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Empresas y finanzas

Russia's Medvedev says freedom and legal reform key


    KRASNOYARSK, Russia (Reuters) - Russian First Deputy Prime Minister and presidential candidate Dmitry Medvedev on Friday said freedom, private property and an independent judiciary would be the central platforms of his administration.

    Speaking at the fifth annual Krasnoyark Economic forum inSiberia, Medvedev, heavily favoured to win on March 2 tosucceed his mentor Vladimir Putin, laid out his priorities aspresident.

    "One of the key elements of our work in the next four yearswill be ensuring the independence of our legal system from theexecutive and legislative branches of power," he said.

    Medvedev, 42, spoke more of the development of socialwelfare projects than international affairs or the resurrectionof Russian military power, themes Putin addresses regularly,and also of the need to fight endemic corruption.

    "We must exclude law breaking from among the habits thatour citizens have in their activities. To make it so that it nolonger enriches some while demeaning others.

    "What kind of equal opportunity and innovative thinking canthere be if everybody knows that rights only belong to thosewith the sharpest teeth, and not those who obey the law," hesaid.

    (Reporting by Moscow bureau; writing Chris Baldwin; editingby Janet Lawrence)