Vladimir Putin: Russia focuses on the challenges we must respond to
In an article for Izvestia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin outlines a range of issues that will be reflected in his presidential election program, and expresses an opinion about the processes taking place in Russia.
4 March, Russian citizens will come to the polls to elect a president. There are a lot of discussions in society now.
I consider it necessary to express my position on a number of issues that seem to me important for broad discussion. What risks and challenges Russia will have to face. What place should we take in global politics and economics. Will we follow the development of events or themselves participate in the formation of the rules of the game. Thanks to what resources we will be able to strengthen our position and, I stress, to ensure stable development. And this, which has nothing to do with stagnation. Because in the modern world, stability is a wealth that can only be earned, earned by hard work, showing openness to change and readiness for urgent, thoughtful and calculated reforms.
Permanently repeated in stories Russia's problem is the striving of a part of its elites for a breakthrough, for revolution instead of consistent development. Meanwhile, not only the Russian experience, but the entire world experience shows the perniciousness of historical jerks: rushing ahead and overthrowing without creation.
This is opposed by another tendency, the opposite challenge - the tendency to stagnation, dependency, noncompetitiveness of elites and a high level of corruption. And at every opportunity, the “subversors” literally before our eyes turn into “self-satisfied gentlemen” who oppose any changes and jealously guard their status and privileges. Or exactly the opposite process takes place - “gentlemen” are transformed into “subversive”.
Hence, the very “short breath” of the policy, its limitations with the questions of the current preservation or redistribution of power and property.
This situation has traditionally been caused by the weakness of public control over politicians, the underdevelopment of civil society in Russia. The situation here is gradually changing, but still very slowly.
There can be no real democracy without the policy being accepted by the majority of the population, reflecting the interests of this majority. Yes, it is possible for a short period to entice a significant part of society with voiced slogans, images of a beautiful future; but if then people do not see themselves in this future - they will turn away from politics and from public tasks for a long time. This has happened more than once in our history.
Today they talk about different forms of updating the political process. But what is proposed to negotiate? How to arrange power? Transfer it to the "best people"? And then what? What we shall do?
I am concerned that there is practically no discussion about what should be done outside the framework of the elections, after the elections. In my opinion, this does not meet the interests of the country, the quality of development of our society, the level of its education and responsibility.
Russian citizens, it seems to me, should be able to discuss not only the advantages and disadvantages of politicians, which in itself is not bad, but the content of the policy, the programs that certain politicians intend to implement. Challenges and tasks that should be the focus of these programs. How can we improve our lives, make our social system more equitable. What vector of economic and social development we prefer.
We need a broad dialogue - about the future, about priorities, about long-term choice, national development and national perspectives. This article is an invitation to such a dialogue.
Where we are and where we go
Russia today on the basic parameters of economic and social development emerged from a deep recession that followed the collapse of the totalitarian model of socialism and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Despite the crisis of 2008 – 2009, which “deducted” from our efforts for two whole years, we achieved and overcame indicators of the standard of living of the most prosperous years of the USSR. For example, life expectancy in Russia is already higher than in the Soviet Union in 1990 – 1991.
The economy is developing - and this is primarily people, their work, their income, their new opportunities. Compared to the 1990 years, poverty today has decreased more than 2,5 times. The “zones of stagnant poverty” have practically become a thing of the past, when capable and active people in big cities could not find work or were not paid their salaries for months.
According to independent studies, the real incomes of four out of five Russians exceed the level of 1989 of the year - the “peak” of the development of the USSR, after which the decline and imbalance of the entire socio-economic organism of the country began. More 80% of Russian families today have a higher level of consumption than the average level of consumption of the Soviet family. The provision of home appliances has grown by half, to the level of developed countries. Every second family has a car - an increase of three times. Significantly improved living conditions. Not only the average citizen of Russia, but also our pensioners now consume more basic foodstuffs than in 1990.
But what is especially important is that in Russia over the past 10 years a significant stratum of people has been formed, which in the West is referred to the middle class. These are people with incomes that make it possible to choose, in fairly wide limits, whether to spend or save what to buy and how to rest. They can choose a job that they like, they have certain savings.
And finally, the middle class is people who can choose politics. They, as a rule, have the level of education that allows you to consciously treat the candidates, and not “vote with your heart.” In short, the middle class began to really formulate their requests in different directions.
In 1998, the middle class was from 5 to 10% of the population - less than in the late USSR. Now the middle class, according to various estimates, ranges from 20 to 30% of the population. These are people whose incomes are more than three times higher than the average earnings of 1990 of the year.
The middle class must grow further. Become a social majority in our society. To replenish at the expense of those who are dragging on themselves the country - doctors, teachers, engineers, skilled workers.
