President Dmitry Medvedev has vowed the modernization of Russia will continue unabated, even after he leaves the Kremlin, presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said on Saturday.
Medvedev made the comments during talks with business representatives on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hawaii.
“There were questions linked to the Russian elections,” Dvorkovich said. “What the situation was, what should be expected and with who, and would those polices that have been carried out in recent years be continued, in particular the creation of Skolkovo and the Moscow financial centre.”
“The president said that he would…move into the government and would carry on these things and there was in no way any plan to disrupt this process. We intend to realize them completely, in cooperation with those companies that were here today,” he added.
Medvedev is set to become Russia’s prime minister after elections in March 2012, swapping places with his mentor Vladimir Putin, who is widely expected to win a third term in the Kremlin.
The talks included the heads of companies such as Google, JohnsonJohnson, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Russian energy giant Gazprom.
The modernization of Russia, which has seen the launch of a project to create the high-tech Skolkovo hub near Moscow, has been a hallmark of Medvedev’s term of office.
Medvedev will meet with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama later in the day to discuss missile defense issues on the sidelines of the summit.