Alexei Mordashov

Well... I graduated from the business school of Northumberland University in Newcastle.

It is a very big exaggeration to say I am a friend of Mr. Putin.

Regarding our links with the Russian government, Severstal is a private company with no government participation. We are answerable to our shareholders.

In a literal sense, even a private company, of course, cannot do everything that it wants without some discussion with government. As a good corporate citizen, Severstal discussed the idea of a merger with Arcelor with the Russian government.

When we put $4 billion into the U.S. economy, they were OK with this. When we preserved jobs in Dearborn, or preserved jobs in Columbus, or preserved jobs in Pennsylvania, everyone was happy.

My wealth is reflected in the price of Severstal, and the number of shares I have in my possession doesn't have any impact on the company.

The steel business is a local business. We do believe in the U.S. economy and would like to have a strong, balanced presence here.

We appreciate size, but only if it is robust growth. Just to be big is not a target.

Building companies involves creating great wealth. If that means I am an oligarch, OK, it's fine. But if being an oligarch is about buying football clubs, it is not for me.

I don't have any opinions about Russians. There are celebrity persons in each country. Different people do different things.

What you need to keep most in the U.S. is the entrepreneurial spirit.

People were expecting Rouge to go bankrupt, so there was a lot of anxiety. The corporate culture problem was even worse than in Russia. And at the same time, the work rules were more difficult.

The future is in green energy; it's in making steel for energy-efficient cars.

The U.S. has done a great job improving productivity. We're making a lot more steel in Dearborn with fewer people. The unions have accepted much better work rules.

Russia is not a homogenous country; it's a very fragmented country.

We believe that the business system only is the key to success. It's no miracle, only day-to-day work in the appropriate way.