The main hope of Russia is a high level of education of the population, and above all our youth. This is exactly the case - even with all the known problems and complaints about the quality of the national educational system.
Among our citizens at the age of 25 – 35, 57% have higher education - this level except for Russia is noted only in 3 countries of the world: in Japan, South Korea and Canada. The explosive growth in educational needs continues: in the next generation (15 – 25 years), it is fit to talk about universal higher education - it gets or is seeking to get more 80% of boys and girls.
We are entering a new social reality. The “educational revolution” radically changes the very image of Russian society and the Russian economy. Even if at the moment our economy does not need so many workers with higher education, we cannot return back. People should not adapt to the existing structure of the economy and the labor market - the economy should become such that citizens with a high level of education, with a high level of demands, can find a worthy place for themselves.
The main challenge for Russia is that we must learn to use the “educational drive” of the younger generation, to mobilize the increased demands of the middle class and its willingness to be responsible for their own welfare to ensure economic growth and sustainable development of the country.
More educated people - this is longer life expectancy, it is a lower level of crime, antisocial behavior, a more rational choice. All this in itself creates a favorable background for our future.
But this is not enough.
The increase in wealth in the past decade was largely due to the actions of the state, including by restoring order in the distribution of natural rent. We used oil revenues to increase incomes of the population in order to get millions of people out of poverty. And also - to have national savings in case of crises and cataclysms. Today, this potential of the “raw materials economy” is drying up, and most importantly, it has no strategic prospects.
Already in the basic, programmatic documents of the year 2008, taken immediately before the crisis, the main task was to diversify the economy and create new sources of growth.
It is necessary to form a new economy for educated and responsible people. In each of their hypostases - professionals, entrepreneurs or consumers.
Over the next 10 years, 10 – 11 million young people will enter the economy, of which 8 – 9 million will have a higher education. Already today, 5 million people with higher education are not satisfied with the salary, but also with the nature of their work, lack of prospects in the labor market. Another 2 – 3 million - specialists of public institutions who want to find a new job. In addition, 10 million people are employed in industries built on archaic, backward technologies. Such technologies should be a thing of the past - and not only because they lose out on the market. Some of them are simply dangerous for the health of workers and for environmental well-being.
So creating 25 million new, high-tech, well-paid jobs for people with a high level of education is not a beautiful phrase. This is a must, a minimum level of sufficiency. Around the solution of this nationwide task it is necessary to build a state policy, consolidate the efforts of business, create the best business climate.
I am convinced that today's and especially tomorrow's personnel potential of our country allows us to claim the strongest position in global economic competition.
The future Russian economy must meet the needs of society. It should provide higher labor income, more interesting, creative work and create wide opportunities for professional growth, build social elevators.
It is this, and not only GDP figures, the volume of foreign exchange reserves, the ratings of international agencies and Russia's high place among the largest economies in the world will be critical in the coming years. First of all, people should feel the positive changes, and first of all through the expansion of their own capabilities.
But the engine of growth must and will be precisely the initiative of citizens. We will obviously lose, if we rely only on the decisions of officials and a limited number of large investors and state-owned companies. We will obviously lose if we rely on the passive position of the population.
So the growth of Russia in the coming decade is the expansion of the space of freedom for each of us. Well-being from the hands of someone, well-being without responsibility for their decisions in the 21st century is simply impossible.
We face another challenge. The general phrases about the consent and benefits of charity are revealed by an inadequate level of people's trust in each other, an unwillingness to engage in public affairs, to care for others, the inability to rise above private interests - this is a serious and long-standing ailment of our society.
In Russian culture there is a big historical tradition of respect for the state, for the public interests, for what the country needs. The absolute majority of Russians want to see our country great and strong, respects the heroes who put their lives for the common good. But, unfortunately, pride or resentment for a power is not always realized in everyday, everyday life - in participation in local government, in readiness to speak out in defense of the law, in real charity.
As a rule, not indifference and egoism are behind this. And an elementary disbelief in one’s own strength or distrust of one’s neighbor.
But here, in recent years, the situation has gradually changed. Citizens are more and more often not limited to fair demands on the authorities, but they themselves undertake many prosaic but very necessary things: improvement of courtyards, care for the disabled, assistance to the needy, organization of children's leisure and much more.
From 2012, the state will begin to help such initiatives: at the federal level and in many regions, programs have been adopted to support socially oriented non-governmental non-profit organizations. In the future, we will significantly increase the scale of such programs. But in order for them to truly work, you need to firmly confront the prejudice against social activists that is resilient in the bureaucratic environment. Behind this prejudice is the unwillingness to share resources, the desire to avoid competition, and the fear of real demand for the assigned work.
