President Vladimir Putin flatly rejected on Thursday Western criticism of the imprisonment of the Pussy Riot punk protest band, saying its three female members deserved their fate because they threatened the moral foundations of Russia.
During a two-hour dinner conversation with a group of foreign Russia experts, Putin spent most of his time carefully explaining how his country was trying to improve the business climate and diversify the economy away from its heavy dependence on oil and gas by promoting high-tech industries.
The Kremlin chief said he had “mixed feelings” about a US$55 billion state-sponsored takeover of the country’s number three private oil producer TNK-BP last week because it increased state-controlled Rosneft’s domination of the energy sector.
But Putin said he acted to help BP and put an end to “fistfights” between the British oil major and its four Soviet-born oligarch partners. “We tried not to get involved, but when BP managers came to me and the government and said we want to cooperate with Rosneft, we could not say no,” said Putin. Rosneft is run by a longtime close Putin ally, Igor Sechin, and the deal will give BP a stake of nearly 20 per cent.
Putin said he was implementing new laws and reforming the courts to reach a target of moving Russia up from its 112th place in the annual World Bank rankings for ease of doing business – below Pakistan - to a top 20 place by 2018.
But the president, now in his 13th year running Russia, became animated only when asked about Pussy Riot during the seven-course meal with the Valdai Club of foreign journalists and academics at his Stalin-era residence in a wooded compound outside Moscow.