MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. ambassador to Russia William Burns told a State Duma session dedicated to Russian-American relations Thursday that Washington should better recognize the importance of Russia's interests in the former Soviet republics.
Addressing the lower chamber's international affairs committee, Burns said Russia maintained very close cultural, historical, linguistic and economic ties with the former Soviet republics and had retained vital interests in the region. He also said the United States should understand that while pursuing its own national interests.
At the same time, Burns said the U.S. did not intend to expand the zone of its strategic interests at Russia's expense and that two countries' goals in the region coincided.
He also said the Russian-U.S. bilateral agreement on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) might be signed before the end of the year.
Burns said the U.S. and Russia had made significant progress at WTO talks and cited an agreement on intellectual property rights as an example.
Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachev said U.S. capital investment in Russia's economy had plummeted from 28% in 1995 to 4%, whereas the EU's investment share jumped from 29% to 70%.
"This is largely a consequence of a big number of restrictions on trade with Russia still existing in American legislation like the notorious Jackson-Vanik amendment and rather strict restrictions on hi-tech product exports," Kosachev said.
Burns also touched on another sensitive issue, a recent adoption scandal involving the death of a Russian child at the hands of her American adoptive mother. He urged closer cooperation to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
He said the United States and Russia should step up post-adoption control over children, conduct more thorough checks of potential adoptive families and toughen selection criteria, but noted that Washington would not impose a moratorium on adopting Russian children.