An invaluable role in social service, in overcoming people’s disunity, building trust and willingness to peacefully resolve conflicts that are inevitable in a rapidly developing society, is played by traditional religions — Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. The school and the media, television and the Internet community can and should do much in this regard.
A society of free people is not at all the same as a crowd of lonely calculating egoists who are indifferent to the common good. We have never been and never will be such a crowd. Personal freedom is productive if you remember and think of others. Freedom without moral basis turns into arbitrariness.
Trust between people develops only when society is held together by common values and people have not lost their ability to believe, honesty, and a sense of justice. And respect for the law arises only when it is one for all, it is respected by everyone and at the core of it is the truth.
The social portrait of our future will be incomplete, if not to mention one more, most important problem. 10 – 11% of our citizens still remain below the poverty line in their incomes. For a variety of reasons. By the end of this decade, we need to solve this problem. Overcome poverty, unacceptable for a developed country. To use for this purpose both the resources of the state and the efforts of the society, its interested, active part. Target the social assistance system and support the philanthropic movement.
In Russia, the system of social mobility, social elevators, corresponding to modern society, should be fully formed. We need to learn how to compensate for the negative social consequences of a market economy and the inequality organically generated by it. Just as countries that have long lived under capitalism have learned to do this. This is a special, special support that children from poor families receive when receiving education. This is social housing for low-income families. This is a complete overcoming of any discrimination of persons with disabilities, ensuring their equal access to all life benefits and to good work. A society will be successful only when our citizens have no doubt about its justice.
On a new stage in global development
The global crisis that erupted in 2008 year has affected everyone, has re-evaluated a lot.
It is no secret to anyone that the economic storm was triggered not only by cyclical factors and failures in regulation. The root of the problems is accumulated imbalances. The model, built on rampant borrowing, on life in debt and eating away the future, on virtual rather than real values and assets, has stalled. In addition, the wealth generated is extremely unevenly distributed and distributed among individual countries and regions. And it also reduces global sustainability, provokes conflicts, reduces the ability of the world community to reach agreement on acute, principled issues.
Fake entities appear not only in the economy, but also in politics, the social sphere. A kind of illusory "derivatives" also arise here. The crisis in the developed countries showed one dangerous and, in my opinion, purely political tendency: to a blind, populist build-up of the state’s social obligations - irrespective of the increase in labor productivity, to the formation of social irresponsibility in certain segments of the population of these countries. But now it becomes clear to many: the era of welfare states "on someone else's hump" is ending.
No one can live better than it works. This requirement fully applies to Russia.
We did not play dummy. Our economic policy was thoughtful and prudent. In the pre-crisis period, we significantly increased the volume of the economy, got rid of debt dependence, raised the real incomes of citizens, created reserves that allowed the crisis to pass with minimal losses to the standard of living of the population. Moreover, in the midst of the crisis, we were able to significantly increase pensions and other social benefits. But many people, especially from among the oppositionists, pushed us to spend what oil revenues brought. What would happen to the same pensions if we were led by populists?
Unfortunately, populist rhetoric resounded in the recent parliamentary campaign. Probably, we will hear it and in the course of the presidential campaign from those who obviously do not hope to win, and therefore feel free to give out promises that they will not have to fulfill. I will say with complete frankness: we must continue to persistently use all opportunities to improve the lives of our citizens, but, as before, we cannot act “at random”, so that, unlike some Western countries, we should not be faced with the need to take much more from people than frivolously distributed.
It should be recognized that in terms of scale, today's global imbalances are such that they can hardly be eliminated within the framework of the current system. Yes, market fluctuations can be overcome. And in most countries, a set of tactical measures has now been developed, which allows us to respond to acute manifestations of the crisis with varying degrees of success.
But in a deeper long-term sense, current problems are not at all opportunistic in nature. By and large, what the world is facing today is a serious systemic crisis, a tectonic process of global transformation. This is a visible manifestation of the transition to a new cultural, economic, technological, geopolitical era. The world is entering a zone of turbulence. And, of course, this period will be long and painful. There is no need to harbor illusions.
The final of the system that has developed over 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, including the phenomenon of "unipolarity", is also obvious. Now the former single “pole of power” is no longer able to maintain global stability, and new centers of influence are not yet ready to do so. The sharply increased unpredictability of world economic processes and the military-political situation in the world requires the confidential and responsible cooperation of states, and above all the permanent members of the Security Council, the G8 and G20 countries. Constant efforts are needed to overcome mutual suspicion, ideological prejudices and short-sighted egoism.
Now, the largest economic centers, instead of serving as development engines, giving stability to the world economic system, increasingly give rise to problems and risks. Social and ethnocultural tension is rapidly increasing. In a number of regions of the planet, they “unwind” and aggressively declare themselves destructive forces, which ultimately threaten the security of all the peoples of the Earth. Objectively, those states that try to “export democracy” using force and military methods sometimes become their allies.
