Russia's Ivanov gets star billing at key forum

MOSCOW, June 10 (Reuters) Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, tipped as a possible successor to President Vladimir Putin, praised his main rival Sergei Ivanov at a big investment forum today.

Medvedev's endorsement of Ivanov, who also has the title First Deputy Prime Minister, as well as Ivanov's higher profile at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, fuelled recent speculation that Ivanov could be the most likely official candidate in next year's presidential election.

''Suggestions made in the speech of First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov seem to me a continuation of the line which has proved itself well in the last few years,'' Medvedev told CEOs of international companies.

Ivanov was the keynote speaker on the first day of Russia's International Economic Forum in St Petersburg and later that day gave a big news conference, which was attended by some of the Russian reporters from the Kremlin journalists' pool.

Ivanov pledged to use foreign investment, state sponsorship and open trade to make Russia one of the world's top five economies by 2020.

Medvedev, a former St Petersburg lawyer who was made responsible for big state projects in health, housing and agriculture aimed at improving life for ordinary Russians in the run-up to the election, did not give a news conference or make a major plenary speech in St Petersburg.

Medvedev told international CEOs before a closed-door meeting that current economic policy was good because it had helped to achieve stability.

FLUENT He also praised a speech by Yegor Gaidar, the architect of painful reforms in the 1990s, about potential risks for the Russian economy.

''We need to be tough about continuing the economic policy that was designed in the previous years,'' Medvedev said.

Unlike Ivanov, who spoke with CEOs in fluent English throughout the meeting and even said a few words in Swedish to CEO's from Scandinavia, Medvedev made his speech in Russian.

''I think Ivanov's English was excellent,'' said James Quigley, CEO of Deloitte.

''I spoke with him in Norwegian and he answered in Swedish, his Swedish is at a good colloquial level,'' said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, CEO of Norway' telecoms firm Telenor.

The only thing Medvedev said in English was a repetition of his line from a Davos World Economic Forum: ''Freedom is better than non-freedom.'' During the meeting Medvedev was flanked by influential Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.

Foreign CEOs who met the two leading candidates to succeed Putin were tight-lipped about details of their meetings, most of which were closed for the media at the CEOs' request.

''They are different individuals, they have different areas of responsibilities, I would say they were both equally open, candid, articulate and honest,'' said Michael White, Chairman and Chief Executive of PepsiCo International.

''I see that there is a strong will to open up and create a more democratic society, to have greater transparency for foreign investors,'' said Anders Igel, CEO of TeliaSonera, Nordics telecoms group.

REUTERS SLD RK2001