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MOSCOW, May 10: Russia faces a growing arms race against a ‘fortress’ United States which cares more about its own interests than democracy or human rights, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday in his annual state of the nation speech.
In a wide-ranging, nationally televised address to both houses of parliament, Mr Putin spent most time on domestic issues, particularly the rapid decline of the country’s population, which the Russian leader said is losing 700,000 people a year.
But his most biting comments targeted the United States, which has become increasingly critical of Russia’s human rights records, with Vice-President Dick Cheney claiming last week that ‘opponents of democracy’ were seeking to roll back post-Soviet gains.
Mr Putin warned that it was ‘premature to speak of the end of the arms race. It is in reality rising to a new technological level’.
He said that Russia was forced to react when the United States was spending 25 times more on defence.
“In the defence sphere, this is called ‘their house is their fortress’. Well done! But it means that we must build our house strongly, reliably, because we see what’s going on in the world.”
Mr Putin — who in July hosts US President George Bush and other leaders of the Group of Eight at a Saint Petersburg summit — swiped at US complaints that his seven-year rule has undercut Russian democracy.
“Where does the whole pathos about the need to struggle for democracy and human rights disappear to, when the talk is about ensuring one’s own interests?” he demanded. “Then it seems everything is possible. There are no limits at all.”
He then borrowed a Russian saying to illustrate the United States’ alleged double standards. “As the saying goes, comrade wolf knows who to eat and he eats without listening to others.”
COMPETITIVENESS: Mr Putin also laid out a vision of a Russia switching from an aging and uncompetitive Soviet-era infrastructure to an economy centred on high-tech areas such as nanotechnology, nuclear power and the space industry.
“In conditions of fierce international competition, the country’s economic development must be based, essentially, on its scientific and technological advantages,” he said.
“Unfortunately, one has to face that the majority of the technical equipment used in the national economy is not years behind the top level, but decades.”
Just as important, he said, was ridding the country of “one of the most serious obstacles on the road to our development: corruption.”
Mr Putin said that modernisation of Russia’s huge but inefficient armed forces was vital to global stability.
“Key responsibility for standing up against threats, for guaranteeing global stability, will lie with the world’s leading powers possessing nuclear weapons and powerful military-political influence,” he said.
The mostly conscript army must fill two-thirds of its ranks with professionals by 2008, he said.
ENERGY SUPPLY: Seeking to reassure Western markets over Russia’s reliability as an energy supplier, Putin said “we must do everything not only for our domestic development, but also to fully meet our obligations before our traditional partners.”
But he was adamant over Russia’s rights to look after its own interests, saying that Russia would join the World Trade Organisation only on its own terms.
“Russia’s membership in the WTO should not be a subject of bargaining,” he said, claiming that discussions over Russia’s entry were being linked to “issues that have nothing to do with the economy.”
“We see negotiations on entering the World Trade Organization only on terms that support Russia’s economic interests.”
“It is obvious that the economy of the Russian Federation is today more open than the economies of many members of this organization.”—AFP
