Invitation to referendum

Based on formal characteristics, the next presidential address to his parliament can be characterized as populist-militarist. First, the head of state dwelt in detail on what a wonderful future awaits all Russian women who are planning to have children, then he spoke in detail about how the safety of our women and children will be ensured - with the help of a constantly modernizing nuclear shield. That's all, actually. The message does not contain any more substantive theses. (Oh, yes, I forgot - there was also something about the convertibility of the ruble, which we are about to achieve. But this is completely from the realm of mythology - no matter how much oil and gas you pump to the West, it will still not be possible to assign the ruble to the dollar in the foreseeable future.)

The weak attempt to bite the eternal friend-enemy - the United States - did not look like a planned and thought-out attack. The phrase about the wolf “eating something and not listening to anyone” was most likely impromptu. In general, Vladimir Putin’s speech yesterday was replete with vague hints and omissions, which undoubtedly makes it similar to the speeches of Soviet party leaders. “Some people would really like...”, “Not everyone...” etc. However, there is no need to lie - you and I understand perfectly well who these “not all” and “some people” are. Thank God we weren’t born yesterday... And we are no strangers to the nasty aftertaste of these empty phrases. It’s a well-known fact - a person completed his mandatory number, left the podium and went to the procedures. But there is still one significant difference - the secretaries general did not, as a rule, change their texts at the last moment.

According to some sources, initially the next Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation should have been completely different. On the one hand, it contained serious criticism of the current government, which, as we remember, is “chewing snot”; on the other hand, it contained a demand for the immediate implementation of frozen structural reforms. The expert department of the Presidential Administration, headed by Arkady Dvorkovich, was responsible for writing this section, who involved specialists from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade to work on the text. The social part about demographic problems was also present, but it did not seem to be the main one. The transition to the foreign policy section was supposed to provide a powerful passage about Russia’s positioning in the modern world as a great energy power, which is designed to ensure the energy security of all progressive humanity. The foreign policy part itself should have contained sharp criticism of the West, which should not teach the great country of Russia how to build its internal policy. In the West, they say, this is right up its alley. And then - about global expansion, about the policy of double standards, about the inadmissibility of forceful pressure on Iran, etc. In a word, it should have been a killer message. It didn't happen. Let's try to understand why.

“The message was initially presented in extremely aggressive tones, but then the president decided that there was no point in aggravating relations with the West now,” one of the political strategists close to the Kremlin said in a conversation with a Daily Journal columnist. “Undoubtedly, the president was seriously influenced by the speech in Vilnius by Dick Cheney. In general, on the eve of the summit it was decided, as they say, not to tease the geese. As for the internal political part, part of the administration and Dmitry Medvedev insisted on sharp criticism of the government, but in the end a different point of view prevailed. But the main thing in the message undoubtedly remains. It’s a sense of long-term perspective, a look into the future.”

I allow myself to agree with this characteristic. The routine and mundane nature of the current message is explained, in my opinion, by one important circumstance - it was read by a person who is not going to give up power, but intends to continue to implement his policies. That is, such an interim report without global conclusions, without summing up, without mention of a possible new course for the new leadership. And the fact that in a little over a year the next parliamentary and then presidential elections will be held in Russia does not count. We, they say, need to think not about nonsense, but about demography. It turned out to be such a camouflaged invitation to a referendum - look how nice everything is with us. Do you really need any changes? Well, go and say your strong word - put down the ballot with the correct tick, and you will have both child benefits and a nuclear shield.