"There are people who are for and against decisions being made, but part of those who are against are a little bit better off than those who support these decisions, and therefore can reach out to the public through media. Maybe sometimes we fail to pay enough attention to this," the Russian leader told the joint news conference after the Russian-American Bratislava summit.
Vladimir Putin said that he was "absolutely frank" with his American counterpart "in discussing media freedom issues."
"We do not think we have to put this in the limelight and create much ado about nothing, marring Russian-American relations which we are utterly interested to develop," the Russian leader said.
Mr. Putin said the Russian authorities cared very much about media criticism.
"We do care about all criticism coming from the press and the opposition. However, our task is to develop Russian-American relations," the Russian President said.
