Putin's PR

It's Public Relations Week at the Kremlin. Yukos, Klebnikov, Chechnya, the list goes on...

RUSSIA

PUTIN CALLS ON AMBASSADORS TO IMPROVE RUSSIA'S IMAGE... Speaking at the Foreign Ministry at a convocation of 160 Russian ambassadors 12 July, President Vladimir Putin urged Russian diplomats to respond to attempts from abroad to "discredit" Russia, ORT and other Russian media reported. "The image of Russia in the countries [you work in] is far removed from reality," Putin said. "Quite often there are managed campaigns aimed at compromising our country and the damage from such campaigns is obvious both for the state and Russian businesses." Putin added that the priorities of Russian foreign policy remain the CIS, the European Union, the United States, and the Asian-Pacific region. As far as the CIS is concerned, Russian diplomacy should reject the notion "that nobody except [Russia] can lay claim to leadership in this area," he said. Such ideas are both "illusory and mistaken -- the extension of the EU and NATO create a new geopolitical reality" that must be considered in formulating Moscow's foreign policy. Putin added that good relations with U.S. officials are not enough for a "sustainable partnership" and called for cooperating with "broader circles" of the American public. VY

...ANNOUNCES REORGANIZATION OF FOREIGN MINISTRY. President Putin also told the diplomats that he has signed a decree to reform the Foreign Ministry, making it more "lean and compact" and at the same time increasing the salaries and benefits of diplomats, ORT reported. According to the decree, the number of deputy foreign ministers will be reduced from 12 to seven, the number of Foreign Ministry
departments from 42 to 35, and the central staff of the ministry will decrease from some 3,500 to 3,048 people. Putin said these changes are being made within the framework of the administrative reform of the federal government. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and former Prime Minister Yevgenii Primakov, who served as foreign minister from 1996-98, accompanied Putin to the meeting. VY

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