The following is a transcript taken from a new web-site launched by then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin four days before his President Boris Yeltsin resigned and handed him the reigns to the Russian Republic. The article is interesting in that it is the only detailed prescription of policy that Mr Putin appears to have made so far. The web-site appears to herald a new-era in online propaganda for the Kremlins administration.
TRANSCRIPT BEGINS
INTRODUCTION
The official site of the Russian Government was launched in the Internet on December 27, 1999. The site is available at: http://www.pravitelstvo.gov.ru and http://www.government.gov.ru.
The significance of this development is well beyond another official public information channel taking off in the Internet. In fact it means a fundamental turnabout in government information policies. From now on the latest first-hand government news will be immediately available to all Internet users.
The official site of the Russian Government comprises three sections: "Office of the Prime Minister", "Federal Government Agencies and Departments" and "The Press Center". The site reference sections provide biographies of the Prime Minister, Cabinet Members and federal executive leaders. The Ministries' pages contain statutes of federal executive bodies, provide contact details and links to Web-sites of Ministries and Departments.
Daily news updates under the headings of "Official Chronicle" and "Press Releases" are the most popular pages of the site. These pages offer exclusive news earlier than information agencies and TV.
The site is maintained by the Government Information Department, who plans to further expand it to comprise electronic versions of departmental publications, regulations, interviews of Ministers and other top executive officials.
RUSSIA AT THE TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM
By Vladimir Putin
SYNOPSIS: Russia is in the midst of one of the most difficult periods in its history. For the first time in the past 200-300 years, it is facing a real threat of sliding to the second, and possibly even third, echelon of world states. We are running of time left for removing this threat. We must strain all intellectual, physical and moral forces of the nation. We need coordinated creative work. Nobody will do it for us.
ARTICLE: The humankind lives under the sign of two signal events: the new millennium and the 2000th anniversary of Christianity. I think the general interest for and attention to these two events mean something more than just the tradition to celebrate red-letter dates.
New Possibilities, New Problems
It may be a coincidence - but then, it may be not - that the beginning of the new millennium coincided with a dramatic turn in world developments in the past 20-30 years. I mean the deep and quick changes in the life of humankind connected with the development of what we call the post-industrial society. Here are its main features.
* Changes in the economic
structure of society, with the diminishing weight of
material production and the growing share of secondary and
tertiary sectors.
* The consistent renewal and quick
introduction of novel technologies and the growing output of
science-intensive commodities.
* The landslide
development of the information science and
telecommunications.
* Priority attention to management
and the improvement of the system of organisation and
guidance of all spheres of human endeavour.
* And lastly,
human leadership. It is man and high standards of his
education, professional training, business and social
activity that are becoming the guiding force of progress
today.
The development of a new type of society is a
sufficiently lengthy process for the careful politicians,
statesmen, scientists and all those who can use their brains
to notice two elements of concern in this process.
The
first is that changes bring not only new possibilities to
improve life, but also new problems and dangers. They were
initially and most clearly revealed in the ecological
sphere. But other, and acute, problems were soon detected in
all other spheres of social life. Even the most economically
advanced states are not free from organised crime, growing
cruelty and violence, alcoholism and drug addiction, the
weakening durability and educational role of the family, and
the like.
And the other alarming element is that far from
all countries can use the boons of modern economy and the
new standards of prosperity offered by it. The quick
progress of science, technologies and advanced economy is
underway in only a small number of states, populated by the
so-called golden billion.
Quite a few other countries
reached new economic and social development standards in
this outgoing century. But it cannot be said that they
joined the process of creating a post-industrial society.
Most of them are still far away from the mere approaches to
it. And there are grounds to believe that this gap will
persist for quite some time yet.
This is probably why the
humankind is peering into the future with both hope and fear
at the turn of the new millennium.
Modern Situation in Russia
It would not be exaggeration to say that this
feeling of hope and fear is expressed especially graphically
in Russia. For there are few states in the world which faced
so many trials as Russia in the 20th century.
