President Putin said that Maurice Greenberg was known in Moscow not only from a description by Yevgeny Primakov, head of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who was present at the meeting, but also from the work of his corporation. President Putin said he knew that AIG was active on the American market and had extensive mortgage experience. He noted that this experience was taken into account when appropriate Russian documents were prepared. But, as President Putin said, Russia had other areas, too, that could be of interest to American partners.
President Putin said he expected US businessmen to help create a favourable climate for economic relations between the two countries. He stressed that at his meeting with George W. Bush in September, he would focus on economic cooperation.
He said the investment process between Russia and the US was becoming a two-way street. He recalled that a Russian company had recently bought a controlling stake in an American company producing platinum group metals. He expressed hope that mutual investment cooperation would continue, and noted that the US was, unfortunately, only ranked eighth for investment in Russia last year.
Mr Greenberg thanked Mr Putin for finding the time to meet him and said that in the past few years his group had invested more than $30 million in the Russian economy. He said that AIG was one of the world’s largest aircraft leasing companies and stressed that the corporation also did business in Russia.
AIG is an American insurance and financial corporation and one of the top ten financial and banking institutions in the world. Its companies have been providing a wide spectrum of insurance, investment and financial services for several years now in Russia.