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STOCKHOLM

Putin offers Sweden ‘world best’ nuclear tech

During a visit to Stockholm on Wednesday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered to enhance Sweden's nuclear safety with Russian technology, which he described as the safest in the world.

“At home in Russia, after the Chernobyl tragedy, we gathered enormous experience. Our technology, Russian technology, is the best in the world when it comes to the safety of nuclear plants,” he told a news conference in Stockholm with his Swedish counterpart Fredrik Reinfeldt.

“I am not the only one to think this. The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) thinks the same. At each inspection we receive only minor remarks, and almost none in the field of safety,” he said.

During a morning meeting, Putin and Reinfeldt discussed “the necessity to extend (Russian-Swedish) cooperation in increasing safety in nuclear plants,” Putin explained.

His comments came a day after Russia and Ukraine marked the 25th anniversary of the world’s largest nuclear disaster, sparked by an April 26, 1986 accident at the Chernobyl plant, located in the then-Soviet Ukraine.

The anniversary took place as atomic safety is being questioned following the earthquake and tsunami-sparked nuclear disaster in Japan.

Vladimir Putin furthermore blasted what he perceives as the gulf between words and practice in modern international relations, using an anecdote from his KGB past to denounce civilian deaths in Libya.

“Sometimes I look at the way that today they often take the decision to use

force in international relations. I am stupefied,” he said.

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