Even the most good goals can not justify the violation of international law and state sovereignty. In addition, experience shows that, as a rule, initial goals are not achieved, and costs incomparably exceed expectations.
Under these conditions, Russia can and should adequately play the role dictated by its civilization model, great history, geography and its cultural genome, which organically combines the fundamental foundations of European civilization and the centuries-old experience of interaction with the East, which is now actively developing new centers of economic power and political influence.
What is the state of Russia facing the impending era of global transformation?
In 1990, the country experienced a real shock of decay and degradation, of tremendous social costs and losses. A total weakening of statehood against such a background was simply inevitable. We really came to a critical point. The fact that several thousand gangsters, albeit with the support of certain external forces, decided in 1999 to attack a state with a million-strong army, speaks of the tragedy of the situation at that time. Too many thought that we could finally finish.
I remember well the text of the information intercepted by the FSB at the time, which was sent abroad to its accomplices by one of the most odious and bloody international terrorists who killed our people in the North Caucasus - Khattab. He wrote: “Russia is weaker than ever. Today we have a unique chance: to take the North Caucasus from the Russians. ” The terrorists miscalculated: the Russian army, with the support of the Chechen and other peoples of the Caucasus, defended the territorial integrity of our country and the unity of the Russian state.
However, we needed tremendous exertion of forces, mobilization of all resources in order to get out of the pit. Collect the country. Return to Russia the status of a geopolitical subject. To establish a social system and raise the underlying economy. To restore the elementary controllability of power.
We had to revive the authority and strength of the state as such. To revive, without having deeply rooted democratic traditions, mass political parties and a mature civil society, and at the same time facing regional separatism, the domination of oligarchy, corruption, and sometimes the presence of outright crime in government.
The immediate task in such circumstances was the restoration of the real unity of the country, in other words, the establishment throughout its territory of the sovereignty of the Russian people, and not the domination of individuals or groups.
Now, few people remember how difficult this task was, what efforts it took to solve it. Few people remember that the most authoritative experts and many international leaders at the end of 1990 agreed on a single forecast for the future of Russia: bankruptcy and collapse. The current situation in Russia - if you look at it through the eyes of 1990-s - would look to them just super-optimistic fiction.
But just such “forgetfulness” and today's public readiness to try on Russia with the highest standards of quality of life and democracy are the best evidence of our success.
It is precisely because in recent years we all, the people of Russia, have achieved a lot in addressing the most urgent and urgent tasks, the country has stood up to the blows of the global crisis. And today we still have the opportunity to talk about prospects and strategies.
The recovery period is over. The post-Soviet stage in the development of Russia, however, as in the development of the whole world, has been completed and exhausted.
All prerequisites have been created for moving forward - on a new base and in a new capacity. And even in harsh, far from comfortable foreign policy and foreign economic conditions. At the same time, the irreversible global transformation is a tremendous chance for us.
And here I would once again like to say why I agreed to run in 2012 for the presidency of Russia. I do not want and I will not belittle anyone's merits in the formation of a new country. There were a lot of them. But the fact remains that in the 1999 year, when I became the chairman of the government, and then the president, our state was in a state of deep systemic crisis. And it was precisely the group of like-minded people who was destined to form and lead the author of these lines, relying on the support of the absolute majority of citizens, on national unity around common tasks, led Russia out of the impasse of the civil war, broke the backbone of terrorism, restored the country's territorial integrity and constitutional order, revived economy and has provided over the years 10 one of the highest in the world economic growth and increase the real income of our people.
Today we see what has been done successfully, which worked efficiently. And vice versa - what needs to be corrected, what things should be completely abandoned.
Our task for the coming years I see is to remove from the road of national development everything that hinders us from moving forward. To complete the creation in Russia of such a political system, such a structure of social guarantees and protection of citizens, such a model of the economy, which together will constitute a single, vibrant, constantly developing and at the same time stable and stable, healthy state organism. Able to unconditionally guarantee the sovereignty of Russia and the prosperity of the citizens of our great power for decades to come. To defend the justice and dignity of each person. Truth and trust in relations between the state and society.
We still have not solved many problems. There are also new complex problems, but we are able to wrap them up for our own benefit, for the benefit of Russia.
Russia is not a country that is retreating before the challenges. Russia is focusing, gathering strength and adequately responding to any challenges. Overcomes trials and always wins. We have grown a new generation of creative and responsible people who see the future. They are already coming and, of course, they will continue to come to the management of enterprises and entire industries, government agencies and the whole country.
It depends only on us how we will respond to today's challenges and how we use our chance to strengthen ourselves and our position in a rapidly changing world.
