What does Putin reveal in his State of the Nation address?

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Europe

On February 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his annual address to parliament to the Russian Federal Assembly. In it, Putin outlines the detailed picture of Russia's domestic economy and foreign policy choices, but the most eye-catching issue is still the President's personal vision and objectives.

Victor Olevich, a political analyst at the Center for Actual Politics in Moscow, stated that in contrast to the annual State of the Nation address last year, President Putin attached much importance this year to the domestic issues.

"Unlike last year's speech, which was primarily focused on foreign policy, and advances in Russian weapon systems," said Olevich, "This year, Putin's speech was primarily concerned with domestic policy, economic policy, with primary concerns of Russian people domestically."

In terms of Russian foreign policy, he mentioned that Russia was in want of normalization on Russia-U.S. relations, whereas the U.S. was quite aggressive regarding President Trump administration's decision on the INF treaty.

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Speaking of the terms of office, Putin has been three times the Russian president and twice the Russian prime minister. Some people argue that it's been an exceptionally long hold on power, but has it been really beneficial for Russia?

Teng Jianqun, a CGTN commentator, viewed Putin as both the best and only person who could lead Russia as a rising power.

"If you look at the development of his (Putin) achievement from 2000, since he took the office as the president of Russia, actually he attached great importance to the military modernization. And nowadays the Russian army, actually has become a very strong power in the world," Teng said.

However, Harvey Dzodin, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, countered by saying Russia has other options and referred to the rising dissatisfaction with Putin.

"There is… shouldn't be a situation in a country, of millions of people where it comes down to one person, that's a sign of demon god to me," stated Dzodin. "I believe that the voters in Russia, even though they gave re-election to President Putin, when you ask them today about whether they favor him or not, 33 percent approval rating. This is very very low."

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(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)