14 Jul 2009 20:23

Russian deputy PM: no nation can beat effects of financial crisis single-handedly

MUNICH. July 14 (Interfax) - Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov on Tuesday called for international cooperation in dealing with the world financial crisis and for extensive public action in combating the crisis.

"Today we have a clear realization of an 'autonomous' way in an impasse that can only lead to the crisis getting deeper, moreover to it taking more dangerous forms," Zubkov, who is chairman of the Russian coordinating committee of the St. Petersburg Dialogue forum, said at the opening of a session of the forum in Munich.

"Neither the United States nor China nor Germany" can afford to act single-handedly, he said. "For this reason, we opt for another way, the way of cooperation and mutual assistance, and not within narrow or exclusive but in particularly effective and influential multilateral formats," Zubkov said.

"In a very direct way, the crisis has affected all aspects of society and has brought quite a variety of problems to the surface, for example, social problems and problems in education and healthcare. This 'human dimension' of the crisis, if one may put it that way, is not yet receiving enough attention, we still talk more about stock exchange and financial indexes," he said.

Zubkov said wide-scale public action was essential in tackling the crisis.

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