Medvedev says Russian economy should unhinge itself from oi/gas dependence.

WASHINGTON, April 14 (Itar-Tass) -- Depth of Russia's economic slide
in teh course of the current financial crisis became an unpleasant
surprise, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday in a speech at
the Brookings Institution, where he came after the end of the world
nuclear summit.
"I was really astonished by what happened in Russia during the global
economic crisis because the depth of the economy's slide proved to be
bigger than I might have thought," Medvedev said. "Another unpleasant
surprise was the degree of our practical dependence on our natural
resources, and it was precisely this that prompted me to launch the course
at technology modernization."
"Had it not been for the crisis, we would have continued for quites
some time to vest trust in the big prices of crude oil and natural gas,"
he said.
"This crisis should change the entire paradigm of economic thinking in
Russia," Medvedev said. "Unfortunately, it hasn't changed so far."
"Many businessmen -- and rank-and-file people too -- are looking
forward to a return of big prices for crude but the problem is that the
prices will start reducing in a few years' time all the same because the
economy has a cyclical nature ," Medvedev said.
"We must use this crisis and I'd like to do this as soon as possible,"
he said.
Medvedev also recalled that energy revolutions occur once in about 50
tyears. "I think the energy sector will be different in thirty to fifty
years from now, and that's why it'd be too short-sighted on our part to
pin hopes on our huge reserves of oil and gas," he said.
Medvedev also pointed out his idea to continue breaking up the
traditions of Russian bureaucracy and its traditional estrangement from
the people with the aid of information technologies.
One of the attendees asked him about the use of modern communication
tools and, more specifically, whether U.S. President Barack Obama send
e-mail messages to each other.
"We don't but that's a good idea," Medvedev said. "It takes time for a
paper to pass from one aide to another. It's much better to arrange a
couple of i-phone and send SMS to each other."
"I quite fond of such things and I think Barack Obama like them, too,"
he said.
Medvedev spoke about the dramatic changes that telecommunication tools
have changed human habits in the 21st century. In part, while in the past
he personally would begin every morning with reading newspapers or
watching TV, now the Internet has replaced all of this.
"You can find newspapers there, Russian and foreign news media - both
the ones that love the Russian President and the others that hate him," he
said.
"That's important because I don't get a polished picture of reality
and this produces a direct result," Medvedev said.
He said that he personally reads in the worldwide web about the
problems that rank-and-file people have to come to grips with and in a
number of cases he instructs the ministries to resolve a problem. Regional
governors are copying from this eperience, too.
"Unfortunately, red-tape traditions have a centuries-old dimension, as
the government has always put itself much higher than the people," he said.
Communications via the internet help break up the redtapers' habits,
Medvedev said.