MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. Vladimir Putin is a liberal by nature who is no stranger to the concepts ‘development’ and ‘freedom’, and he is not a promulgator of a strong state, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Mir TV channel.

"You know that (Putin’s) foes - and the ones located abroad, in the first place, but some foes inside this country, too - believe that Putin much rather is a conservative and an advocate of a strong state, and the word ‘freedom’ is alien to him," Peskov said. "But Putin is an attested liberal by nature. He is much more liberal than the self-styled ‘liberals’ who claim they are opposition."

Peskov finds Putin to be an absolutely liberally-minded person in what concerns his stance on the economy, social policies and other spheres. That is why the notion of ‘liberty’ is so close to the President.

As for the concept of ‘development’, Russia is moving along precisely this pathway in spite of difficulties.

"The structure of our economy is changing gradually," Peskov said. "The share of revenues from the sales of oil and gas is reducing, albeit slowly. On the face of it, the share of revenues from manufacturing and from high technologies is growing gradually. This means we’re pulling out the oil peg."

He said it would be highly desirable to see a faster process but it was slow by virtue of its character.

"In a country as huge as Russia, this process naturally takes decades as a minimum," Peskov said.