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Russia on the Move: President Putin's Priorities for His Second Term |
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Vitaly Ignatenko Director General ITAR-TASS, Russian News Agency |
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23 April, 2004 |
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Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends. It’s an honor for me to speak to this great audience. I would like to thank especially Mr. Curtis Mack and Ms. Mary Morris for inviting me here today.
Today is an unusual meeting, accompanied my good friend Mr Molozonov an American businessman doing business in Russia. I suggest for the sake of saving your time that Mr.Molozonov will read my speech in English. This way I will have more time to answer your wonderful questions.
Slightly more than a month has elapsed since Presidential Election Day in Russia. Vladimir Putin’s second term of office has just begun, but it has already given rise to more expectations than ever before.
What can be expected of the next four years a space of time in which Russia is destined to complete the formation of its 21st century image? Classic Russian writer Nikolai Gogol viewed his country as a fast-riding troika. This vision of Russia and the questions that Gogol asked about it have always provided Russian and people in other countries with ample food for thought.
“Where art thou soaring away to, Russia? Give me an answer,” wrote Gogol in one of his epic works. I think the answer is much clearer these days than it used to be in the past.
Let us look at the achievements of the previous four years. In 2003, Russia showed the best economic performance since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. We witnessed a record high economic growth rate of at least 6.5 percent, Investment are at the highest levers ever, and economic experts are predicting that the ruble might become fully convertible in a few years stet time.
The country reached an important psychological milestone last year as Russia’s per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) got on a level with the world’s average, a growth rate that was higher than Europe, the United States or Japan resulted in a rebound, although one must admit that Russia is still way behind, say, the European countries or U.S.
Sociologists indicate that the majority vote in favor of Putin in the March 2004 election is of a totally different quality than the majority vote that earned him the presidential mandate in 2000. The middle class rose by 50 percent and formed an active core of the new majority, which was not the case in the elections of 2000.
Let’s take a look at the data from public opinion polls in that context. So far, around 56 percent of the respondents see themselves as belonging to the medium-income category and a mere one percent of all respondents say they are rich. All the others are either undecided or find their earnings to be too small.
There is one more fact that deserves notice. The vast majority of low-income Russians tend to blame their woes on the government in the first place, and on “adverse circumstances” in the second. Those who think that none but themselves are to blame for their situation make up only six percent of the people polled. This conviction reflects an important historical fact for the system where a job was a “right” guaranteed by the government, and people were paid for an imitation of work rather than for real work done, ceased to exist but a few years ago.
One of my colleagues, a journalist, told me once that Russia has only two problems. Number one, we are convinced that management is an art, in fact it is a science, a set of essential governance technologies. Second, we believe that economics is a science, while its true essence is that of an art.
The Russian authorities have formulated a goal of achieving a better life for the people, which does not mean, however, that the government will commit itself to Robin-Hood tactics of taking away wallets from the rich to make the poor better off. One of the key promises the government has made in this respect is that there will be no alteration in the flat 13 percent income tax rate.
Simultaneously, the government has proposed slashing the unified social security tax (UST) rate to 26 percent from the current 36 percent. It means that the Russian companies will be able to save an extra 10 billion rubles, a year.
At the same time, the Cabinet of Ministers is eyeing several additional sources of revenue. One of them is to make the oil sector pay more in resource tax that will help replenish the budget by an extra 6 to 10 billion rubles.
President Putin is a man of practical deeds. He always asks others: “What do you want me to do?” On the morning after his election day, he argued with one of his close associates. The associate had insisted that no president could allow himself to keep all of the earlier made promises during the first term in office because one has to think about the next presidential campaign. “History-making work can begin only during the second term of office,” the man said.
Vladimir Putin said he could not agree with that postulation. He personally was not ready to work simply for what it takes to go down in history. “We must work for the sake of the living people, their children and grandchildren, who will live tomorrow,” the president said. He recalled that the art of policy-making was based on finding equilibrium between imperatives and capabilities. The real goal is to make the nation affluent, and, in order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to take certain steps towards modernizing the economic and social spheres.
Back in 2003, Mr Putin voiced the idea of doubling the GDP through boosting the global competitiveness of the Russian economy. The idea sparked off an animated debate about which instruments could secure the attainment of such a goal, in what ways it should be attained, and what steps should be taken.
And the steps are being taken. In the social arena, the government proposed paying larger pensions. If a person keeps on working after reaching the age of 60, which is the official retirement age, his or her pension will increase by 15 percent annually. So if a person keeps on working for several years in succession, the pension could be twice as much as what he or she would get upon quitting the job once they reach the retirement age.
Russia will be pursuing a multi-vector foreign policy that presumes cooperation with the United States, the European Union, Asian partners, China, India, and countries of the Asia-Pacific region. Its foreign policy, proclaimed by the president, aims to create a beneficial external environment instead of demonstrating imperial ambitions of any sort.
The summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, due in Russia in the summer of 2006, is destined to become a landmark event during President Putin’s second term of office. I have no doubt that it will make clear our inseparable ties with the community of the leading democracies.
U.S. President George W. Bush was one of the first foreign leaders to call Mr Putin and congratulate him on his re-election. I think it is a well-known secret that both presidents reconfirmed their commitment to the previously agreed strategic partnership course.
Russia and the U.S. have no differences in their vision of the strategic tasks that humankind is facing in the field of stability and security. As for the differences in the methods for reaching these aims, it is a natural thing for any partnership.
Our country is facing a tough choice. Different countries and regions of the globe are developing fast, and we cannot afford to sit on our hands reflecting on the wealth we accumulated in the past, pondering about our millennium-old history or resting on laurels. President Putin has stressed the importance of making ourselves - individuals, industries and the entire country - competitive on the global scale. Competitiveness is our national goal, not only for the next four years, but also for a much longer historical period.
Thank You |
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