First,
Russia is not a state symbolising top standards of economic
and social development now. And second, it is facing
difficult economic and social problems.
Its GDP nearly
halved in the 1990s, and its GNP is ten times smaller than
in the USA and five times smaller than in China. After the
1998 crisis, the per capita GDP dropped to roughly 3,500
dollars, which is roughly five times smaller than the
average indicator for the G7 states.
The structure of the
Russian economy changed, with the key positions held by the
fuel industry, power engineering, and the ferrous and
non-ferrous metallurgy. They account for some 15% of the
GDP, 50% of the overall industrial output, and over 70% of
exports.
Productivity in the real economy sector is
extremely low. It rose to well nigh the world average in the
production of raw materials and electricity, but is 20-24%
of the US average in the other industries.
The technical
and technological standards of finished commodities largely
depend on the share of equipment that is less than five
years old. It dwindled from 29% in 1990 to 4.5% in 1998.
Over 70% of our machinery and equipment are over ten years
old, which is more than two times the figure in the
economically developed countries.
This is the result of
the consistently dwindling national investments, above all
to the real economy sector. And foreign investors are not in
a hurry to contribute to the development of Russian
industries. The overall volume of direct foreign investments
in Russia amounts to barely 11.5 billion dollars. China
received as much as 43 billion dollars in foreign
investments.
Russia has been reducing allocations on R&D,
while the 300 largest transnational companies provided 216
billion dollars on R&D in 1997, and some 240 billion dollars
in 1998. Only 5% of Russian enterprises are engaged in
innovative production, whose scale is extremely low.
The
lack of capital investments and insufficient attitude to
innovations resulted in a dramatic fall in the production of
commodities that are world competitive in terms of
price-quality ratio. Foreign rivals have pushed Russia
especially far back on the market of science-intensive
civilian commodities. Russia accounts for less than 1% of
such commodities on the world market, while the USA provides
36% and Japan, 30% of them.
The real incomes of the
population have been falling since the beginning of the
reforms. The deepest fall was registered after the August
1998 crisis, and it will be impossible to restore the
pre-crisis living standards this year. The overall monetary
incomes of the population, calculated by the UN methods, add
up to less than 10% of the US figure. Health and the average
life span, the indicators that determine the quality of
life, deteriorated, too.
The current dramatic economic
and social situation in the country is the price, which we
have to pay for the economy we inherited from the Soviet
Union. But then, what else could we inherit? We had to
install market elements into a system based on completely
different standards, with a bulky and distorted structure.
And this was bound to affect the progress of the
reforms.
We had to pay for the excessive focus of the
Soviet economy on the development of the raw materials
sector and defence industries, which negatively affected the
development of consumer production and services. We are
paying for the Soviet neglect of such key sectors as
information science, electronics and communications. For the
absence of competition between producers and industries,
which hindered scientific and technological progress and
made Russian economy non-competitive on the world markets.
This is our payment for the brakes, and even a ban, put on
the initiative and enterprise of enterprises and their
personnel. And today we are reaping the bitter fruit, both
material and mental, of the past decades.
On the other
hand, we could have avoided certain problems in this renewal
process. They are the result of our own mistakes,
miscalculation and lack of experience. And yet, we could not
have avoided the main problems facing Russian society. The
way to the market and democracy was difficult for all states
that entered it in the 1990s. They all had roughly the same
problems, although in varying degrees.
Russia is
completing the first, transition stage of economic and
political reforms. Despite problems and mistakes, it has
entered the highway by which the whole of humanity is
travelling. Only this way offers the possibility of dynamic
economic growth and higher living standards, as the world
experience convincingly shows. There is no alternative to
it.
The question for Russia now is what to do next. How
can we make the new, market mechanisms work to full
capacity? How can we overcome the still deep ideological and
political split in society? What strategic goals can
consolidate Russian society? What place can Russia occupy in
the international community in the 21st century? What
economic, social and cultural frontiers do we want to attain
in 10-15 years? What are our strong and weak points? And
what material and spiritual resources do we have
now?
