President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev visited Izhevks, the capital of the Republic of Udmurtia, on November 18. During his working visit to Izevsk he had a meeting with representatives of regional mass media and answered numerous questions of journalists.

A large block of questions related to the financial crisis. In particular Russian President said that due to the world financial crisis next year will be difficult but all programmes initiated by state authorities and funded from the state budget will be fulfilled.

"I wouldn’t want to sign a promissory note to that effect. But I can advise you with total confidence: next year will be very difficult», said Medvedev.

“I personally see this as a definite small advantage, the fact that this began as a global crisis. Perhaps if there is a global pattern it will end quickly enough in almost all countries”, assumed the President.

"This crisis may lead to restrictions, but in principle everything that is already in the state budget should not be sequestered, i.e. withdrawn by any means”, he said.

Besides the head of state answered several questions relating to the amendments to the Russian Constitution aired by Medvedev in his Address to the Federal Assembly.

According to Dmitry Medvedev the decision on accountability of the Government to the State Duma strengthens the powers of the Lower House and provides additional control levers over the decisions made by the Government.

"This does not turn the system into a parliamentary republic. To be honest, I do not think that Russia should be a parliamentary republic. I think this would be fatal for the country. But at the same time, I think it would be good to strengthen the State Duma’s powers, and this would give us additional control levers over the work undertaken in the country and the decisions the Government makes”, pointed out the President.

Speaking about the term of office the Russian President said: "Some would say that very good results can be achieved in four years and that so much can be done in six months that there’d be nowhere left to turn. But nevertheless, looking at the situation in terms of stability, I think it would be fitting for our country in its present stage of development for the President to have a longer term in office. This could five years, six years, seven years. Some countries have had or do have such terms in office, including some of our partners in the CIS”.

Answering the question about further relations with the USA and President-Elect Barack Obama Dmitry Medvedev expressed his hope that the new US administration will be able to look at the Russian-American relations “from a new angle and more pragmatically”.

"I think that the current situation presents us with some good opportunities. On the one hand, we are not starting from scratch. We have a strong traditional basis of good relations with the United States of America… I hope that in many instances the new administration of the United States of America, the new President of the United States, will be able to look at things from a new angle, with eyes wide open, more pragmatically, without any ideological blinkers”, claimed the Russian President.

In the opinion of the head of state it will be enough to build new relations on a stronger basis.

Speaking about the relations between Russia and Georgia Dmitry Medvedev claimed that Russia will not have any contacts with the current Georgian regime.

"As regards the current administration, the current regime, I have this to say: we will have no contact with them because we regard their actions as criminal,” he said. Simultaneously the Russian President emphasized that the Russian Federation will build full relations in every sense with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, including provision of security and deployment of military bases.

"We consider them to be full-fledged countries. They are friendly countries and, it must be confessed, very dependent on us”, Medvedev said.

Besides Medvedev said that he sees nothing dramatic in the fact that as of today only few states recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but their recognition is “a matter of time”.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that he reads not only Russian but also foreign mass media publications, and daily visits at least a dozen of web sites.

"I try to get information from different sources: different television channels, both Russian and foreign, and newspapers. I look at the newspaper in the morning quickly, just dip my hands in, as they say, at breakfast”, said Medvedev.

According to him, he uses also Internet information and looks also at web sites fiercely opposed to the authorities

"So I jump from site to site. To be honest, I have probably a dozen sites that I look at almost every day”, confessed the head of state.

Besides the political and economic issues the Russian President told about his family and spare time.

"What do I prefer to do in my spare time? I hope nobody will be offended if I say that I don’t have that much of it. It’s true. In my spare time, I do try to stay in shape and basically spend it in the gym and the pool”, said Medvedev.

"And of course second is the family, because you have to spend time with those who are related to you. It’s impossible to lead a full life without that”, he pointed out.

For details of the Russian President’s meeting with representatives of regional mass media, please, refer to The Official Site of the Russian President.