Elected President Dmitriy Medvedev met some representatives of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs on April 8, 2008. Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and President of the Union’s Chelyabinsk Region division Viktor Rashnikov was one of the group’s representatives.

This was one of several meetings Dmitriy Medvedev has held with the business executives recently. The meeting was aimed at consulting them on what their vision of Russia’s further development is, looking into the country’s socioeconomic development in 2008-2020, and discussing the issues related to the state’s involvement in business infrastructure and the part the private enterprise can play in the country’s economy. Some points on the agenda had to do with taxes, the pension reform, the Russian business’s image and the support it needs outside Russia.

Viktor Rashnikov has been coordinating the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs’ Chelyabinsk Region division for a decade now; the Union itself was set up fifteen years ago. The Union’s regional division has evolved into a respectable organization capable of handling some serious economic challenges since then. Viktor Rashnikov joined the Union’s Supervisory Board in 2004.