Putin discusses economic issues ahead of summits The Russians were eager for Obama to arrive early for meetings with Putin, and the two presidents also plan to meet at the beginning of next week on the sidelines of the G8 meeting in Northern Ireland. At the end of the week, Putin speaks at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), a Davoslike event meant to discuss global economic issues while luring investors to Russia. Russia and the United States have well-publicized differences - over Syria, missile defense and U.S. support of democracy. Both agree, however, that economic ties should be fully developed. The United States has made that a policy priority, helping to usher Russia into the World Trade Organization and granting it Permanent Normal Trade Relations. This week, Putin answered written questions about economic issues from Russia's RIA Novosti News Agency, which shared its translation of the transcript with The Washington Post. Q: You are going to the G8 summit not only as the head of one of the member states, but also as the leader of the country presiding in the G20 this year. In your opinion, is the G8 format still viable? Would you like to propose to your colleagues to divide the issues between the G20 and the G8, focusing the former on economic issues and the latter on political ones? Could you right now define the general vector of the agenda which will be proposed by Russia during its presidency in the G8 next year? A: You are right, at the Lough Erne summit, Russia acts in a special capacity: not only as the current president of the Group of 20, but also as the future president of the Group of Eight. Therefore, we have a special responsibility: We will have to coordinate the activities of the two forums this year, and in 2014 we will continue the work begun by our British colleagues at the same high level. In my opinion, which is shared by our partners, the G8 is quite viable. Russia is actively participating in that club; it is thanks to us that not only developed Western states, but also fast-growing countries, which play an increasingly prominent role in global politics and economy, have a voice there. Discussions held within the framework of the G8 are characterized by depth and trust, which allows [us] to constructively solve many issues, even the most acute political ones. For example, in Lough Erne we plan to talk about the situation in Syria, the Middle East and North Africa, Afghanistan and so on. We expect that the results of this discussion will be useful. One more characteristic feature of the G8 is that it traditionally pays great attention to promoting international development, first of all in Africa, provides assistance to underdeveloped countries. By the way, the concept of such assistance is significantly changing today. The G8 is engaged in direct dialogue and interaction with these states; the G8 looks for key problems and works on joint action programs to solve them.