Russia has no intention of using its huge currency reserves to infiltrate Western economies or to invest improperly in Western equities, President Putin has told American and European Russia-watchers.

He said that Moscow would use its vast gold and foreign currency surpluses to rebuild Russia’s roads, ports, railways and infrastructure, to construct energy pipelines, raise pensions and give a vital economic boost to small business.

Western governments have become increasingly nervous that Russia will use its huge reserves, now the third-largest in the world after Japan and China, to buy up strategic Western assets such as aerospace industries and energy companies and run these in its own national interest.

Last month Germany said that it would draft a law to protect its companies from being taken over by foreign funds, especially state-owned funds in Russia, China and the Middle East.

Mr Putin denounced such moves, saying that if the West wanted to invest in Russia, it should, in turn, allow Russia to enter the West’s markets without discrimination.

He scorned the inclusion of the CIA in a panel recently set up by President Bush to look at the source and security of foreign sovereign fund investments.

“I told President Bush that I have a track record in the KGB and that after some years there is a shift in mentality so that you start looking for spies under the bed,” Mr Putin said.

There was no need to include the CIA in any vetting of investments: they had only one task and that was to catch and deter offenders, not to act as economic advisers, he said.

Mr Putin’s criticism was not for Washington alone. Britain has also been worried about proposals by Gazprom, the state-owned gas monopoly, to buy a stake in Centrica, and British Intelligence was asked to advise the Government on the implications.

The Russian President made clear that his country was poised to start to spend the huge sums that are piling up in the Government Stabilisation Fund, which is intended to protect Russia against any sudden fall in the oil price.

Russia had postponed spending the money because the Government did not want to fuel inflation, but with the economy now growing at more than 7.5 per cent a year, the country was able to absorb the investment. Moreover, the poor state of infrastructure was hampering further growth.

Mr Putin was speaking at his official holiday residence in Sochi, on the Black Sea.

He said that the town, which will stage the Winter Olympic Games in 2014, illustrated the challenge facing Russia: without better roads, there would be no new hotels, swimming pools or tourist development. The State, therefore, had to step in to pay for a new infrastructure.

Russians have been demanding a bigger share of the oil windfall for some time and Mr Putin conceded that it was time to invest more in pensions, which fell sharply after the collapse of communism.

He said that in future every rouble paid into a pension scheme by a citizen would be matched by the Government.

Russia is awash with cash. Last year $41 billion (£20 billion) flowed into the country, whereas in the first half of this year the sum rose to $70 billion.

In 1992 the net outflow from Russia was $9 billion; that outflow has now reversed. Today, the ratio of state debt to gold reserves was the best in Europe, Mr Putin said.

Even with the instability in the financial markets, he said, Russia had no fears for its own financial soundness.

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