Komsomolskaya Pravda: “Putin explains why he is running for president”
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has published an article on his site www.putin2012.ru titled, "Russia muscles up: The challenges we must rise to face." Dmitry Peskov, his press secretary, later said that this is just the introductory segment of Putin's election programme, which totals 100 pages.
Revolutionaries
...A recurring problem in Russian history has been the elites' desire to achieve sudden change, a revolution rather than sustained development. Meanwhile, both Russian and global experience demonstrates how harmful these sudden historical jolts can be: jumping the gun, destroying – not creating.
This is balanced by a different trend, a diametrically opposed challenge – in the form of a certain inclination to inertia, dependency, the elites' uncompetitiveness and high levels of corruption. And in every case these "rebels" turn into the "smug upper classes" before our very eyes, resisting any change and fervently protecting their status and privileges. Or we witness the reverse process – as the established elites become rebels.
...True, it is possible to win over a considerable part of society for a short time with catchy slogans and visions of a brighter future; but if people later simply cannot picture themselves in this future – they will turn away from politics and social challenges for a long time to come. This has happened time and again in our history.
Today people talk about different ways to reinvigorate the political process. But what is up for discussion? How state power should be structured? Handing it to the "better people"? But what next? What then?
I am worried that there is virtually no broader discussion of what should be done beyond the elections, after the elections...
The middle class
...In 1998, they [the middle class] made up between 5% and 10% of the population – less than in the late USSR. Now the middle classes are estimated to constitute between 20% and 30% of the population. These are people whose earnings are three times as high as the average wage or salary in 1990.
These middle classes must continue to expand. They must become a social majority in our society; to recruit members from among those who really are the lifeblood of the country – doctors, teachers, engineers, and skilled workers...
In this context, the talk of 25 million new innovation-based high-tech jobs for educated Russians is not just phrase-mongering... Individual initiatives should be the real drivers of growth. We will fail if we rely exclusively on government decisions and on a limited circle of investors and state companies.
Poverty
...10%-11% of our countrymen are living below the poverty line... We have to solve this problem by the end of the decade... We must learn to compensate for the negative social consequences of a market economy and the inequality engendered by it, just like other countries with a long-established tradition of capitalism have learned to do. This assistance includes helping children from poor families to receive education, providing social housing to low-income families, ending discrimination against people with disabilities... Our society will become successful only when our citizens become convinced that it is a fair society.
Populists
...We have not made empty promises. Our economic policy was well thought out and prudent. Before the crisis, we grew our economy substantially, repaid our debts, increased people's real incomes and created reserves that allowed us to survive the crisis with minimal impact on people's living standards. Moreover, we were even able to increase pensions and other social payments considerably during the height of the crisis. Many, particularly those in the opposition camp, urged us to hurry to spend our oil revenues. What would have happened to pensions had we listened to these populists?
Unfortunately, we heard a lot of populist rhetoric during the recent parliamentary election campaign, and we are likely to hear it again during the presidential campaign, from people who have no hope of winning the elections and are therefore free to make promises they will not have to fulfil.
Integrity
...In the 1990s, the country experienced the profound shocks of collapse and degradation... The very fact that several thousand guerrillas were able to attack a country that boasted a one-million strong army [...] demonstrates the tragedy of that situation...
There was a message the FSB intercepted that I remember very well. It was sent by one of the most heinous and murderous international terrorists responsible for the deaths of our people in the North Caucasus – Khattab – to his foreign accomplices. He wrote, "Russia is weak as never before. Now we have our one and only chance to take the North Caucasus away from the Russians." But the terrorists miscalculated...
Few now recall that in late 1990s, the most reputable experts and many international leaders foresaw one future for Russia: bankruptcy and breakup. The picture of Russia today – seen through the prism of the 1990s – would seem overoptimistic and even unbelievable.
Elections 2012
...I would like to repeat, once again, why I agreed to stand for presidential election in 2012... That team of like-minded individuals that your humble servant, the author of these lines, was to form and lead, helped deliver Russia from the blind alley of civil war, break the back of terrorism, restore the country's territorial integrity and constitutional order, and spark economic revival – giving us a decade distinguished by one of the world's fastest economic growth rates and real income growth for the general public.
Now we can see what was successful, what needs improvement, and even what needs to be dismissed...
I see our goal in years to come as sweeping away all that stands in the way of our national development, completing the establishment in Russia of a political system, a structure of social guarantees and safeguards for the public, and an economic model that together form a single, living, ever-changing organism of state that is, at the same time, resilient, stable and healthy. One that is able to guarantee Russia's sovereignty and prosperity for our great nation's citizens in the decades to come.
... Russia muscles up, gathers its strength and responds appropriately to any challenge.
By Sergei Syomushkin
