DAVOS, Jan 27: Russia's output will this year surpass for the first time the maximum level achieved in the Soviet Union, 15 years after the collapse of the Communist bloc, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday.

“Some say Russia is starting to resemble the Soviet Union,” Medvedev told world business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

“Maybe so,” he added. “Maybe in part this is the case, but only in one area: this year we will reach the maximum level of GDP reached in the Soviet era”. Medvedev, the front runner to succeed President Vladimir Putin in 2008 presidential election, also laid out the economic priorities for the Russian government.

They include a reduction of the dependence on the commodities industry, improving infrastructure and nurturing a high-skilled workforce.

He stressed the need to develop high-tech processing of natural resources, the aerospace sector, and boost exports of intellectual services.

The state will invest in “branches of the economy that require most capital investment,” Medvedev said, while stressing that this did not mean a “rebirth of the state-controlled economy.” Medvedev noted that Russia's per capita Gross Domestic Product in 2006 stood at $7,000, approximately the same level as Mexico and ranking somewhere around 60th place in the world rankings.

However, when calculated in terms of Purchasing Power Parity, which takes into account cost of living, Russia ranks ninth in the world.

“Russia is entirely capable in the next two years of occupying sixth place, even surpassing Italy, France and Britain,” Medvedev said. —AFP