Medvedev bemoans Russia’s investment climate

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday the country’s investment environment is still woeful and needs to be improved as a matter of urgency. “I think that our investment climate is bad. We have plenty of achievements but as for the investment climate, it is bad,” he said at a meeting with ruling United Russia party activists. “It needs to be drastically improved with incentives provided both to Russian and foreign business.” There are standard principles of doing business in civilized countries, he said, adding that the priority was to reduce administrative barriers. Business also needs stability, the president said, and this is precisely what United Russia is to ensure. His remarks echo those by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who said on Thursday that political stability was just as important as macroeconomic stability. Putin, who is going to run for president in March 2012, said the state must not supersede business and private initiative needs to be given “more room to maneuver.”