Medvedev says poverty and corruption threaten Russia

By Janet McBride and Michael Stott

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Poverty and corruption are the biggest internal threats to Russia's security, President Dmitry Medvedev told Reuters, promising a major push to fight the twin scourges.

Foreign policy would not be swayed by criticism from abroad, the new Russian leader said, but guided by the national interest in line with "freedom, democracy and the right to private property".

In his first interview with Western media since taking power on May 7, Medvedev rated unstable financial markets, terrorism and international crime as universal dangers to be tackled through coordinated action at a European and G8 level.

European Union chiefs arrive in Siberia on Thursday for an EU-Russia summit to open talks on a new partnership agreement between the bloc and its main energy supplier, Russia. The G8 leaders, including Medvedev, meet in Japan next month.

"Threats to Russia's economy are linked to international financial instability, the food crisis and related issues. Other factors are terrorism and international crime," Medvedev said in the interview, conducted at the Kremlin earlier this week.

"We also have specific Russian problems. First of all poverty, which we have not yet defeated. Resolving this problem is the main task for the government. We are going to work hard at this, using all of our economic might."

"The second problem is corruption. Corruption as a systemic challenge, as a threat to national security, as a problem which leads to a lack of faith among citizens in the ability of government to bring order and protect them."

Russia is the world's second biggest oil exporter. Record prices close to $140 a barrel have boosted revenues and the country's two oil windfall funds hold a combined $162 billion (82 billion pounds).