Today's address of Vladimir Putin to the Federal Assembly set a new duration record, 1 hour 57 minutes. The number of people gathered in the Manege exhibition hall was also a record, 1,700 people. They’re heads of regions, politicians, public figures, and journalists.
Alexander Balitsky will tell about the reaction that the current message of the President caused.
Three minutes shy of two hours. During this time, the audience interrupted Putin's speech with an ovation almost 60 times. And on the sidelines, deputies and ministers, governors, and well-known public figures will share what they identified as the most important points.
Nikita Mikhalkov, filmmaker and actor: "We have our own interests and we have our rights to have these interests. There’ll be no unipolar world. Therefore, I believe that today's speech was very significant. It has the most important message: guys, listen to us, hear us out!"
And now, they will listen, as Putin said in the part of the message that concerned new weapons.
President Putin: "They couldn’t hold Russia back. The West has to get used to this reality and to the fact that what I said today isn’t a bluff".
Aleksey Pushkov, Senator from Perm Krai: "The phrase that they couldn’t hold Russia back is the key phrase of his speech. This is the most important element of Russia's response to Western policy, to the policy of sanctions, to the policy of economic, political and military pressure that is being put on us".
Parliamentarians often compared today's message with Putin’s Munich speech in 2007. Back then, he said that the unipolar model of the world, where the United States alone determines the future of all mankind, is impossible. And Russia will conduct its own independent policy.
Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party: "I'm pleased that we’ve advanced and completely devalued the American challenge and those huge amounts of money that they’ve spent destroying previous agreements. I want to thank our scientists, specialists, who, in a short time, solved a task that’s so important for all of us".
Sergey Neverov, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma: "Today, the President stated clearly that we can sleep peacefully, and our country is protected. It’s protected reliably, and any threat, any aggression against our country will receive an instant response. Of course, it was important for people to hear that."
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the LDPR party: "The country is in a state when we're not freaking out, we don’t need to look back, we can move forward. The great intellect of military thought can’t be put up for sale or shown in stores, in contrast to some useless things. But it provides for security on this planet, on which we have a direct enemy, the US or NATO."
This base allowed the President to set ambitious but implementable internal tasks. These are reducing poverty twofold, increasing the GDP per capita by half. After all, Putin's main goal is to improve the quality of life for Russians. And the governors concluded that they must work more actively.
Alexei Dumin, Governor of Tula Oblast: "This is essential for the regions and the country. This is additional money for education and medicine. And everything is aimed at improving the quality of life of our citizens".
Dmitry Mironov, Governor of Yaroslavl Oblast: "The President declared that the following decade will be devoted to children. This is a significant support both for the regions and, in general, for the development and formation of a demographic policy".
Sergey Sobyanin, Mayor of Moscow: "We'll once again reconsider our programs, the city development strategy, we’ll do so to synchronize the goals and tasks that we set for ourselves with the goals and tasks that the President set for us today".
Andrey Vorobyov, Governor of Moscow Oblast: "So that every moving becomes a celebration, so that the deadlines of the houses commissioning aren’t changed, so that there was a polyclinic, a kindergarten, a road, in general, everything that makes you feel comfortable. For us, the address, the message of the President is always a guideline to follow."
Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of Chechnya: "We received a parting word for decades, and we need to work for the good of people."
An increase in pension payments, a decrease in mortgage rates. And for business — the final lifting of all administrative barriers, so that there’s no nightmarish talk anymore. After all, without the support of entrepreneurs, it’s impossible to exceed the world’s economic growth rates. The business liked the President's message.
Alexander Shokhin, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs: "There's no other way rather than to expand the economic freedom, create incentives for real technological renewal and overcome the main threat, which he talked about at the very beginning. This threat is a chronic lag. The business is ready to dive in if there's no interference".
Dmitry Mezentsev, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy: "We understand that the renewal of fixed assets of large, medium and small enterprises must take place in the coming years. And those instructions that were given to the government and the Central Bank to provide relatively cheap and long-term loans are the most important condition for the production development."
The word "development" was said especially often today, and not only in the speech.
Leonid Roshal, President of the National Medical Chamber: "He talked about financing health care, and the financing of healthcare worth 5% of the GDP is the figure we all dreamed about".
The State Duma has already promised to pass laws as quickly as possible which will ensure the fulfillment of Putin's tasks. And the government will find money for this. There are sources.
Putin said the current message marked a special milestone, in the sense that it was given at a turning point for the world and, most importantly, for the country. It’s important that these decisions become actions. There’s simply no time for a slow start.
Alexander Balitsky, Irina Kharlamova, Filipp Dubrovsky, Anna Tsimaylo, Vesti.
