(Xinhua) -- The United States should take the initiative to improve ties with Russia strained by the recent Russian-Georgian conflict over South Ossetia, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.
"In conditions of global crises mutual interests prevail over some contradictions," Putin said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro. "I wait for the relations to improve. They (the United States) marred them, and they should improve them," he said in the interview published Saturday.
Russia and the United States "always would turn out to be together" when global crises emerged, Putin said, noting that the two countries were allies in both WWI and WWII. "Here in Russia, we never forget it. We would also like our U.S. partners to remember that too," he said.
Meanwhile, the Russian premier said the country's gross domestic product (GDP) will be doubled compared to 2003 by the year of 2010. The aim will be achieved in late 2009, or according to other calculations, in the first quarter of 2010, Putin said. "Russia is developing at a rapid pace. In 2003, I said that we set a mid-term goal to double the gross domestic product. And we really are achieving the aim," he said. |