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I want to emphasize this: the attention we have recently devoted to the economy is due not to an intention to set new records in producing metals, oil, cement, machine tools or other products. The main thing is to make life better for people. There is no goal more important to us. This year alone the decision was made to raise the salaries of several categories of engineers and technicians, to improve the material status of a considerable number of retired people, to allocate annually, free of charge, about 1 million plots of land for planting orchards, for people to have what you call a "second home." We are planning many other steps as well. Their scope will naturally depend on progress in the economy. Of late, positive changes have become evident: the rates of industrial production and labor productivity have increased.
You ask what changes in the world economy could be of benefit to the Soviet Union. First of all, although this belongs more to politics than economics, an end to the arms race. We would prefer to use every ruble that today goes for defense to meet civilian, peaceful needs. As I understand, you in the U.S. could also make better use of the money consumed nowadays by arms production. While insisting on cessation of the arms race, we also believe it immoral to waste hundreds of billions on developing means of annihilation, while hundreds of millions of people go hungry and are deprived of the elementary essentials. We, all of us, just have no right to ignore the situation.
Q. The Soviet Union is anxious to gain better access to advanced technology developed in the U.S. How badly is this needed in the Soviet Union, and primarily for what purpose? If the U.S. does not provide greater access, where do you intend to turn to obtain this technology?
A. The very way you are framing the question gives food for thought. Is there anyone who is not anxious nowadays to gain access to advanced technology? Everyone is, including the U.S.--even primarily the U.S. I mean not only the legal purchase of licenses and science-intensive goods or illegal industrial espionage. The U.S. practices its own specific methods as well. The brain drain, for example, and not only from Western Europe but from the developing countries as well. Or take the activities of transnational corporations, which through their subsidiaries are laying their hands on scientific and technological achievements of other countries.