国际英语新闻：Russian PM defends manual economic steering while steering wheel

MOSCOW, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin known for his unexpected and sometimes flamboyant gestures surprised local public and media once again on Friday, setting off for a 2000-km drive from Khabarovsk to Chita in the Far East.

Putin steered a bright-yellow Lada Kalina hatchback with a Moscow license plate, and was flanked by several security jeeps.

He said he had decided to undertake this unusual trip "to see with his own eyes how the people live in the Far East," reported the RIA Novosti news agency.

The head of the Russian government used other stops en route to make statements on various problems his country faces, including high food prices.

He also criticized mildly his own administration for not acting speedy enough during the crisis, and for paying too little attention to the development of domestically-oriented industrial capacities.

Also, Putin disagreed that "steering economy manually" during the crisis was worse than to allow it self-tuning.

He admitted, however, that in the West these issues would have been resolved easier, "because the market economy there has been forming for centuries and there is a firm judicial base for it," said Putin.

After driving for the first 350 km, Putin said the Kalina was " excellent, comfortable, pretty soft and making little noise."

The Amur highway linking Khabarovsk and Chita has been the first road ever connecting Far East with the rest of Russia. Until recently, the only ways for traveling between this vast region and what its residents call "continental" Russia were by either train or air.

So far, it is unclear if the loss-making AvtoVAZ car plant, where Kalinas are produced, is going to make Putin's trip part of its public relations campaign, to promote the no-frills Lada family models.