On April 4th, in Bucharest, Romania, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a press conference after the NATO-Russia Council meeting. Putin spoke positively of the meeting as a whole, but at the same time he once again expressed his dissatisfaction on controversial issues such as NATO expansion. Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Jinquan photo
Putin remains the core leader of Russia.
Putin neither amended the constitution nor sought a third term, but elected Medvedev to succeed him as president and became prime minister himself, thus achieving a smooth change of Russian leaders. He publicly said: "I can work with Medvedev for a full term in the position of Prime Minister. If I see that the strategic goal of Russia’s development in 2020 can be achieved, I can continue to work."
He did not rule out the possibility of being president again in the future, but stressed that it is important to realize his long-term plan for Russia whether he is president or prime minister. Because his strategy of developing Russia in 2020 or the strategy of enriching the country and strengthening the people is in line with the wishes of the vast majority of Russian people and has won the full support of all walks of life, this ensures that the change of Putin’s position will not affect him to continue to play Russia’s core leadership role.
According to him, in the next few years, the division of labor between Putin and Medvedev is that Putin focuses on economic and social affairs, that is, the goal of Russia becoming one of the five largest economic powers in the world by 2020 and his task of "brand-new social policy" are concretely implemented, while Medvedev focuses on foreign affairs, national defense and other fields.
Ambitious and determined to develop the economy
From 2000 to 2007, when Putin was president, Russia’s GDP increased by 72%. According to the average purchasing power price, Russia has surpassed Italy and France, ranking seventh in the world. Russia has determined that by 2020, that is, after another 12 years, the total economic output will enter the top five in the world. In order to achieve this goal, Russia will achieve the goal of doubling its GDP within ten years in 2009 ahead of schedule.
More importantly, two decisions are made under the guiding ideology of economic development: First, strive for "sustained and stable development" and emphasize the importance of maintaining domestic stability. Medvedev also stated in his campaign platform that "maintaining stable development is a necessary condition for Russia’s development, and Russia must have a stable development period of 10 years", and "the opportunities lost in the 20th century can be recovered through 10 years of normal development".
The second is to change from an energy-based raw material development model to an innovative development model. Russia’s economic recovery benefits from abundant natural resources and soaring world energy prices, but to achieve the goal of becoming an economic power, it is necessary to change the economic development model. Putin pointed out in his speech that Russia has not got rid of the situation that its economic development relies too much on natural resources, which makes Russia deeply involved in the role of exporting primary raw materials. "The only solution is innovative development." To this end, on the one hand, Russia should reduce its dependence on oil exports, on the other hand, it should encourage innovation in the scientific and technological system.
Continue to implement the "brand-new social policy"
Putin’s "new social policy", according to his own statement, is "to create all people-centered modern social environment." Its fundamental purpose is to adjust the social structure with national interests as the center, promote social progress, and strive to maximize the people’s sharing of the great achievements of economic development.
To this end, Putin put forward a social development plan, including increasing national income, improving national health and education level, and improving housing and working conditions. Putin put forward the "brand-new social policy", mainly because of the wrong policies during Yeltsin’s reign, which led to the poverty of the Russian people. Through the efforts of Putin’s ruling years, people’s living standards have improved a lot. The annual growth rate of residents’ income is 10% ~ 12%, and the increase of wages reaches 16%. However, social problems are still very serious, mainly the high inflation rate and the imbalance of social development. It is reported that the income gap between residents in the richest and poorest areas in Russia is as high as 35 times.
An important reason why Putin agreed to become prime minister after leaving the presidency is that he has to personally complete his social reform plan.
Continue to pursue a relatively moderate policy toward the West.
The international environment faced by Russia to realize economic revitalization is severe. In order to contain the Russian revival, the United States increased its pressure on Russia, and some European countries cooperated. In this regard, Russia will pursue a policy of not seeking confrontation on the premise of safeguarding its own national interests. Putin’s speech has repeatedly stated that Russia’s policy toward the West is "not offensive", "does not take the initiative to attack, and at the same time does not allow Russia’s national interests to be harmed", "We do not want to return to the Cold War, and our main task is to solve domestic social and economic problems" and "we must develop good relations with all partners, including the United States". Putin even expressed some optimism about Russia-US relations after the US election, saying that Russia and the United States "will choose the fundamental interests of the two countries without exception, realize positive dialogue, and at least cooperate together".
It can be said that Russia’s main message to the west under the "Pu-Mei system" is that it wants economic reform rather than the Cold War. It can be expected that Russia will, in general, adopt a relatively moderate attitude towards the West, except for the necessary struggles on issues that harm Russia’s national interests, such as anti-missile and Kosovo.
Insist on not being involved in the arms race
Russia has a relatively strong military force, which is a great support for becoming a powerful country. In the face of the emerging new arms race in the world, Russia will vigorously develop more advanced new weapons to "effectively respond"; However, it draws lessons from the collapse of the Soviet Union’s arms race and emphasizes that Russia will never "fall into" the arms race. When talking about Russia’s development strategy, Putin made it clear that Russia "cannot drag itself into consumptive confrontation, including an arms race that devastatingly drains the Russian economy". (Ding Yuanhong, former ambassador of China to the European Union)
Editor: Li Xiuwei