MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will present the annual Address to the Federal Assembly on December 4, the Kremlin reported on its website on Monday.
Earlier, speaker of the Federation Council, Valentina Matviyenko, said the president would deliver the state of the nation address at midday on December 4.
In Russia’s contemporary history, it will be the 21st presidential State of the Nation address and the 11th address for Putin. This year’s address will be different from the previous ones: this time it will include also the budget address, which formally was published separately.
The president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told TASS the budget address “contained many provisions common to those in the state of the nation address, it represented a part of tasks the president outlined for near future.” Thus, the decision was not to deliver two separate task documents.
Contents of the state of the nation address are not revealed before the presentation. However, this time, Putin in an interview with TASS named one of the items — the maternity capital. “I shall speak about it in the state of the nation address,” he said adding “the program (of paying maternity capital to women who bear second and further children) is over in a year, and everyone should be aware of it.” “Sure, we should be thinking about mechanisms to support the demography,” the president said.
The work on addresses takes quite a time. Most divisions of the Kremlin’s administration are working on their blocks of questions, and direct their suggestions to the president. Besides, the country leader consults political unions — not only the parties represented in the parliament, but also the so-called small parties. Lately, presidential addresses comprised ideas suggested by the All-Russia People’s Front. In November, Putin took part in the Front’s forum, where the participants raised many domestic problems — from healthcare to corruption.
The president is working by himself on the final version of the text.
The Address to the Federal Assembly is a basic document, which outlines the president’s positions on major directions of the Russian policies not only for the coming year, but also for near future. As a rule, most part of the document is devoted to home affairs, and a smaller part — to international questions.
The president’s obligation to present the Address is fixed in the country’s Constitution.
“Beginning from 1994, the president delivers the state of the nation address to members of the Federation Council (upper house of the parliament) and deputies of the State Duma (lower house of the parliament), where he presents his analysis of the situations in various spheres of public life, presents his views on the major directions of the country’s policies. The priorities in the state of the nation address are major benchmarks for the Federal Assembly and the government,” the Kremlin’s site reads. “The positions, the president outlines in the home polices are followed by the parliament and the government as they are working on legislation plans.”