Putin vows to defend democracy
2004-05-26 14:03
Moscow - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Western governments unfairly often viewed his leadership as an authoritarian regime and vowed to defend democracy in a key state of the nation address.
Putin said that he was defending Russia's new freedoms and trying to help the country struggle out of its post-Soviet economic collapse.
It was his first state of the nation address since his re-election to a second and final four-year term in March.
"Not everyone in the world wants to deal with an independent, strong, and confident Russia," Putin said before the joint session of parliament which was broadcast live by the two state television channels.
"Right now, amid a global competitive (economic) war, political, economic and media resources are being used (against Russia).
"We are frequently understood to be an authoritarian government" he said.
"Because of this I would like to declare, there will be no fundamental review of Russian politics" he said, as applause rang through the Kremlin's Marble Hall.
He said Russia had gained an important foothold in the international arena in recent years and that the country was now being seen as an equal to Western powers.
"We have to defend our country... from all forms of foreign military aggressions," Putin said in nationalistic remarks that helped him first win the presidency four years ago.
"And we have all the means to achieve this," he added, prompting further applause from an audience that included top officials from the Russian Orthodox Church and celebrities - a sign of his popularity in Russia and dominance over its politics.
At the same time, Putin vowed to build up closer relations with the United States and bolster economic ties with Europe, the enlarged European Union of 25 members now being Russia's largest trading partner.
"We will continue to develop future and economic dialogue with the United States" Putin said.
A former intelligence agent who came to power on the back of a pledge to revive Russians' pride in their place in the world, Putin returned to that theme on Wednesday, saying that the country was now being dealt with as an important global player.
"In the past four years, we have passed a very difficult but important barrier. We have strengthened Russia's position in the world."
And things will only improve, Putin said, making only a passing reference to Russia's war in Chechnya and no mention of the controversy surrounding the trial of the founder of the Yukos oil company, Russia's richest man Mikhail Khodorkovsky.