These are the questions put forward by life itself.
Unless we find clear answers to them which would be
understandable to all the people, we will be unable to move
forward at the pace and to the goals which are worthy of our
great country.
The Lessons Russia to Learn
The answers
to these questions and our very future depend on what
lessons we will learn from our past and present. This is a
work for society as a whole and for more than one year, but
some of these lessons are already clear.
1. For almost
three-fourths of the outgoing century Russia lived under the
sign of the implementation of the communist doctrine. It
would be a mistake not to see and, even more so, to deny the
unquestionable achievements of those times. But it would be
an even bigger mistake not to realise the outrageous price
our country and its people had to pay for that Bolshevist
experiment.
What is more, /it would be a mistake/ not to
understand its historic futility. Communism and the power of
Soviets did not make Russia a prosperous country with a
dynamically developing society and free people. Communism
vividly demonstrated its inaptitude for sound
self-development, dooming our country to a steady lag behind
economically advanced countries. It was a road to a blind
alley, which is far away from the mainstream of
civilisation.
2. Russia has used up its limit for
political and socio-economic upheavals, cataclysms and
radical reforms. Only fanatics or political forces which are
absolutely apathetic and indifferent to Russia and its
people can make calls to a new revolution.
Be it under
communist, national-patriotic or radical-liberal slogans,
our country, our people will not withstand a new radical
break-up. The nation's tolerance and ability both to survive
and to continue creative endeavour has reached the limit:
society will simply collapse economically, politically,
psychologically and morally.
Responsible socio-political
forces ought to offer the nation a strategy of Russia's
revival and prosperity based on all the positive that has
been accumulated over the period of market and democratic
reforms and implemented only by evolutionary, gradual and
prudent methods. This strategy should be carried out in a
situation of political stability and should not lead to a
deterioration of the life of the Russian people, of any of
its sections and groups. This indisputable condition stems
from the present situation of our country.
3. The
experience of the 90s vividly shows that our country's
genuine renewal without any excessive costs cannot be
assured by a mere experimentation in Russian conditions with
abstract models and schemes taken from foreign text-books.
The mechanical copying of other nations' experience will not
guarantee success, either.
Every country, Russia
included, has to search for its own way of renewal. We have
not been very successful in this respect thus far. Only in
the past year or the past two years we have started groping
for our road and our model of transformation. We can pin
hopes for a worthy future only if we prove capable of
combining the universal principles of a market economy and
democracy with Russian realities.
It is precisely with
this aim in view that our scientists, analysts, experts,
public servants at all levels and political and public
organisations should work.
A Chance for a Worthy Future
Such are the main lessons of the outgoing century.
They make it possible to outline the contours of a long-tern
strategy which is to enable us, within a comparatively short
time, by historic standards, to overcome the present
protracted crisis and create conditions for our country's
fast and stable economic and social headway. The paramount
word is "fast", as we have no time for a slow start.
I
want to quote the calculations made by experts. It will take
us approximately fifteen years and an annual growth of our
Gross Domestic Product by 8 percent a year to reach the per
capita GDP level of present-day Portugal or Spain, which are
not among the world's industrialised leaders. If during the
same fifteen years we manage to ensure the annual growth of
our GDP by 10 percent, we will then catch up with Britain or
France.
Even if we suppose that these tallies are not
quite accurate, our current economic lagging behind is not
that serious and we can overcome it faster, it will still
require many years of work. That is why we should formulate
our long-term strategy and start fulfilling it as soon as
possible.
We have already made the first step in this
direction. The Strategic Research Centre created on the
initiative and with the most active participation of the
Government began its work in the end of December. This
Centre is to put together the best minds of our country to
draft recommendations for the government and proposals and
theoretical and applied projects which are to help elaborate
the strategy itself and the more effective ways of tackling
the tasks which will come up in the process of its
implementation.
