We open with a look at Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual State of the Nation Address in Moscow. Putin discussed poverty alleviation, improvements in the investment climate and monetary policies during his speech before Russia's parliament on Thursday.

President Putin said the government's top priority is the Russian people and their welfare. He warned of the risk of a Russia lagging behind. The country has 20 million people living below the poverty line. Putin said that's unacceptable. He said creating sustainable income growth for Russian citizens and reducing poverty would be priorities in the coming years.

VLADIMIR PUTIN RUSSIAN PRESIDENT "On this basis we must solve one of the key tasks for the upcoming decade to ensure a steady, long-term growth of citizens' real incomes, and within six years to halve the rate of poverty."

Putin also touched on the excessive state share in the Russian economy. He said that must change. In the meantime, the president urged the government to improve the investment climate in order for the economy to grow. He rolled out a government spending plan to improve Russia's road network.

VLADIMIR PUTIN RUSSIAN PRESIDENT "Generally speaking, during the upcoming six years, it is necessary to double the spending on the building of Russian roads and their infrastructure and to put on these aims more than eleven trillion roubles from all sources. This is a lot, taking into account that during 2012-2017 we spent on that 6.4 trillion roubles. That was also a big number, but we need eleven."

Putin's parliament address was initially expected in late 2017 but was rescheduled in 2018. It was his last State of the Nation speech before the Russian presidential election on March 18th. Putin's speech provided a comprehensive assessment of Russia's status and also included his recommendations for a future work agenda.