Romney’s Victory in U.S. Election May Lead to Bigger Arms Spending – Dvorkovich

YALTA. Sept 15 (Interfax) – Russia is seriously concerned about the anti-Russian comment of Republican Party candidate Mitt Romney, which may have a series of undesirable consequences, among them an arms race restart, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said at the Russian Future session of the Ninth Annual Yalta Meeting on Saturday.

“If Romney wins, we may have to enlarge the defense budget,” he said.

Investments in the arms race would be counterproductive against the complex economic backdrop, Dvorkovich said.

Another negative consequence is the redistribution of funds in favor of a narrower group of companies in the United States, he noted.

Meanwhile, the Russian government aims to actively cooperate with any U.S. administration, Dvorkovich said.

Sberbank (RTS: SBER) President and CEO German Gref recalled that the U.S. urged the world to start a big dialogue.

“How is it possible to cooperate when the prospective leader tags a country as an adversary?” he wondered.

VTB (RTS: VTBR) President and CEO Andrei Kostin stressed that Russia was not Putin’s totalitarian regime. “Whoever says so understands nothing about Russia,” he said.

While trying to export its values, the United States follows erroneous suit of the Soviet Union, whose attempts to export revolution brought negative consequences, in particular, in Afghanistan, he said.

The tragic events in Libya are rooted, to a large extent, in the disregard of cultural and religious differences and different levels of development, he said.

The reserve currency owner, the U.S. puts sanctions and pressure on financial systems of Europe and other countries, Kostin added.

Dvorkovich said that Russia and other countries had to pay a high price for the U.S. budget deficit and admitted that was necessary under the current economic and financial circumstances.

Romney described Russia as the main geopolitical adversary and a destabilizing force on the international scene.