I am convinced that ensuring the
necessary growth dynamics is not only an economic problem.
It is also a political and, in a certain sense, - I am not
afraid to use this word - ideological problem. To be more
precise, it is an ideological, spiritual and moral problem.
It seems to me that the latter is of particular importance
at the current stage from the standpoint of ensuring the
unity of Russian society.
(A) Russian Idea
Fruitful and
creative work which our country needs so badly today is
impossible in a split and internally disintegrated society,
a society where the main social sections and political
forces have different basic values and fundamental
ideological orientations.
Twice in the outgoing century
has Russia found itself in such a state: After October 1917
and in the 90s.
In the first case, civil accord and unity
of society were achieved not so much by what was then called
"ideological- educational work" as by power methods. Those
who disagreed with the ideology and policy of the regime
were subjected to different forms of persecution up to
repression.
As a matter of fact, this is why I think that
the term "state ideology" advocated by some politicians,
publicists and scholars is not quite appropriate. It creates
certain associations with our recent past. Where there is a
state ideology blessed and supported by the state, there is,
strictly speaking, practically no room for intellectual and
spiritual freedom, ideological pluralism and freedom of the
press, that is, for political freedom.
I am against the
restoration of an official state ideology in Russia in any
form. There should be no forced civil accord in a democratic
Russia. Social accord can only be voluntary.
That is why
it is so important to achieve social accord on such basic
issues as the aims, values and orientations of development,
which would be desirable for and attractive to the
overwhelming majority of Russians. The absence of civil
accord and unity is one of the reasons why our reforms are
so slow and painful. Most of the strength is spent on
political squabbling, instead of the handling of the
concrete tasks of Russia's renewal.
Nonetheless, there
have appeared some positive changes in this sphere in the
past year or a year and a half. The bulk of Russians show
more wisdom and responsibility than many politicians.
Russians want stability, confidence in the future and
possibility to plan it for themselves and for their children
not for a month but for years and even decades to come. They
want to work in a situation of peace, security and a sound
law-based order. They wish to use the opportunities and
prospects opened by the diversity of the forms of ownership,
free enterprise and market relations.
It is on this basis
that our people have begun to perceive and accept
supra-national universal values which are above social,
group or ethnic interests. Our people have accepted such
values as freedom of expression, freedom to travel abroad
and other fundamental political rights and human liberties.
People value that they can have property, be engaged in free
enterprise, and build up their own wealth, and so on, and so
forth.
Another foothold for the unity of Russian society
is what can be called the traditional values of Russians.
These values are clearly seen today.
Patriotism. This
term is sometimes used ironically and even derogatively. But
for the majority of Russians it has its own and only
original and positive meaning. It is a feeling of pride in
one's country, its history and accomplishments. It is the
striving to make one's country better, richer, stronger and
happier. When these sentiments are free from the tints of
nationalist conceit and imperial ambitions, there is nothing
reprehensible or bigotedly about them. Patriotism is a
source of the courage, staunchness and strength of our
people. If we lose patriotism and national pride and
dignity, which are connected with it, we will lose ourselves
as a nation capable of great achievements.
Belief in the
greatness of Russia. Russia was and will remain a great
power. It is preconditioned by the inseparable
characteristics of its geopolitical, economic and cultural
existence. They determined the mentality of Russians and the
policy of the government throughout the history of Russia
and they cannot but do so at present.
But Russian
mentality should be expanded by new ideas. In the present
world the might of a country as a great power is manifested
more in its ability to be the leader in creating and using
advanced technologies, ensuring a high level of people's
wellbeing, reliably protecting its security and upholding
its national interests in the international arena, than in
its military strength.
Statism. It will not happen soon,
if it ever happens at all, that Russia will become the
second edition of, say, the US or Britain in which liberal
values have deep historic traditions. Our state and its
institutes and structures have always played an
exceptionally important role in the life of the country and
its people. For Russians a strong state is not an anomaly
which should be got rid of. Quite the contrary, they see it
as a source and guarantor of order and the initiator and
main driving force of any change.
