Quotes by Igor Shuvalov

“The USA is the biggest difficulty for us now.”

“It is clear that bird flu will bring appalling statistics to the economies. The epidemic must not be allowed to evolve into a pandemic, this is the most important thing.”

“In the law on subsoil use there will only be four deposits with limited access [to them]. The rest will be open to foreign companies working in joint ventures with Russian companies.”

“We need European and all foreign companies to be able to invest in upstream in Russia, and for Russian companies to be able to invest in downstream to provide transparency. Companies need to have a right to invest openly without any restrictions imposed by the state.”

“We share the tenets of the Energy Charter Treaty, and will be ready to ratify it after we have coordinated previously agreed amendments with our partners.”

“Our European partners ... promised to amend the document immediately.”

“We do not want to create the impression that we are refusing to ratify [the treaty], and we believe we can fully meet our international commitments. But we will not ratify the Energy Charter until it has been amended.”

“The proposed bill will only restrict access to four mineral deposits, while in all other cases foreign companies will be able to create joint ventures with Russian firms.”

“Above all, we are interested in the mutual ownership of assets, for one, when foreign companies own part of extraction in Russia, while Russian companies own part of processing industries in Europe.”

“Having this tension is okay, its a problem with any growth.”