Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.Part 1
May 16, 2003
Marble Hall, the Kremlin, Moscow
Послание Федеральному Собранию Российской Федерации
16 мая 2003 года
Москва, Кремль, Мраморный зал
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN:
Esteemed colleagues, deputies of the State Duma, members of the Federation Council, citizens of Russia!
Today, in accordance with the Constitution, I have come to report to you on the state of the nation. I would like to begin with a brief summing up of the situation.
Last years results are in many ways a continuation of the work begun three years ago. Over these last three years not only have we worked hard to clear the mountain of problems that life itself forces us to tackle practically on a daily basis, we have also achieved some positive results.
Now we must take the next step and focus all our decisions and all our action on ensuring that in a not too far off future, Russia will take its recognised place among the ranks of the truly strong, economically advanced and influential nations. This is an entirely new challenge we must take up, and it represents an entirely new stage in our countrys development. We could not take up this challenge earlier because we faced a great number of more urgent problems that we had to tackle first. But now we have this new opportunity in our hands and we must use it.
Russia must become and will become a country with a flourishing civil society and stable democracy, a country that fully guarantees human rights and civil and political freedoms.
Russia must become and will become a country with a competitive market economy, a country that gives reliable protection to property rights and provides the economic freedoms that allow its people to work honestly and make money without fear and limitations.
Russia will be a strong country, a country with modern, well-equipped and mobile Armed Forces able to defend our nation and its allies and protect the national interests of our state and its citizens.
Through all of this, we will create the conditions for people to enjoy a decent life and enable Russia to take its place as an equal in the community of most developed nations.
Not only will people feel proud of such a country, they will strive to multiply its wealth. They will remember and respect our great history.
This is our strategic objective.
But if we are to achieve this objective, we must consolidate, we must mobilise our intellectual forces and unite the efforts of the state authorities, civil society and all the people of this land.
We must set out a programme of clear and comprehensible objectives that we will use to achieve the consolidation we need if we are to resolve the major national problems we face.
Why do I think this of such vital importance?
Our entire historical experience shows that a country like Russia can live and develop within its existing borders only if it is a strong nation. All of the periods during which Russia has been weakened, whether politically or economically, have always and inexorably brought to the fore the threat of the countrys collapse.
Yes, certain of our achievements over these last years make it possible to speak of stabilisation. Some people even have the impression that all our problems have now been solved, that Russia now has a perfectly bright and predictable future ahead of it, and that everything now is just a question of whether the economy should grow by four or by six percent a year, and of how much we should spend.
I would like to say that this is not the case. We face serious threats. Our economic foundation has become more solid, but it is still not stable enough and still very weak. Our political system remains insufficiently developed and our state apparatus is not very effective. Most sectors of our economy are not competitive. Meanwhile, our population continues to fall and the fight against poverty is progressing far too slowly. The international situation remains complicated and competition in the world economy is as intense as ever.
All around us are countries with highly developed economies. We need to look in the face the fact that these countries push Russia out of promising world markets when they have the chance. And their obvious economic advantages serve as fuel for their growing geopolitical ambitions.
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