Modern Russian society
does not identify a strong and effective state with a
totalitarian state. We have come to value the benefits of
democracy, a law-based state, and personal and political
freedom. At the same time, people are alarmed by the obvious
weakening of state power. The public looks forward to the
restoration of the guiding and regulating role of the state
to a degree which is necessary, proceeding from the
traditions and present state of the country.
Social
Solidarity. It is a fact that a striving for corporative
forms of activity has always prevailed over individualism.
Paternalistic sentiments have struck deep roots in Russian
society. The majority of Russians are used to connect
improvements in their own condition more with the aid and
support of the state and society than with their own
efforts, initiative and flair for business. And it will take
a long time for this habit to die.
Do not let us try to
answer the question whether it is good or bad. The important
thing is that such sentiments exist. What is more, they
still prevail. That is why they cannot be ignored. This
should be taken into consideration in the social policy,
first and foremost.
I suppose that the new Russian idea
will come about as an alloy or an organic unification of
universal general humanitarian values with traditional
Russian values which have stood the test of the times,
including the test of the turbulent 20th century.
This
vitally important process must not be accelerated,
discontinued and destroyed. It is important to prevent that
the first shoots of civil accord be crushed underfoot in the
heat of political campaigns, of some or other
elections.
The results of the recent elections to the
State Duma inspire great optimism in this respect. They
reflected the turn towards stability and civil accord, which
is being completed in our society. The overwhelming majority
of Russians said No to radicalism, extremism and the
opposition with a revolutionary tint. It is probably the
first time since the reforms have begun that such favourable
conditions have been created for constructive cooperation
between the executive and legislative branches of
power.
Serious politicians whose parties and movements
are represented in the new State Duma, are advised to draw
conclusions from this fact. I am positive that the feeling
of responsibility for the destinies of the nation will have
the upper hand, and Russian parties, organizations and
movements and their leaders will not sacrifice the common
interests of and prospects in store for Russia, which call
for a solidary effort of all healthy forces, to the narrow
partisan and time-serving considerations.
(B) Strong State
We are at a stage where even the most correct
economic and social policy starts misfiring while being
realized due to the weakness of the state power, of the
managerial bodies. A key to Russia's recovery and growth is
in the state-policy sphere today.
Russia needs a strong
state power and must have it. I am not calling for
totalitarianism. History proves all dictatorships, all
authoritarian forms of government are transient. Only
democratic systems are intransient. Whatever the
shortcomings, mankind has not devised anything superior. A
strong state power in Russia is a democratic, law-based,
workable federative state.
I see the following directions
of its formation:
- a streamlined structure of the bodies
of state authority and management, higher professionalism,
more discipline and responsibility of civil servants, keener
struggle against corruption;
- a restructuring of the
state personnel policy on the basis of a selection of the
best staffs;
- creating conditions beneficial for the
rise in the country of a full-blooded civil society to
balance out and monitor the authorities;
- a larger role
and higher authority of the judiciary;
- improved
federative relations, including in the sphere of budgets and
finances; and
- an active offensive on crime.
Amending
the Constitution does not seem to be an urgent, priority
task. What we have is a good Constitution. Its provisions
dealing with the individual rights and freedoms are seen as
the best Constitutional instrument of its kind in the world.
It is a serious task, indeed, to make the current
Constitution and the laws made on the basis thereof, the
norm of life of the state, society and every individual,
rather than draft a new Basic Law for the country.
The
Constitutional nature of laws in the making is a major
problem in this respect. Russia currently operates over a
thousand federal laws and several thousand laws of the
republics, territories, regions and autonomous areas. Not
all of them correspond to the above criterion. If the
justice ministry, the prosecutor's office and the judiciary
continue to be as slow in dealing with this matter as they
are today, the mass of questionable or simply
un-Constitutional laws may become critical legally and
politically. The Constitutional safety of the state, the
federal Center's capabilities, the country's manageability
and Russia's integrity would then be in jeopardy.