In the coming weeks, I intend to submit to the public discussion more specific considerations on this subject.
4 March, Russian citizens will come to the polls to elect a president. There are a lot of discussions in society now.
I consider it necessary to express my position on a number of issues that seem to me important for broad discussion. What risks and challenges Russia will have to face. What place should we take in global politics and economics. Will we follow the development of events or themselves participate in the formation of the rules of the game. Thanks to what resources we will be able to strengthen our position and, I stress, to ensure stable development. And this, which has nothing to do with stagnation. Because in the modern world, stability is a wealth that can only be earned, earned by hard work, showing openness to change and readiness for urgent, thoughtful and calculated reforms.
Permanently repeated in stories Russia's problem is the striving of a part of its elites for a breakthrough, for revolution instead of consistent development. Meanwhile, not only the Russian experience, but the entire world experience shows the perniciousness of historical jerks: rushing ahead and overthrowing without creation.
This is opposed by another tendency, the opposite challenge - the tendency to stagnation, dependency, noncompetitiveness of elites and a high level of corruption. And at every opportunity, the “subversors” literally before our eyes turn into “self-satisfied gentlemen” who oppose any changes and jealously guard their status and privileges. Or exactly the opposite process takes place - “gentlemen” are transformed into “subversive”.
Hence, the very “short breath” of the policy, its limitations with the questions of the current preservation or redistribution of power and property.
This situation has traditionally been caused by the weakness of public control over politicians, the underdevelopment of civil society in Russia. The situation here is gradually changing, but still very slowly.
There can be no real democracy without the policy being accepted by the majority of the population, reflecting the interests of this majority. Yes, it is possible for a short period to entice a significant part of society with voiced slogans, images of a beautiful future; but if then people do not see themselves in this future - they will turn away from politics and from public tasks for a long time. This has happened more than once in our history.
Today they talk about different forms of updating the political process. But what is proposed to negotiate? How to arrange power? Transfer it to the "best people"? And then what? What we shall do?
I am concerned that there is practically no discussion about what should be done outside the framework of the elections, after the elections. In my opinion, this does not meet the interests of the country, the quality of development of our society, the level of its education and responsibility.
Russian citizens, it seems to me, should be able to discuss not only the advantages and disadvantages of politicians, which in itself is not bad, but the content of the policy, the programs that certain politicians intend to implement. Challenges and tasks that should be the focus of these programs. How can we improve our lives, make our social system more equitable. What vector of economic and social development we prefer.
We need a broad dialogue - about the future, about priorities, about long-term choice, national development and national perspectives. This article is an invitation to such a dialogue.
Where we are and where we go
Russia today on the basic parameters of economic and social development emerged from a deep recession that followed the collapse of the totalitarian model of socialism and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Despite the crisis of 2008 – 2009, which “deducted” from our efforts for two whole years, we achieved and overcame indicators of the standard of living of the most prosperous years of the USSR. For example, life expectancy in Russia is already higher than in the Soviet Union in 1990 – 1991.
The economy is developing - and this is primarily people, their work, their income, their new opportunities. Compared to the 1990 years, poverty today has decreased more than 2,5 times. The “zones of stagnant poverty” have practically become a thing of the past, when capable and active people in big cities could not find work or were not paid their salaries for months.
According to independent studies, the real incomes of four out of five Russians exceed the level of 1989 of the year - the “peak” of the development of the USSR, after which the decline and imbalance of the entire socio-economic organism of the country began. More 80% of Russian families today have a higher level of consumption than the average level of consumption of the Soviet family. The provision of home appliances has grown by half, to the level of developed countries. Every second family has a car - an increase of three times. Significantly improved living conditions. Not only the average citizen of Russia, but also our pensioners now consume more basic foodstuffs than in 1990.
But what is especially important is that in Russia over the past 10 years a significant stratum of people has been formed, which in the West is referred to the middle class. These are people with incomes that make it possible to choose, in fairly wide limits, whether to spend or save what to buy and how to rest. They can choose a job that they like, they have certain savings.
And finally, the middle class is people who can choose politics. They, as a rule, have the level of education that allows you to consciously treat the candidates, and not “vote with your heart.” In short, the middle class began to really formulate their requests in different directions.
In 1998, the middle class was from 5 to 10% of the population - less than in the late USSR. Now the middle class, according to various estimates, ranges from 20 to 30% of the population. These are people whose incomes are more than three times higher than the average earnings of 1990 of the year.
The middle class must grow further. Become a social majority in our society. To replenish at the expense of those who are dragging on themselves the country - doctors, teachers, engineers, skilled workers.
The main hope of Russia is a high level of education of the population, and above all our youth. This is exactly the case - even with all the known problems and complaints about the quality of the national educational system.
