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March 2, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 3
lected Moscow elite. “Now you have to face the facts. You have to make sure I am not bluffing – and I’m not bluffing.”
Putin tried to anticipate the reaction by saying explicitly Russia was trying only to re-establish the balance of power as it was fed up with being ignored.
“Russia’s military power is not threatening anyone nor will it be used to attack anyone. We don't want to take anything from anyone. We have everything we need,” he added as a clear reference to sugges- tions that Russia wants to recreate the Soviet Un- ion or may invade the Baltics or Ukraine. “Russia is a force for peace and wants a balance of power."
The military hardware show came as a shock for Russia watchers who immediately questioned the veracity of the claims, as most of the video shown was computer simulations. But the irony is that this display comes as the Kremlin is clearly intend- ing to wind down its military spending in the next six-year term and focus on the people instead.
Defence spending has already been cut hard in the 2018 budget, to the point where BSC Global Markets chief economist Vladimir Tikhomirov suggested that the cuts will drag down Russia’s industrial production.
The first part of the speech was aimed at the do- mestic audience and suggested the Kremlin will now turn its attention to restoring the prosperity it sacrificed in the last five years to finance the military modernisation programme.
Putin hammered two themes in the first hour: improving the quality of life for the average Rus- sian and keeping up in the technology race. The president has clearly got a bee in his bonnet for
high tech solutions, which he argues is another existential threat.
“Stability forms the foundation, but it is not enough to ensure further development. We need to further improve the quality of life for our people,” Putin told the adoring audience. “There is a technologi- cal revolution going on and the upcoming years will determine Russia’s future. Technological change
is increasing in speed and those that don't take advantage of will be buried under the technological change before eventually losing their sovereignty.”
Interestingly Putin also picked up the “stability is good, but predictability is better” meme that sen- ior Russian policymakers have been pushing since the start of this year.
“The danger is not invasion but lagging behind. It’s like a chronic disease that undermines the body from within. Sometimes you don't even feel it,” Putin said ironically, given he was about to launch into a big military presentation.
But the welfare of the people occupied most of this section of the speech and addressed head
on many of the problems average Russians face. Some 29% of the population was living in poverty in 2000 when he took over, but that had fallen to 10% by 2012. But since the oil and currency crisis in 2014 that share has started to rise again and 20mn Russians are living under the poverty line now. “The goal is to reduce this by half in the next six years,” promised Putin.
He laid out other extremely ambitious goals. The number of families that move to better quality accommodation must rise from 3mn last year to 5mn. This means increasing the amount of new residential accommodation being put up from
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