Putin: Russia has missiles that can evade antimissile defenses
candidate, no one can ban Putin from presenting his vision of the future,” Moscow-based political scientist Vladimir Slatinov told RIA Novosti.
“Of course, Putin can’t use his official post for his campaign, he can share his vision for the development of the country and the solution of key problems facing Russia.”
“It is a clear public gesture intended to enliven the election campaign,” Slatinov added.
According to TASS, the Manezh exhibition hall was selected as a venue because the number of invitees has been substantially increased and because it has large video monitors and other technology for infographics and multimedia segments.
Oleg Matveichev, a politics professor at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, said this year’s address will be “somewhat unusual.”
“It will combine a review of the past year with a campaign program looking ahead several years,” Matveichev told RIA Novosti. “It will definitely touch on all aspects of life and won’t emphasize any one thing in particular.”
On February 27, the liberal Yabloko party — whose candidate, Grigory Yavlinsky, is one of seven people running against Putin — issued a statement saying, “the choice of the date for presenting the address and its transformation into essentially a campaign-platform declaration is a violation of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.”
Putin, 65, has ruled Russia either as president or prime minister since 2000. Opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who has been barred from running in the election because of a felony conviction that observers denounce as politically motivated, has dubbed the election “the reappointment of Vladimir Putin” and has called on voters to stay away from the polls.
Putin has refused to participate in televised debates or other traditional public campaign events.
Analysts believe the Kremlin fears that a low turnout will undermine the appearance of the election’s legitimacy. The government appears to be taking numerous measures to boost turnout, including moving the day of voting to 18 March, the fourth anniversary of Russia’s formal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.
Those events, while widely condemned by the international community, were welcomed among Putin’s supporters in Russia.
In addition to the election, Putin’s state-of-the-nation address also comes in the context of international sanctions imposed on Russia for its interference in Ukraine, tense relations with the United States, and a struggling economy.
Government statistics show that real incomes fell in 2017 for the fourth straight year. The government’s economic program forecasts that the percentage of Russians living below the poverty line will be reduced from the current 13.8 percent to 11.2 percent by 2020. However, that figure is higher than the 10.7 percent posted in 2012.
This article is published courtesy of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