Among our citizens at the age of 25 – 35, 57% have higher education - this level except for Russia is noted only in 3 countries of the world: in Japan, South Korea and Canada. The explosive growth in educational needs continues: in the next generation (15 – 25 years), it is fit to talk about universal higher education - it gets or is seeking to get more 80% of boys and girls.
We are entering a new social reality. The “educational revolution” radically changes the very image of Russian society and the Russian economy. Even if at the moment our economy does not need so many workers with higher education, we cannot return back. People should not adapt to the existing structure of the economy and the labor market - the economy should become such that citizens with a high level of education, with a high level of demands, can find a worthy place for themselves.
The main challenge for Russia is that we must learn to use the “educational drive” of the younger generation, to mobilize the increased demands of the middle class and its willingness to be responsible for their own welfare to ensure economic growth and sustainable development of the country.
More educated people - this is longer life expectancy, it is a lower level of crime, antisocial behavior, a more rational choice. All this in itself creates a favorable background for our future.
But this is not enough.
The increase in wealth in the past decade was largely due to the actions of the state, including by restoring order in the distribution of natural rent. We used oil revenues to increase incomes of the population in order to get millions of people out of poverty. And also - to have national savings in case of crises and cataclysms. Today, this potential of the “raw materials economy” is drying up, and most importantly, it has no strategic prospects.
Already in the basic, programmatic documents of the year 2008, taken immediately before the crisis, the main task was to diversify the economy and create new sources of growth.
It is necessary to form a new economy for educated and responsible people. In each of their hypostases - professionals, entrepreneurs or consumers.
Over the next 10 years, 10 – 11 million young people will enter the economy, of which 8 – 9 million will have a higher education. Already today, 5 million people with higher education are not satisfied with the salary, but also with the nature of their work, lack of prospects in the labor market. Another 2 – 3 million - specialists of public institutions who want to find a new job. In addition, 10 million people are employed in industries built on archaic, backward technologies. Such technologies should be a thing of the past - and not only because they lose out on the market. Some of them are simply dangerous for the health of workers and for environmental well-being.
So creating 25 million new, high-tech, well-paid jobs for people with a high level of education is not a beautiful phrase. This is a must, a minimum level of sufficiency. Around the solution of this nationwide task it is necessary to build a state policy, consolidate the efforts of business, create the best business climate.
I am convinced that today's and especially tomorrow's personnel potential of our country allows us to claim the strongest position in global economic competition.
The future Russian economy must meet the needs of society. It should provide higher labor income, more interesting, creative work and create wide opportunities for professional growth, build social elevators.
It is this, and not only GDP figures, the volume of foreign exchange reserves, the ratings of international agencies and Russia's high place among the largest economies in the world will be critical in the coming years. First of all, people should feel the positive changes, and first of all through the expansion of their own capabilities.
But the engine of growth must and will be precisely the initiative of citizens. We will obviously lose, if we rely only on the decisions of officials and a limited number of large investors and state-owned companies. We will obviously lose if we rely on the passive position of the population.
So the growth of Russia in the coming decade is the expansion of the space of freedom for each of us. Well-being from the hands of someone, well-being without responsibility for their decisions in the 21st century is simply impossible.
We face another challenge. The general phrases about the consent and benefits of charity are revealed by an inadequate level of people's trust in each other, an unwillingness to engage in public affairs, to care for others, the inability to rise above private interests - this is a serious and long-standing ailment of our society.
In Russian culture there is a big historical tradition of respect for the state, for the public interests, for what the country needs. The absolute majority of Russians want to see our country great and strong, respects the heroes who put their lives for the common good. But, unfortunately, pride or resentment for a power is not always realized in everyday, everyday life - in participation in local government, in readiness to speak out in defense of the law, in real charity.
As a rule, not indifference and egoism are behind this. And an elementary disbelief in one’s own strength or distrust of one’s neighbor.
But here, in recent years, the situation has gradually changed. Citizens are more and more often not limited to fair demands on the authorities, but they themselves undertake many prosaic but very necessary things: improvement of courtyards, care for the disabled, assistance to the needy, organization of children's leisure and much more.
From 2012, the state will begin to help such initiatives: at the federal level and in many regions, programs have been adopted to support socially oriented non-governmental non-profit organizations. In the future, we will significantly increase the scale of such programs. But in order for them to truly work, you need to firmly confront the prejudice against social activists that is resilient in the bureaucratic environment. Behind this prejudice is the unwillingness to share resources, the desire to avoid competition, and the fear of real demand for the assigned work.
An invaluable role in social service, in overcoming people’s disunity, building trust and willingness to peacefully resolve conflicts that are inevitable in a rapidly developing society, is played by traditional religions — Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. The school and the media, television and the Internet community can and should do much in this regard.
