Medvedev Will Make Economic Pitch to G8.

(From The Moscow Times)

The Group of Eight summit in Japan next week will be a global coming out party of sorts for Dmitry Medvedev, as the new president is expected to offer his take on global economic problems and their possible solutions.

Medvedev, who has been in office just two months and, at 42, is the youngest of the G8 leaders, will announce a Russian contribution possibly over $100 million to the fight against the global food crisis and lay out his vision for a new international financial system in which Russia would play a key role.

While global problems like climate change and poverty will provide a platform for grand statements, as always, the devil will be in the details or in his case, in a series of bilateral meetings with heads of G8 states, analysts said.

The thorny issue of the Kuril Islands, which Japan claims as its own Northern Territories, is likely to be discussed one on one with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, while a dispute surrounding the joint British-Russian venture TNK-BP will probably be discussed during Medvedev's first meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Medvedev's top economic aide Arkady Dvorkovich said Thursday.

U.S. President George W. Bush, attending his last G8 Summit before leaving office in January, is under pressure from a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to address the need to open global energy markets, an idea Russia doesn't particularly like.

"This debut for Medvedev will be very important," said Alexei Malashenko a senior analyst with Carnegie Moscow Center, adding that the bilateral meetings would offer the best clues as to whether the G8 leaders "take a liking" to the new president.