitation of the Polish Prime Minister, where our Polish friends marked an anniversary of the beginning of World War Two. The lessons of that war show that there is nothing as important as a common struggle against common challenges. All of us must closely analyse the situation and respond accordingly.

If the world's leading powers had managed to rise above their ambitions, fears and complaints in that pre-war period, global history could have taken a different turn.

I mentioned the global financial and economic crisis earlier. It is a unique phenomenon, as has been said often, but I must emphasise it again: it is a unique phenomenon; the global economy has never experienced such a crisis before. This crisis has spread to all countries and has affected all of them, to a greater or lesser degree.

The crisis has affected Russia very seriously. However, we see nascent stabilisation in the country, beginning in June, and economic growth, even if modest, of 1% monthly since June.

We know that European countries have recorded similar trends, especially Germany and France. Revival has started in the euro zone. The United States still has major problems with non-performing loans and mortgages. The situation has not stabilized there, and falling real estate prices are still a major threat. However, the US economy is also seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We expect these positive trends to grow stronger.

I will be happy to discuss all of these issues with you, and also as they pertain to Russia. This is all I wanted to say for now. As has become the tradition at these meetings, I will be glad to answer your questions and will try to provide exhaustive and comprehensive answers to them.

Svetlana Mironyuk: Mr Putin, please allow me to thank you, as an organiser of this meeting and on behalf of all members of the club, for this chance to meet with you again and to hear you answer our questions. This is our sixth meeting, I'm afraid. I say I'm afraid because it seems we first met only yesterday - or the day before yesterday.

This year's conference convened 45 political analysts form 15 countries. There are some new members, new colleagues from Germany, Hungary, Poland and Turkey.

This year we are in Yakutia. The motto was "Russia-West: Back to the Future." The club's four panels highlighted relations between Russia and the West, and discussed the new European architecture, asking each other if the Cold War has really ended and if the nuclear reset button has been pressed or not.

I think our colleagues will put forth their opinions and viewpoints in their questions, and will elaborate on them.

Please allow me, on behalf of the forum's organisers, to give the floor to former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller.

Vladimir Putin: Of course.

Leszek Miller: Thank you. Mr Prime Minister, Gazeta Wyborcza published an article you contributed to before your visit to Poland. That article was important not only for Polish-Russian relations but also, I think, for global politics.

You wrote that historical reconciliation between France and Germany paved the way for creating the European Union, and this is indeed so. In turn, partnership between Russia and Germany has become a good example of the ability to overcome difficult memories and develop cooperation.

The fact that Polish-Russian relations are currently complicated is an unpalatable paradox for my compatriots and me. These relations must be improved. It is important that your article should become the beginning and not the end of a long process.

Much has been said and written about your visit, and many of these opinions clash with each other. This is normal. But tell me please, what was the most important thing to you in Poland? And what is your impression of your visit?

Vladimir Putin: Most important when? During the visit, or when the decision to make the visit to Poland was made?

Leszek Miller: In general.

Vladimir Putin: The most important thing to me was to once again - I want to stress it - once again show the Polish people and society that Russia wants and intends to develop relations with Poland as a friendly state.

I believe that the attempts to use past problems to influence current political needs of certain political forces in any country are counterproductive. In fact, this is an attempt to use problems from our common history for mercenary purposes. We do not protest the proposal to once again analyse developments in Europe and the rest of the world before World War II. But we would like to see objective assessment, so that objectivity would help us to rise above common complaints, join hands and march on.

It was not easy for me to speak about some things while in Poland, because I was a guest. But I think it would be wrong and, I repeat, harmful to pretend not to notice them. We are talking about the events that eventually led to the beginning of World War II. In my article, I - I see that your have read it, and I am grateful to you for drawing our attention to it. One of the main ideas of that article is that the world order created after World War I was faulty. The Treaty of Versailles not only sealed Germany's status, but placed the German people in a humiliating position. One must not humiliate nations, especially such a great nation as Germany.