A society of free people is not at all the same as a crowd of lonely calculating egoists who are indifferent to the common good. We have never been and never will be such a crowd. Personal freedom is productive if you remember and think of others. Freedom without moral basis turns into arbitrariness.
Trust between people develops only when society is held together by common values and people have not lost their ability to believe, honesty, and a sense of justice. And respect for the law arises only when it is one for all, it is respected by everyone and at the core of it is the truth.
The social portrait of our future will be incomplete, if not to mention one more, most important problem. 10 – 11% of our citizens still remain below the poverty line in their incomes. For a variety of reasons. By the end of this decade, we need to solve this problem. Overcome poverty, unacceptable for a developed country. To use for this purpose both the resources of the state and the efforts of the society, its interested, active part. Target the social assistance system and support the philanthropic movement.
In Russia, the system of social mobility, social elevators, corresponding to modern society, should be fully formed. We need to learn how to compensate for the negative social consequences of a market economy and the inequality organically generated by it. Just as countries that have long lived under capitalism have learned to do this. This is a special, special support that children from poor families receive when receiving education. This is social housing for low-income families. This is a complete overcoming of any discrimination of persons with disabilities, ensuring their equal access to all life benefits and to good work. A society will be successful only when our citizens have no doubt about its justice.
On a new stage in global development
The global crisis that erupted in 2008 year has affected everyone, has re-evaluated a lot.
It is no secret to anyone that the economic storm was triggered not only by cyclical factors and failures in regulation. The root of the problems is accumulated imbalances. The model, built on rampant borrowing, on life in debt and eating away the future, on virtual rather than real values and assets, has stalled. In addition, the wealth generated is extremely unevenly distributed and distributed among individual countries and regions. And it also reduces global sustainability, provokes conflicts, reduces the ability of the world community to reach agreement on acute, principled issues.
Fake entities appear not only in the economy, but also in politics, the social sphere. A kind of illusory "derivatives" also arise here. The crisis in the developed countries showed one dangerous and, in my opinion, purely political tendency: to a blind, populist build-up of the state’s social obligations - irrespective of the increase in labor productivity, to the formation of social irresponsibility in certain segments of the population of these countries. But now it becomes clear to many: the era of welfare states "on someone else's hump" is ending.
No one can live better than it works. This requirement fully applies to Russia.
We did not play dummy. Our economic policy was thoughtful and prudent. In the pre-crisis period, we significantly increased the volume of the economy, got rid of debt dependence, raised the real incomes of citizens, created reserves that allowed the crisis to pass with minimal losses to the standard of living of the population. Moreover, in the midst of the crisis, we were able to significantly increase pensions and other social benefits. But many people, especially from among the oppositionists, pushed us to spend what oil revenues brought. What would happen to the same pensions if we were led by populists?
Unfortunately, populist rhetoric resounded in the recent parliamentary campaign. Probably, we will hear it and in the course of the presidential campaign from those who obviously do not hope to win, and therefore feel free to give out promises that they will not have to fulfill. I will say with complete frankness: we must continue to persistently use all opportunities to improve the lives of our citizens, but, as before, we cannot act “at random”, so that, unlike some Western countries, we should not be faced with the need to take much more from people than frivolously distributed.
It should be recognized that in terms of scale, today's global imbalances are such that they can hardly be eliminated within the framework of the current system. Yes, market fluctuations can be overcome. And in most countries, a set of tactical measures has now been developed, which allows us to respond to acute manifestations of the crisis with varying degrees of success.
But in a deeper long-term sense, current problems are not at all opportunistic in nature. By and large, what the world is facing today is a serious systemic crisis, a tectonic process of global transformation. This is a visible manifestation of the transition to a new cultural, economic, technological, geopolitical era. The world is entering a zone of turbulence. And, of course, this period will be long and painful. There is no need to harbor illusions.
The final of the system that has developed over 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, including the phenomenon of "unipolarity", is also obvious. Now the former single “pole of power” is no longer able to maintain global stability, and new centers of influence are not yet ready to do so. The sharply increased unpredictability of world economic processes and the military-political situation in the world requires the confidential and responsible cooperation of states, and above all the permanent members of the Security Council, the G8 and G20 countries. Constant efforts are needed to overcome mutual suspicion, ideological prejudices and short-sighted egoism.
Now, the largest economic centers, instead of serving as development engines, giving stability to the world economic system, increasingly give rise to problems and risks. Social and ethnocultural tension is rapidly increasing. In a number of regions of the planet, they “unwind” and aggressively declare themselves destructive forces, which ultimately threaten the security of all the peoples of the Earth. Objectively, those states that try to “export democracy” using force and military methods sometimes become their allies.
