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Opinion
February 22, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
COMMENT:
Putin delivers a homely state of the nation speech
Ben Aris in Berlin
It took Russian President Vladimir Putin an hour to get to the international issues as his state
of the nation speech focused on the political issues that are pressing on the Kremlin today
– the miasma that has fallen over the Russian population as the gradual economic recovery of the last year fails to trickle down to the street and made people’s lives better.
Putin paraphrased JFK’s “ask not what the country can do for you,” with a Russian version: “ask what the country can do for you.” And he followed up with a long shopping list of measures and programmes that are supposed to lift the standard of living in Russia as it emerges from a decade-long depression of stagnant wages and low growth.
These speeches are an annual circus, but they say a lot about the mood of the country and the Kremlin’s state of mind. Last year’s “guns and butter” speech was cut into two parts: partly about the government’s programme to “transform” the economy for the benefit of the citizens and partly a weapons show, complete with dramatic computer simulations of a new generation of “hypersonic” missiles that can penetrate the US defence system.
This year was a lot more mundane and clearly aimed almost entirely at the domestic audience, attempting to address their palpably growing discontent.
The first oddity is that for the first time in the speeches I have watched over the years, he
Putin delivers a homely state of the nation speech almost entirely focused on domestic issues.
skipped entirely the usual macroeconomic rundown that he always gives at the start of every speech: a list of GDP growth, falling inflation, rising income, or whatever good news the statistics have produced in that quarter (and this year there really was a lot of good news as Russia is back to a triple surplus: trade, current account and federal budget).
Instead he dived straight in with social issues and kicked off with family support, childcare, falling demographics and increasing pensions.
This went on for almost an hour and Putin brought a Santa’s sack of goodies to try and make a material difference to the quality of life in Russia. The emphasis was clearly on families and boosting the population. Child benefits are going to be doubled to RUB11,000 per child and from January next year this will be increased again to two times the minimum salary.
The allowance for disabled children will be doubled to RUB10,000 per child and the tax on property and land (everyone in Russia has a dacha, or summer house, mostly provided by the government or their company) for families with children will be reduced and the allotment of tax- free space will be increased.
More nurseries and schools will be opened. (The free so-called “detski sad,” or “children's garden” — childcare for all — is one of the most successful features of Soviet life and is regarded as a right by most Russians).