Medvedev:World Economic Forum 2011

President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland "I believe that the Wikileaks affair should improve the international climate although a number of countries may consider these activities illegal," Medvedev said.Wikileaks revelations may have a positive influence on international relations The president said that Wikileaks information on Russia contained nothing new."I sometimes felt that most Wikileaks revelations were taken from general political websites," he added.According to Medvedev, the Internet connects billions today and no secret is secure against revelation.

During his visit to India, Medvedev told the students at the Indian Institute of Technology that Russia "doesn't give a damn about things being discussed in diplomatic circles while assessing the social processes in our country."

"It is not a secret that when people communicate, they often use very forthright expressions," Medvedev said then, adding that if the similar leak occurred in Russia's Foreign Ministry or security services, the country's partners, including the United States might get very emotional while reading "warm words about themselves."
In late November, WikiLeaks began releasing a huge number of confidential U.S. diplomatic cables that contain, in particular, forthright comments about many world leaders.

"What should I be afraid of? It is the officials of the U.S. Department of State who should be afraid," Medvedev said. "If I was afraid of what is written about me, I would never use the Internet or watch TV."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he was ready to sign a law on ratification of a new START treaty and urged the United States to continue joint efforts aimed at further strategic arms reduction.

Both houses of the Russian parliament have ratified the new arms reduction deal between Russia and the United States, paving the way for the president to sign the ratification into a law.

"When I come back from Davos, the text of the ratified treaty will be put on my table," Medvedev said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

The president added that he had already agreed with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama on how to exchange the instruments of ratification.

"However, we must not stop at that and continue our efforts in reduction of strategic offensive weapons and limitations in a related area of missile defense," Medvedev said.

The new arms reduction pact, replacing START 1, which expired in December 2009, was signed by Medvedev and Obama in Prague in April, 2010. The document slashes the Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals to a maximum of 1,550 nuclear warheads, down from the current ceiling of 2,200.

The U.S. Senate ratified the deal on December 22, 2010, but added several amendments to the resolution on ratification, including a demand to build up U.S. global missile defenses.

Russian lawmakers also added some provisions to the ratification document and issued two supplementary statements to the resolution on ratification of the agreement.