Even the most good goals can not justify the violation of international law and state sovereignty. In addition, experience shows that, as a rule, initial goals are not achieved, and costs incomparably exceed expectations.
Under these conditions, Russia can and should adequately play the role dictated by its civilization model, great history, geography and its cultural genome, which organically combines the fundamental foundations of European civilization and the centuries-old experience of interaction with the East, which is now actively developing new centers of economic power and political influence.
What is the state of Russia facing the impending era of global transformation?
In 1990, the country experienced a real shock of decay and degradation, of tremendous social costs and losses. A total weakening of statehood against such a background was simply inevitable. We really came to a critical point. The fact that several thousand gangsters, albeit with the support of certain external forces, decided in 1999 to attack a state with a million-strong army, speaks of the tragedy of the situation at that time. Too many thought that we could finally finish.
I remember well the text of the information intercepted by the FSB at the time, which was sent abroad to its accomplices by one of the most odious and bloody international terrorists who killed our people in the North Caucasus - Khattab. He wrote: “Russia is weaker than ever. Today we have a unique chance: to take the North Caucasus from the Russians. ” The terrorists miscalculated: the Russian army, with the support of the Chechen and other peoples of the Caucasus, defended the territorial integrity of our country and the unity of the Russian state.
However, we needed tremendous exertion of forces, mobilization of all resources in order to get out of the pit. Collect the country. Return to Russia the status of a geopolitical subject. To establish a social system and raise the underlying economy. To restore the elementary controllability of power.
We had to revive the authority and strength of the state as such. To revive, without having deeply rooted democratic traditions, mass political parties and a mature civil society, and at the same time facing regional separatism, the domination of oligarchy, corruption, and sometimes the presence of outright crime in government.
The immediate task in such circumstances was the restoration of the real unity of the country, in other words, the establishment throughout its territory of the sovereignty of the Russian people, and not the domination of individuals or groups.
Now, few people remember how difficult this task was, what efforts it took to solve it. Few people remember that the most authoritative experts and many international leaders at the end of 1990 agreed on a single forecast for the future of Russia: bankruptcy and collapse. The current situation in Russia - if you look at it through the eyes of 1990-s - would look to them just super-optimistic fiction.
But just such “forgetfulness” and today's public readiness to try on Russia with the highest standards of quality of life and democracy are the best evidence of our success.
It is precisely because in recent years we all, the people of Russia, have achieved a lot in addressing the most urgent and urgent tasks, the country has stood up to the blows of the global crisis. And today we still have the opportunity to talk about prospects and strategies.
The recovery period is over. The post-Soviet stage in the development of Russia, however, as in the development of the whole world, has been completed and exhausted.
All prerequisites have been created for moving forward - on a new base and in a new capacity. And even in harsh, far from comfortable foreign policy and foreign economic conditions. At the same time, the irreversible global transformation is a tremendous chance for us.
And here I would once again like to say why I agreed to run in 2012 for the presidency of Russia. I do not want and I will not belittle anyone's merits in the formation of a new country. There were a lot of them. But the fact remains that in the 1999 year, when I became the chairman of the government, and then the president, our state was in a state of deep systemic crisis. And it was precisely the group of like-minded people who was destined to form and lead the author of these lines, relying on the support of the absolute majority of citizens, on national unity around common tasks, led Russia out of the impasse of the civil war, broke the backbone of terrorism, restored the country's territorial integrity and constitutional order, revived economy and has provided over the years 10 one of the highest in the world economic growth and increase the real income of our people.
Today we see what has been done successfully, which worked efficiently. And vice versa - what needs to be corrected, what things should be completely abandoned.
Our task for the coming years I see is to remove from the road of national development everything that hinders us from moving forward. To complete the creation in Russia of such a political system, such a structure of social guarantees and protection of citizens, such a model of the economy, which together will constitute a single, vibrant, constantly developing and at the same time stable and stable, healthy state organism. Able to unconditionally guarantee the sovereignty of Russia and the prosperity of the citizens of our great power for decades to come. To defend the justice and dignity of each person. Truth and trust in relations between the state and society.
We still have not solved many problems. There are also new complex problems, but we are able to wrap them up for our own benefit, for the benefit of Russia.
Russia is not a country that is retreating before the challenges. Russia is focusing, gathering strength and adequately responding to any challenges. Overcomes trials and always wins. We have grown a new generation of creative and responsible people who see the future. They are already coming and, of course, they will continue to come to the management of enterprises and entire industries, government agencies and the whole country.
It depends only on us how we will respond to today's challenges and how we use our chance to strengthen ourselves and our position in a rapidly changing world.
In the coming weeks, I intend to submit to the public discussion more specific considerations on this subject.
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