Another
serious problem is inherent in that tier of authority which
the government belongs to. The global experience prompts the
conclusion that the main threat to human rights and
freedoms, to democracy as such emanates from the executive
authority. Of course, a legislature which makes bad laws
also does its bit. But the main threat emanates from the
executive authority. It organizes the country's life,
applies laws and can objectively distort, substantively and
not always maliciously, these laws by making executive
orders.
The global trend is that of a stronger executive
authority. Not surprisingly, society endeavors to better
control it in order to preclude arbitrariness and misuses of
office. This is why I, personally, am paying priority
attention to building partner relations between the
executive authority and civil society, to developing the
institutes and structures of the latter, and to waging an
active and tough onslaught on corruption.
(C) Efficient Economy
I have already said that the reform years have
generated a heap of problems that have accumulated in the
national economy and social sphere. The situation is
complex, indeed. But, to put it mildly, it is too early to
bury Russia a great power. All troubles notwithstanding, we
have preserved our intellectual potentiality and human
resources. A number of R&D advances, advanced technologies
have not been wasted. We still have our natural resources.
So the country has a worthy future in store for it.
At
the same time, we must learn the lessons of the 1990s and
ponder the experience of market transformations.
1. I see
one of the main lessons in that throughout these years we
have been groping in the dark without having a clear
understanding of national objectives and advances which
would ensure Russia's standing as a developed, prosperous
and great country of the world. The lack of a long-range
development strategy for the next 15-20 and more years, is
badly felt in the economy.
The government firmly intends
to build its activity on the basis of the principle of unity
of the strategy and tactics. Without it, we are doomed to
close holes and operate in the mode of fire-fighting.
Serious politics, big business are done differently. The
country needs a long-term national strategy of development.
I have already said that the government has started devising
it.
2. Another important lesson of the 1990s is the
conclusion that Russia needs to form a wholesome system of
state regulation of the economy and social sphere.
I do
not mean to return to a system of planning and managing the
economy by fiat, where the all-pervasive state was
regulating all aspects of any factory's work from top to
bottom. I mean to make the Russian state an efficient
coordinator of the country's economic and social forces that
balances out their interests, optimizes the aims and
parameters of social development and creates conditions and
mechanisms of their attainment.
The above naturally
exceeds the commonplace formula which limits the state's
role in the economy to devising rules of the game and
controlling their observance. With time, we are likely to
evolve to this formula. But today's situation necessitates
deeper state involvement in the social and economic
processes. While setting the scale and planning mechanisms
for the system of state regulation, we must be guided by the
principle: The state must be where and as needed; freedom
must be where and as required.
3. The third lesson is the transition to a reform strategy that would be best suited for our conditions. It should proceed in the following directions.
3.1. To encourage a dynamic economic growth.
The first to come here should be the encouragement of
investments. We have not yet resolved this problem.
Investments into the real economy sector fell by 5 times in
the 1990s, including by 3.5 times into fixed assets. The
material foundations of the Russian economy are being
undermined.
We call for pursuing an investment policy
that would combine purely market mechanisms with measures of
state guidance.
At the same time, we will continue
working to create an investment climate attractive to
foreign investors. Frankly speaking, the rise would be long
and painful without foreign capital. But we have no time for
this. Consequently, we must do our best to attract foreign
capital to the country.
3.2. To pursue an energetic
industrial policy. The future of the country, the quality of
the Russian economy in the 21st century will depend above
all on progress in the spheres that are based on high
technologies and produce science-intensive commodities. For
90% of economic growth is ensured today by the introduction
of new achievements and technologies.
The government is
prepared to pursue an economic policy of priority
development of industries that lead in the sphere of
research and technological progress. The requisite measures
include:
- assist the development of extra-budgetary
internal demand for advanced technologies and
science-intensive products, and support export-oriented
high-tech productions;
- support non-raw materials
industries working mostly to satisfy internal demand;
-
buttress the export possibilities of the fuel and energy and
raw-materials complexes.
