FACTBOX:Key quotes from Russia's Dmitry Medvedev

Tue May 6, 2008 11:12am EDT
 
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Dmitry Medvedev will be sworn in as Russia's president on Wednesday.

The following extracts from Medvedev's speeches and interviews give some indication of the kind of president he may be:

PRIVATE PROPERTY

"Private property is a vital structure. It forms part of a fundamental set of human rights. If we don't learn to respect and protect it the way it is done in the whole world, we will continue living in backwardness and desolation."

OFFICIALS' ROLE IN ECONOMY:

"We have centuries of bureaucratic traditions ... And we have not created the best example of bureaucracies. It is not the most effective bureaucracy. It is a corrupt bureaucracy."

"I have no information that Russian secret services are vying for (national) wealth. And if I receive such information ... such people will be immediately fired and brought to justice."

MEDVEDEV ON MEDVEDEV:

"I have a legal mindset which has pluses and minuses. The advantage is that it enables one to properly formulate aims and helps with decision taking. The disadvantage is that often I speak and explain myself more precisely than required. And from this, there arises the feeling that before you stands a dry man buttoned up to the neck."  Continued...

 

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