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‘State union address’ in former Soviet Union |
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July 9, 2000
MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that only a strong, unified government with a clearly defined division of powers could reverse the nation's sharp decline and guarantee the people's well-being. In his first state of the union address, Putin spoke for almost 50 minutes to the members of both houses of parliament, Cabinet members, top judges, and religious leaders assembled in the Marble Hall of the Kremlin. He devoted much of the speech to the need for the center to regain powers that have been gradually ceded to regional leaders. "We created islands, separate little islands of power, but we didn't put up any bridges between them," he said. "The center and the territories, regional and local authorities are still competing with each other, competing for power. Those who take advantage of disorder and arbitrary rule are watching their mutually destructive fight." Putin called Chechnya an "extreme example" of the government's failure to assert its authority over the regions. Russian troops have been fighting rebels in the separatist republic since September, in Moscow's second war there in a decade. "The territory has become a bridgehead in Russia for the expansion of international terrorism," he warned. Putin painted an alarming picture of the nation's health, pointing out that the population had decreased on average by 750,000 people every year recently. Within 15 years, Russia could lose up to 22 million people, he warned - one-seventh of the population. "If the current tendency prevails, the survival of the nation will be under threat," he said. Putin also contended that Russia was losing its standing in the world and even its independence because of its inability to collect taxes. He called on the members of parliament in the audience to push through tax reform. "The matter is not only in our national pride," he said. "The question is more acute and more dramatic: Will we be able to survive as a nation, as a civilization if our well-being again and again will depend on granting of foreign credits and on the goodwill of leaders of the world economy?" Putin set out six economic priorities for the government: guaranteeing property rights, eliminating preferential treatment of some enterprises, ending unnecessary state intervention into business, lowering the tax burden and simplifying the customs system, developing banks and other economic infrastructure, and targeting welfare at the neediest members of society. Russia's long economic crisis is the result of ineffectual government, he said. "The main barriers to economic reform are high taxes, the arbitrariness of bureaucrats and rash of criminals," he said. Turning to foreign policy, Putin said that a strong state was necessary to counter a new threat Russia allegedly faces: incursions by international terrorists. He said that Russia also had to cope with the "difficult aftereffects" of the Cold War. "This includes the attempt to limit the sovereign rights of the state under the guise of humanitarian operations ... and the difficulties of finding a common language in questions of regional or international threats," he said. Putin stressed his commitment to protecting civil rights and freedoms, and said that media freedom was vital to preserving democracy. However, he said that most media remained beholden to their owners, who used television stations and newspapers to fight their battles. Sometimes they are used even for "anti-state" goals, Putin claimed. He repeatedly touched on his pet project: curtailing the power of regional leaders, many of whom, with former President Boris Yeltsin's encouragement, grabbed political and fiscal power from the central government. The two houses of parliament have been engaged in an intense battle over Putin's reform plan. The lower house, the State Duma, has strongly supported the plan, while the upper house - comprised of the governors and other regional leaders whose powers are at stake - has strenuously opposed it. After his speech, Putin went into a closed-door meeting with parliamentary and regional leaders. |
