26 May 2004 14:08
Russian MPs praise Putin`s "landmark" state-of-nation address
Moscow, 26 May: As expected, the Russian president's message to the Federal Assembly was a real landmark. This
is the view expressed by the majority of State Duma deputies questioned by ITAR-TASS parliamentary correspondents
today.
The Russian president outlined the course of development in every area of Russian people's lives and the ways of
achieving it, Vladimir Volodin, deputy speaker of the house, said. He agrees that "reforms are required to
modernize the army, health care, education, housing and budget, transport, currency and monetary policy". At the
same time, the deputy speaker hopes that at the legislative level a number of points in the address may even be
implemented during this State Duma sitting.
This point of view is shared by the first deputy chairwoman of the State Duma, Lyubov Sliska. She believes Vladimir
Putin has defined real tasks for Russia to prosper in the near term.
Another deputy speaker of the lower house, Oleg Morozov, noted that the president's message to parliament this
year was distinguished by being "as concrete as possible". "It is a precise route for the country to
advance along the main route of its development," he stressed. His colleague, deputy chairman of the State Duma,
Vladimir Pekhtin, agrees. "We are moving in absolutely the right direction."
"The message is distinguished by a profound, considered, weighed and purposeful approach," deputy speaker
Vladimir Katrenko said. "The theses it sets out give rise to a feeling of confidence in Russia's national
future and that the ambitious set tasks and plans will be achieved," he said.
Nor was the head of state's message to the Russian parliament received as critically by the ranks of the Duma
opposition this time. "The phrasing of the president's message was better than usual," the leader of the
Communist Party of the Russian Federation [CPRF], Gennadiy Zyuganov, said. At the same time he regrets that Vladimir
Putin "didn't say a word about industry, the engine of economic growth" and did not touch upon the
problem of fighting crime and corruption or relations with Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
Another member of the CPRF faction, Nikolay Kharitonov, is unhappy with the fact that the 2004 message "does not
reflect the problems of the agro-industrial complex".
[ITAR-TASS news agency] |
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