We should use the mechanisms,
which have long been used in the world, to mobilise the
funds necessary for pursuing this policy. The most important
of them are the target-oriented loan and tax instruments and
the provision of privileges against state guarantees.
3.3.
To carry out a rational structural policy. The government
thinks that like in other industrialised countries, there is
a place in the Russian economy for the financial-industrial
groups, corporations, small and medium businesses. Any
attempts to slow down the development of some, and
artificially encourage the development of other economic
forms would only hinder the rise of the national economy.
The policy of the Government will be spearheaded at creating
a structure that would ensure an optimal balance of all
economic forms of management.
Another major sphere is the
rational regulation of the operation of natural monopolies.
This is a key question, as they largely determine the
structure of production and consumer prices. And hence they
influence both the economic and financial processes, and the
dynamics of the people's incomes.
3.4. To create an
effective financial system. This is a challenging task,
which includes the following directions:
- to raise the
effectiveness of the budget as a major instrument of the
economic policy of the state;
- to carry out a tax
reform;
- to get rid of non-payments, barter and other
pseudo-monetary forms of settlement;
- to maintain a low
inflation rate and stability of the rouble;
- to create
civilised financial and stock markets, and turn them into an
instrument of accumulating investment resources;
- to
restructure the bank system.
3.5. To combat the shadow economy and organised crime in the economic and financial-credit sphere. All countries have shadow economies. But their share in the GDP does not exceed 15-20% in industrialised countries, while the figure for Russia is 40%. To resolve this painful problem, we should not just raise the effectiveness of the law-enforcement agencies, but also strengthen the license, tax, hard currency and export control.
3.6. To consistently integrate the Russian
economy into world economic structures. Otherwise we would
not rise to the high level of economic and social progress
that has been attained in the industrialised countries. The
main directions of this work are:
- to ensure an active
support of the state to the foreign economic operation of
Russian enterprises, companies and corporations. In
particular, the time is ripe for creating a federal agency
to support exports, which would provide guarantees to the
export contracts of Russian producers;
- to resolutely
combat the discrimination of Russia on the world markets of
commodities, services and investments, and to approve and
apply a national anti-dumping legislation;
- to
incorporate Russia into the international system of
regulating foreign economic operation, above all the
WTO.
3.7. To pursue a modern agrarian policy. The revival of Russia will be impossible without the revival of the countryside and agriculture. We need an agrarian policy that would organically combine measures of state assistance and state regulation with the market reforms in the countryside and in land ownership relations.
4. We must admit that
virtually all changes and measures entailing a fall in the
living conditions of the people are inadmissible in Russia.
We have come to a line beyond which we must not
go.
Poverty has reached a mind-boggling scale in Russia.
In early 1998, the average-weighted world per capita income
amounted to some 5,000 dollars a year, but it was only 2,200
dollars in Russia. And it dropped still lower after the
August 1998 crisis. The share of wages in the GDP dropped
from 50% to 30% since the beginning of reforms.
This is
the most acute social problem. The Government is elaborating
a new income policy designed to ensure a stable growth of
prosperity on the basis of the growth of real disposable
incomes of the people.
Despite these difficulties, the
Government is resolved to take new measures to support
science, education, culture and health care. For a country
where the people are not healthy physically and
psychologically, are poorly educated and illiterate, will
never rise to the summits of world civilisation.
Russia
is in the midst of one of the most difficult periods in its
history. For the first time in the past 200-300 years, it is
facing a real threat of sliding to the second, and possibly
even third, echelon of world states. We are running of time
left for removing this threat. We must strain all
intellectual, physical and moral forces of the nation. We
need coordinated creative work. Nobody will do it for
us.
Everything depends on us, and us alone. On our
ability to see the size of the threat, to pool forces and
set our minds to hard and lengthy work.
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