"Citizens of Russia,

State Duma deputies and members of the Federation Council,

Speaking in this room a year ago, I presented my political strategy, which was to modernise our economy and give impetus to progress in all areas, based on democratic values.

These processes, modernisation in our country, began at a time, which was hard for the whole world, a time of the global crisis. We managed to stabilise our economy after a significant downturn, and this year we expect economic growth of 4%. Despite the growth of food prices, which regrettably occurred throughout the world, we prevented an inflation upsurge. Our objective for the next three years is to bring it down to 4-5% a year.

Almost 150 billion rubles were allocated to the agricultural sector in order to mitigate the consequences of the drought. Our decisions will stabilise the situation in this key industry, help the farmers and prevent a drop in living standards in the affected areas. I will continue to personally monitor the implementation of these decisions.

The number of the unemployed is now about 5 million people, a reduction of 2 million since the crisis peaked. This is a significant achievement. Sovereign debt is at a very low level. Russia's international reserves today amount to about $500 billion, much more than at the end of 2008.

After the anti-crisis measures, which were unprecedented in scale, we are now moving on to a more balanced budget policy. The budget deficit, unfortunately, remains quite high. We will reduce it lest it becomes an obstacle to development. All the leading nations have taken up similar obligations.

The real income of our people has grown by approximately 5% over the last few months. Next year, we are planning to raise the salaries of public employees. We are implementing targeted programs to provide housing for war veterans and army personnel.

We have been able to raise pensions every year. I had set an objective to provide all pensioners with an income of at least the subsistence minimum, and this goal has been achieved. Yet, the average level of pensions remains quite low, of course.

To raise pensions and modernise the healthcare system, we made a number of tough decisions, including raising mandatory medical insurance premiums. People talk a lot about this today. We need to find a way to mitigate the negative impact of this measure on businesses. In this context, I made the following decision. Small businesses working in manufacturing or providing social services will be given a two-year transition period with a lower premium level set at 26%.

This year, we focused on the priority areas of technological modernisation. Our goal is to raise our economy’s energy efficiency by 40% by 2020. This goal is realistic, and I am absolutely sure we can achieve it. This will both reduce corporate expenses and help people save their money, primarily and perhaps most importantly, when they pay utility bills. We discussed the issue recently, and the main conclusion we came to was that, in order to prevent further degradation of the utility infrastructure and at the same time enhance energy efficiency, we need to attract private investors to the housing and public utilities sector more actively. I have already given all the necessary instructions on this issue.

Colleagues,

Everything I was talking about just now, all the modernisation is not a goal in itself. It is an instrument, a tool that would allow us to solve economic and social problems that are long overdue. An instrument we can use to support those who need it most and create the conditions that would help develop the potential of those we pin our hopes on: our youth and our children. Modernisation is carried out for their sake. We must not be ashamed for the country we pass on to our children and grandchildren but who we pass Russia on to is also crucial. The 26 million children and teenagers living in Russia have to fulfil their potential, grow up to be happy and healthy and become worthy citizens of Russia. This is our No. 1 priority.

Taking care of future generations is the most reliable, smart and noble sort of investment we can make. A society that effectively protects the rights of its children and respects their dignity is not only kinder and more humane. It develops faster and better. It has a good and predictable future.

I believe it is vitally important for us to introduce an efficient state policy for children. A modern policy that would correspond with our national development interests. This is why today’s address will focus on that subject as I speak about the issues that I believe need to be addressed and resolved in a new way.

First, the measures to improve the demographic situation. Compared to 2005, our birth rate has increased by over 21%. This is one of the best growth rates in the world. Infant mortality dropped by 25%. Last year, for the first time in the past 15 years our country saw an increase in population. To a large extent, this is the result of the maternity capital programme, the national Healthcare project and other family-oriented social support measures.

We started tackling the demographic problem seriously and have launched a long-term program. But we should understand that the next 15 years will see the effects of the demographic downturn we suffered in the early 1990s, with the number of women of reproductive age decreasing considerably, which poses a serious threat and challenge to the whole of our nation.

What should we do about it?

First, we must enhance both the quality and availability of medical assistance and social benefits to mothers and their children. We must further develop the maternity certificate programme, as well as rehabilitation programmes for children under 3 and low-birth-weight infants. We must also increase state support of fertility programmes, including in vitro fertilisation.

Second, we must undertake technological modernisation of children’s hospitals and clinics and to upgrade the skills of medical staff working there. Considerable funds must be allocated for these purposes through co-financing of regional programmes starting already from the next year. At least 25% of the funds earmarked for healthcare modernisation schemes will go to developing children’s healthcare. This is a lot of money; essentially, it can amount to some 100 billion rubles in the next two years.

Today, almost a third of all children have health problems by the time they reach school age. Teenage statistics are even sadder: two thirds have health deviations. Starting from 2011, we must monitor more closely their health through extended medical examinations.

Special attention should be given to vaccination, to making quality medicines available to children and teenagers, to early detection of tuberculosis, oncological and other dangerous diseases. Funds should be allocated for these purposes, as well.

