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Vladimir Putin: Hello Semyon Mikhailovich.

Semyon Vainshtok: Hello.

Vladimir Putin: Please go ahead.

Semyon Vainshtok: I would like to report on executing the tasks that you laid out four years ago and on finishing the construction of the Baltic Pipeline System. The System has now reached a record – 65 million tons of oil per year.

I would like to point out at once the quality with which this project was executed. We received both an international certificate and an environmental certificate – we paid a great deal of attention to the environment. This is one of the best ports in Europe and not only in our opinion, also in the opinion of foreign environmentalists. So it is with great pleasure that I am reporting to you on the execution of this task.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you and all of those who worked on implementing this project. This is a good result.

Semyon Vainshtok: Thank you.

If possible, today I would like to talk about the fact that right now there are a great many problems connected with unauthorized gas diversion. And the punishment provided for in Russian law is not commensurate with the crime. This is a serious problem and not only for our company; there are significant environmental consequences from systematic oil spills which unfortunately happen along our pipelines. In the last year alone there were a thousand unauthorized instances of gas diversion. Our security services and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have done a great deal of work and they have certainly helped contain the problem to some degree. But the problem is that our services stop the people involved in this business again and again, committing these very same crimes. For this reason today I would like you to listen to and look over my proposals for possible changes to the Criminal Code that would apply in these situations.

Vladimir Putin: All right. Why don't you formulate your proposals and I will formulate the corresponding orders for the government And together with the legislators we shall definitely think about how we should act so as to protect our pipelines more effectively in the future.

We must think both about protecting and about developing, something you talked about in the first part of your report. We talked about development. And this is definitely a big step forward in developing infrastructure, increasing Russia's participation in world markets. And this is our country's contribution to resolving global energy problems, those problems that we are going to try and resolve with our colleagues at the G8 summit in July in St Petersburg. And , incidentally, new and very powerful facilities for oil transportation are located not far from where we will meet. I repeat, for our country this is a big step forward and a significant contribution to resolving international energy problems. And protecting transportation is a separate theme. Let's talk about it in more detail.