Germany aims for a cooperative relationship with newly inaugurated Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a newspaper interview published Thursday. "I wish the new president, Dimitry Medvedev, everything of the best and good luck. I am looking forward to cooperating with him," Merkel told the Passauer Neue Presse. Merkel also said that she had "a very constructive and direct relationship" with Medvedev's predecessor, Vladimir Putin. Putin was confirmed prime minister on Thursday, May 8, in a near unanimous parliamentary vote that underscored his continued power, one day after passing the Kremlin to his protege Medvedev. "We will continue to cooperate in the future in his new role as prime minister," Merkel said, while also acknowledging that there were differences of opinion.
"I wish the new president, Dimitry Medvedev, everything of the best and good luck. I am looking forward to cooperating with him," Merkel told the Passauer Neue Presse.
Merkel also said that she had "a very constructive and direct relationship" with Medvedev's predecessor, Vladimir Putin.
Putin was confirmed prime minister on Thursday, May 8, in a near unanimous parliamentary vote that underscored his continued power, one day after passing the Kremlin to his protege Medvedev.
"We will continue to cooperate in the future in his new role as prime minister," Merkel said, while also acknowledging that there were differences of opinion.
MOSCOW: The Russian Parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly confirmed Vladimir Putin as prime minister, completing his managed departure from the presidency in a manner that leaves him the country's dominant politician and with a firm grip on power. Putin received 392 votes in the 450-seat Duma, the lower house of Parliament, before a resolution confirming his new post was handed to his protégé and presidential successor, Dmitri Medvedev, who promptly accepted it. Fifty-six members of Parliament voted against the appointment, all of them Communists, whose party leader issued a scathing assessment Thursday of Putin's eight years as president. The dissenting speech was broadcast live on national television, an unusual event in a country where criticism of Putin has been blocked from television for years.
MOSCOW: The Russian Parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly confirmed Vladimir Putin as prime minister, completing his managed departure from the presidency in a manner that leaves him the country's dominant politician and with a firm grip on power.
Putin received 392 votes in the 450-seat Duma, the lower house of Parliament, before a resolution confirming his new post was handed to his protégé and presidential successor, Dmitri Medvedev, who promptly accepted it.
Fifty-six members of Parliament voted against the appointment, all of them Communists, whose party leader issued a scathing assessment Thursday of Putin's eight years as president.
The dissenting speech was broadcast live on national television, an unusual event in a country where criticism of Putin has been blocked from television for years.
