Excerpts From State-Of-The-Nation Address

Medvedev’s annual state-of-the-nation address has been hotly anticipated, with talk of electoral reforms surfacing in today’s FT, issues of modernization and the promise of responses to his Go Russia! article to be included. For those interested in the bones of it, here are some highlights just in from Reuters:

On how to move Russia forward:

“We will create a new economy instead of a primitive resource-oriented economy … We will become a society of free, clever and responsible people, instead of being an archaic society where leaders decide for people.”

“We haven’t managed to get rid of the primitive structure of our economy, from a primitive resource dependency … The competitiveness of our production is shamefully low.”

On the politcal system

“In future we must get rid of the requirement for parties to collect signatures to secure access to elections.”

“Any attempts to rock the situation with democratic slogans, to destabilize the state and split society, will be stopped.”

“The law is one and for all — for ruling parties and those in opposition. Freedom means responsibility.”

On corruption

“Corruption is one of the main barriers on our path to growth. It’s obvious we should battle this on all fronts, from improving legislation and the work of the law enforcement and judicial systems, to raising intolerance among citizens for any form of this social ill, including at grass-roots level.

“In the first six months of this year alone, more than 4,500 corruption cases were heard. Of those convicted, 532 were representatives of state bodies and local government, and more than 700 were law enforcement workers.

“These figures, unfortunately, are evidence of the scale of corruption that afflicts our society. You cannot root out the problem of corruption through jailings alone. But you must sling them into jail anyway.”

Read all the highlights here.