The third point, which is of the utmost importance, is supporting young and large families. One of the most acute problems is that of housing. Since 2008, law allows using the maternity capital to pay out mortgages and housing loans under contracts closed before December 31, 2010, which means that this money can be used even before the child turns three. Almost 250,000 Russians have already used this opportunity, while the housing market got extra incentives for development, which is important in the post-crisis period. I believe that starting from the next year this should become regular practice.

The forth point is that according to the experts, the main way to overcome the demographic crisis is a radical increase in the number of families with three and more children. Quite recently, while searching the web I’ve come across a piece of interesting information about a social advertising campaign, which took place in the Altai Territory, if I am not mistaken. The idea is simple, but very nice. People were asked to tell which Russian celebrities and distinguished Russians were third children in their families. Among them were Nikolai Nekrasov, Anton Chekhov, Yuri Gagarin, Anna Akhmatova.

Therefore, I believe that most favourable conditions must be created for large families. In some regions, for instance, in the Ivanovo region, as far as I am concerned, a family gets a free land lot to build a house or a dacha when a third child is born. It’s the right kind of decision and a good example for other regions.

I believe that this should become common practice across Russia. I instruct the Government and regional authorities to design a programme of free land allocation for house/dacha construction, when a third and every subsequent child is born. This standard may be introduced gradually, with due regard to regional specifics.

Regions may go for other measures to support large families. For example, in the Ulyanovsk region young families receive a 100,000-ruble certificate with the birth of a third child and subsequent children. I suggest that all regional heads should think of introducing regional maternity capital. This step will definitely require money. Its implementation depends on the situation in a specific region, but the result is worth it.

The fifth point. We must introduce additional tax benefits for families with three or more minors. Specifically, tax refund must be increased up to 3,000 rubles per month per child starting with the third child. I am instructing the Government to submit relevant proposals and draft a programme to increase tax refund amounts for every large family while at the same time cancelling standard tax refunds. For most of our citizens they have become symbolic. 

The sixth point. Today many foundations and mass media organise fund-raising for children suffering from severe diseases. There are also businessmen, who help orphanages, and support children’s sport and leisure without making a show of it, which is probably most important. To support such initiatives, we’ve been trying to improve our legislation on charity activities for several years now. However, we still have problems here. For example, any repeated charity support for a child, even the one who is seriously ill, is subject to tax. That’s not fair.

Funds received from charity organisations to support children must be fully excluded from taxable income. I expect that the State Duma will soon adopt a relevant law. Judging by the applause, this will be the case.

The seventh point. A highly charged and sensitive matter for young families is that of kindergartens. Wherever I go, people almost always ask me this question. At the beginning of the year, 1,684 million children were in the queue to get a place at a kindergarten. People actually have to join this queue even before their child is born. Often this is the reason why young families either postpone the birth of a child or choose to limit themselves to one child.

My instructions in this respect are as follows. Firstly, all regions must implement programmes to reconstruct old kindergartens and build new ones that comply with today’s requirements, or to allot buildings to accommodate them. These requirements must be reasonable, valid and realistic. As I said before, they should not be excessive.

Secondly, we must promote alternative forms of preschool education, including the system of private preschool facilities and family kindergartens, to consider possible reduction of rental rates and introduction of property tax privileges for new types of kindergartens, including family kindergartens.

Thirdly, preschool groups in general education schools must be created for children not attending kindergartens.

Colleagues,

For two years now we’ve been presenting the Order of Parental Honour instituted by me. Among the recipients are fathers and mothers of not only their own children, but also of adopted ones. We are justifiably proud of such families. To be frank, just talking to them when they come here to the Kremlin to receive state decorations gives me true joy.

Sadly, our country still has 130,000 children left without parental care. They have neither parents, nor guardians; they are denied of the most important thing – family warmth. We still have a long way to go to get rid of the ‘abandoned children’ notion. Guardianship authorities must be directly focused on placing those children in families and helping foster families. There should be no ‘un-adopted’ children in our country.

The so-called correctional orphanages remain a serious challenge. Unfortunately, they work more to isolate children rather than help them socialize. Therefore, the situation here should be monitored not only by state agencies and services, but by civil society as well. We must introduce a board of trustees in every orphanage or correctional institution, and these boards’ work should be transparent as possible.

Finally, we need social adaptation programmes for those leaving orphanages. It’s not enough to just teach and feed them; we have to help them start a new adult life, be ready for it, be self-confident. It’s not only teachers, but also local authorities that should play an important role here. They could, for instance, cover the expenses for pre-study courses of those leaving orphanages.

Our policy for children is based on generally accepted international standards. Declaration of the Rights of the Child adopted by the UN General Assembly states that “humanity must give the child the best it has”, while the Convention on the Rights of the Child established that children’s interests have a priority before the interests of society and the state.

In 2009, we introduced a new institution – a presidential commissioner for children’s rights. The commissioner has a lot to attend to, to put it mildly. Last summer, for example, several gross violations of safety regulations in summer camps were registered, which resulted in disease outbreaks and even death of children. We have to preclude any chance of such things happening again.

