Putin summed up

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 12, the Day of the Constitution, delivered a speech to the Federal Assembly: this is the first message since the election in March 2012 to the post of President. After the speech, TV historian Nikolai Svanidze, Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, leader of the faction "United Russia" Vladimir Vasilyev and Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov commented on it.

Nikolai Svanidze, Russian journalist, historian, professor

He stressed the need to abandon property abroad and to control not only income but also the expenditure of government officials, and not only officials, but also members of both chambers of the Federal Assembly. The President expressed the idea of a national strategy: he said that we are a civilization held by Russian culture and the Russian language, but it is a single civilization which is precious not because of its ethnic groups but because it is a single culture, and there can be no separation of any individual segments with their own jurisdiction. In my view, this is quite important. As for foreign policy, he spoke about the Customs Union and Russia's place in the world; he said that our way is democracy, but a democracy that no one can impose on us. There was nothing absolutely new, because the president drew attention to things that are, in general, well known.

Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, president of the Republic of Ingushetia

Today the message voiced things that are actually implemented in the national entities of the Russian Federation. It covers all the areas of activity, and there is a good basis for the future, especially for us, the leaders of the entities within Russia. The focus is on education, healthcare and, of course, the construction of housing for those who live in dilapidated houses. All spheres, all sectors are emphasized – taxes, foreign policy, domestic politics. Everything is said, now we should only work. Ethnic policy got a rather serious place, and the president underlined that, of course, leaders, heads of subjects of the Russian Federation, have to work more on these issues. A lot of things are already being done, given that a separate department under the president for ethnic policy has been created, I think that this would be a good start.

Vladimir Vasilyev, leader of the faction "United Russia"

This was a very informative and very profound speech by the President. I was highly impressed, perhaps, by two main facts. The first thing is clear: in the post-Soviet period it turned out that many of the people who survived in the conditions of the absence of morality to a large extent, we have lost it, and we pay a high price for it today. In these conditions, a significant part of successful people, seeing how hard the situation in the country is, began to tie their future with other countries - moving capital there, sending children abroad to learn, getting medical treatment there, associating themselves with it, receiving income here and spending it there. With this approach, creating competitive education, treatment, roads and other infrastructure is not possible. And now Putin has raised this issue, which everybody knows, and everyone thinks about it. And he suggested the way to solve this problem, the legal solutions. The question, I remember, has shocked many people – the issue was property abroad, overseas accounts, stocks abroad. He said that the one who works in Russia, one who participates in the process of the executive power and the legislature, should take up positions to serve Russia, to serve his people and create conditions for this. 

And one more thing is also very important, I think. In these conditions, a kind of elite, a kind of creative class was formed, as he also said today. Your agenda, or your view of things, has been formed, it is also present. He talked just about it - that the new approach and the measures being talked about today involve the formation of a new "creative class", which is largely determined by a concept familiar to the Russian language - the "intelligentsia." I think he managed to do this, and I'm confident that these approaches will cause what he expects - that our young people, who today are more than ever in the proportion of our population, will find themselves, and, therefore, we will have very good prospects, and the conditions for this have been outlined today.

Gennady Zyuganov, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation

The problem of corruption is very acute, and it must be addressed. Otherwise, the state body is ineffective. How to solve the problem of constructing our own machine tools, aircraft and so on, if the budget has been adopted where the allocation for economic development  has been reduced from 3.3% of GDP to 2%? How can food be normal, if only 1% of the funds from the budget are allocated to agriculture and the agro-industrial complex? All the world knows that it is necessary to allocate at least 10%. How can we raise citizens and patriots, if in the law by Fursenko the word "raising” was not used, and there was nothing about the Russian language and literature, mathematics and physics as core subjects, and only after being criticized, the law was changed? How can we organize a fair political competition, if, they say, "tomorrow there will be 200 parties?" So what? In the whole world 3-4 major political currents are known, and around them there is a political struggle. That's all wrong. After creating 200 parties each party will have 10 second with equal representation, and that will be the end. Again all the bulletins will be in one box, like in Mordovia, under the title "United Russia", and all the competition will end. 

So I will say as usual that the mechanism should work, we should create a team that is able to do this, to fight corruption and ensure the arrival of talented people and not of our countrymen and subordinates. I am pleased that for the first time under these walls the word "Russian" was sounded. I have never heard it in the previous speeches. They decided to take care of the Russian language, Russian culture, of our common history; the Russian people gathered 190 languages and nationalities here, and today we all feel that the further extinction of the Russian people in our area will result in a huge disaster, so the demographic problem is also quite acute. But I do not see the financial mechanism with which we can solve all these problems.