Putin Annual State of the Nation Address: Priorities

News and photos from the Moscow News (26/05/2004)

In his annual state of the nation address Wednesday in front of the Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin said Russia’s per capita gross domestic product could double by 2010 if the economy continues to grow at its current speed, media reported.

“ If we keep annual economic growth at least as it was in the first quarter of this year ... we could double per capita GDP not in ten years, but by 2010,” Putin told both houses of parliament in his annual state of the nation address, broadcast live on Russian television.
The president also named Russia’s most prominent challenge: creating a “free society of free people.”

The address, one of the most important political events throughout the year, began at noon in the Marble Hall of the Kremlin before Russia’s entire parliament: State Duma deputies and members of the Federation Council, as well as government ministers, chairmen of the courts, the prosecutor general, the chairman of the Central Election Committee, the head of the Audit Chamber, members of the State Council of Russia, and the leaders of major faiths.

Putin covered the chief political events of the year and addressed the socio-economic position of the nation. The most prominent issue on Wednesday’s agenda is housing reform. He also touched on plans to ease grinding poverty, reform industrial monopolies inherited from Soviet times and restore the economic prowess of the world’s biggest country.