Official website of the President of Russia

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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President,

I am pleased to see you again. Some very positive changes have taken place over this time, over the period since you became head of the World Bank. It has started to focus a lot more on the goals set out in its charter, and the programme adopted under your leadership is without any doubt in keeping with global development objectives.

The number of problems in the world is as high as ever and you know them very well. I am referring to the global financial crisis and the food crisis. Of course the World Bank must respond to these situations, and we think that a number of the initiatives you have formulated are of interest. I think that we can talk about these issues and also discuss the longstanding programmes that the Russian Federation and the World Bank have been involved in together.

President of The World Bank Robert Zoellick: First of all, Mr President, I want to thank you for finding the time to meet with my colleagues and I. You perhaps don’t remember now, but we met a year ago when I was still working for Goldman Sachs.

Dmitry Medvedev: How can I forget! This was what I began with.

Robert Zoellick: Since then, we have both changed jobs, and I think you have done better. Congratulations.

Once again, thank you very much for giving us this time. I think that we are working in what are very interesting times for Russia and for the relations between Russia and the World Bank.

First of all, I want to start by saying how well you and your colleagues have done in terms of the economic growth results you have achieved. During our meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister we discussed promising future areas for our work, your plans, and the possibilities for future cooperation. We also talked about the Russian Federation’s role in the world economy. Thank you very much.