Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed closer economic links between Russia and the European Union that would eventually lead to establishing a free-trade zone stretching “from Lisbon to Vladivostok.”
The response to the financial crisis should be a “joint continental market,” particularly in heavy industry and energy, Putin wrote in a commentary published today in German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Putin is on a visit to Germany for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and business leaders tomorrow.
