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Russian president Dmitry Medvedev blames 'US selfishness for global financial crisis Adrian Blomfield Dmitry Medvedev delivered the most anti-American speech of his one-month presidency this weekend when he claimed that US selfishness had led the world into its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Addressing a grandiose conference designed to show off Russia's financial resurgence, the new president said that America's "economic egoism" and Western protectionism had triggered a global economic slowdown. "The aggressive financial policies of the biggest economy in the world have led not only to corporate losses; most people on the planet have become poorer," he told delegates at the St Petersburg Economic Forum. Western chief executives who came to St Petersburg hoping for hear reassurances from a leader whose liberal credentials have been widely touted instead found a president who often sounded like a clone of his aggressive predecessor, Vladimir Putin. Slamming the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for their failure to end the world's problems, Mr Medvedev suggested that Russia should instead take charge of redirecting global economic policy. He announced that a conference to address major issues like the credit crunch and rising food prices would be held in Russia later this year. "Russia is a global player and understands its responsibility for the fate of the world," he said.
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