On March 1, Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs, State Duma of the Russian Federation Konstantin Kosachev spoke on the topic "Russia's Presidency at the G8: Energy Security and Other Foreign Policy Priorities for 2006" at the Geneva Center for Security Policy. The public discussion with Konstantin Kosachev was held in the framework of the European Training Course in Security Policy co-directed by the PIR Center Director Vladimir Orlov. The discussion was attended by the diplomatic community in Geneva, UN staff, academia, NGOs, the media and the general public.

In his speech, Konstantin Kosachev considered the issues of energy security. In particular, he commented on the President Vladimir Putin’s article "The Upcoming G8 Summit in St. Petersburg: Challenges, Opportunities, and Responsibility", which among other things pointed to “energy egoism” as a road to nowhere. “I think this is a reasonable and adequate way of presenting a problem”, - Konstantin Kosachev stated in this regard. “Many regions of the world do not have an adequate access to energy supplies, it is in the interest of developed states to overcome this disbalance”, - the Russian lawmaker added.

Energy security issues will be among the themes of the international conference "G8 Global Security Agenda: Challenges & Interests. Towards the St.-Petersburg Summit", organized by PIR Center on April 20-22, 2006 in the context of Russia's G8 Presidency.

More information on the Conference you can find at the Conference website: http://www.pircenter.org/g8conference/eng

• Provisional Agenda can be found here;
• Sponsorship opportunities can be found here.

More information on Russia's G8 Presidency you can find at the PIR Center website, Summit 2006 section: http://www.pircenter.org/G8_2006/eng/index_e.html.

For comments by PIR Center experts on the Iranian nuclear issue, please, contact PR Manager - Press Secretary to the Director Ekaterina Soroka by phone 7-495-234-0525 or e-mail soroka@pircenter.org.