Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) at the Cape of Good Hope during an official visit to South Africa on September 6, 2006
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Vladimir Putin Goes to the Cape of Good Hope
Yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin, before flying off to Morocco, was still in Cape Town, South Africa, where he met with representatives of Russian and South African business interests. Still, however, he was not too busy to take a trip out to the Cape of Good Hope. Kommersant's special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov has details.
Yesterday evening Putin was seen in the company of the head of the diamond mining company De Beers, Nicky Oppenheimer. The conversation between Putin and the 60-year-old chairman of De Beers remained a mystery until Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev let slip that De Beers has fallen on somewhat hard times. However, the minister went on to say that he thought that more competition in the global diamond market was not necessarily a bad thing and that subtle pressure on the company from the European Commission had been to good effect. According to Trutnev, Oppenheimer mainly talked with Putin about maintaining De Beers' current level of involvement in Russia.
In a meeting with representatives of Russian and South African business interests, South African President Thabo Mbeki gave an extended speech with many personal references to Mr. Putin. Sandwiched between speeches by Mbeki and Renova Group chairman Victor Vekselberg, Putin's address was brief: he told the South African businessmen that their Russian colleagues will soon be undertaking geological prospecting along the deep-water South African shelf, that they will develop South Africa's mining sector, and that they will refine ore and build an aluminum plant. The South African businessmen listened with some apparent concern at the prospect that someone else would be doing all of this in their country, but Putin kept the mood light.
For the end of his South African trip, Putin visited the Cape of Good Hope, where he rode the funicular railway to the top and had seafood at a local restaurant. The South African Agriculture Minster presented him with a crocodile-skin briefcase, proving that even at the end of the world no one is ever out of touch with the season's fashion trends.
Andrey Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 07, 2006
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