Local administrations and supervisory bodies have to prepare for the next summer season well ahead, which means they should start right now. Child ombudsmen who currently work in 58 regions of Russia have to look into the issue as well. I believe every Russian region should have its own commissioner for children’s rights.

Child abuse is a truly horrible problem. Official data provided by the Interior Ministry says that over 100,000 children and teenagers suffered abuse in 2009. Just think about the figure. Some facts really break your heart. Children, mostly orphans and unprivileged children get involved in drug abuse, prostitution and other criminal activities. The scoundrels responsible for this should be punished with utmost severity.

Last year we introduced a harsher punishment for sexual abuse of minors.  Preventive measures against that kind of crimes are no less important. I believe that convicted child abusers or those who drag children into criminal activity should be banned from working in the education sector. People like that should not be allowed anywhere near children.

The respective draft law introducing the amendments to the Labour Code has been submitted to the State Duma. I hope it is approved by the end of this year.

Esteemed deputies and Federation Council members,

Protecting the life and health of a child is a direct responsibility of the child’s family and relatives. That makes domestic violence against children even more horrible. As we know, cruelty breeds cruelty. Children adopt the behaviour model they see in adults and apply it in their lives – in school, in college, in the army and then in their own families. Our society has to adopt an attitude of intolerance towards cruel treatment of children. We need to expose domestic violence and stop it. I know that several regions have social aid centres that deal with domestic violence cases.

I have to mention another problem. Our country has practically no infrastructure for people with disabilities and serious diseases. I don’t need to explain to you how much of a problem that is for children. Even a daily trip to school often becomes a torture for a disabled child. Finding a wheelchair-accessible bus is a real problem. Residential and office buildings are usually just inaccessible to children in wheelchairs. Although, I have to say that new houses, at least the ones I saw, are being built in accordance with these new standards.

At the same time, disabled people often achieve great results in sports and art. They are truly the glory of Russia. Take, for instance, our Paralympics team. Their success is amazing, though it happens in spite of the circumstances rather than because of systemic measures taken by the state and society. Creating a favourable environment for disabled children should be a priority in our new federal programme on the Accessible Environment.

The job of raising future generations is closely linked with the modernisation of the education system. By implementing the Our New School initiative, we have redefined our standards for elementary school and prepared new standards for secondary and senior high school. Also, during Year of the Teacher, we introduced new qualification requirements for teachers and new procedures for regular professional examinations and re-training. Teachers should also have an opportunity to undergo internships at Russia’s best schools and receive additional professional training at the best universities. We are planning to allocate over 2 billion rubles for those purposes in 2011.

As Winston Churchill said, “headmasters have powers at their disposal with which Prime Ministers have never yet been invested.” Those powers should be used today to bring out the potential of every child and prepare children to choose their future professions as well as we can. In order to achieve that, we have to pay attention to the following.

First, in 2011 each school should create its own “school of the future” project. It will be a vision of how the school should develop. Of course, these projects should be devised primarily by teachers, current and former students of the school and parents. But I think that regional administrations could work on the implementation procedures for those projects, engaging the business, if necessary.

Second, we need to complete the creation of a nationwide system that would help locate and support talented children. All children should be able to develop their potential regardless of where they live, the incomes of their families or their social status. I am instructing the Government to take this recommendation into account when new educational standards are introduced and to establish a standard per capita subsidy for educational programmes for gifted children.

Third, children today are different from what we were at their age. Every generation is different from the previous one. They feel at home in the world of telecommunications and are used to new ways of information gathering. They like using new gadgets. As it has been said, and rightly so, no one in the world is as sensitive to novelty as children. Using modern software and technological advances in education has to become the norm. It has to be envisaged in the new standards.

Fourth, the upbringing of our children is a responsibility not only of the education system but of our culture and society as a whole. We need new, quality films that will be of interest to our children. Let us remember the influence that good science fiction has had on entire generations. We all read those books. They fascinated children, encouraging them to make their own discoveries.  A whole generation was raised on those books.

Fifth, we need to pay more attention to the patriotic upbringing of our youth. True, we need to make serious changes in this area but some traditional methods such as military games can still be used today. They build character, promote teamwork and teach children to overcome difficulties.

Sixth, promoting the healthy way of life is a strategic priority of our policy for children.

Russia has one of the highest percentages of smokers in the world. At the same time the age at which young people start drinking and smoking keeps decreasing. Those who sell alcohol to underage children must remember that this mean sanctions, including criminal prosecution.

I hope your applause means the bill currently under consideration in the State Duma on penalties for such sales will be approved shortly.

Dear friends,

We will work together to implement the plans that I set out today. I don’t have the slightest doubt that we will be successful. I believe in your support. Let me add a few words of the kind you rarely see in official documents. These words may, however, be the most important. We are renewing our country and our society. We are changing our lives and we are changing ourselves. All we are doing we are doing for the sake of those we love the most – our children, because we want them to have a better life than we have".