Medvedev warns opposition not to rock boat
Opponents see little prospect of easing Kremlin domination
President Dmitry Medvedev warned Russia's opposition in his annual address yesterday not to use democracy as a cover to "destabilise the state and split society".
The harsh words came alongside modest pledges by Mr Medvedev to boost regional democracy in Russia.
However, Russia's pro-Western opposition yesterday dismissed President Dmitry Medvedev's promises to reform the political system as empty and said they saw little prospect of an easing of Kremlin domination.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Mr Medvedev's mentor and the country's most powerful politician, watched from the front row flanked by his key lieutenants as the President spoke. The audience gave Mr Putin a standing ovation when he entered.
Mr Medvedev named worsening violence in Russia's volatile, Muslim-dominated North Caucasus as the country's biggest domestic political problem and called for an effort to "fight international terrorism and destroy bandits" there.
Killings in the North Caucasus have spiralled this year as a low-level Islamist insurgency feeding on poverty combines with feuds among corrupt local officials and businesses.
The President spent most of the 100-minute speech talking about the need for Russia to move its economy away from its Soviet roots in heavy industry and energy extraction towards 21st century sectors such as medicine, telecoms and space. Foreign policy was hardly mentioned.
Amid a blizzard of targets, Mr Medvedev called for Russia to boost the share of locally produced medicines to half the market by 2020, cut gas flaring dramatically by 2012 and launch broadband internet and digital TV nationwide in five years.
"The nation's prestige and prosperity cannot be upheld forever by the achievements of the past," Mr Medvedev said, referring to Russia's Soviet legacy of nuclear weapons, infrastructure and oil and gas production.
"The time has come for us, the present generation of Russians, to make its voice heard: to raise Russia to a higher level of civilisation."
Despite his emphasis on modern technology, Mr Medvedev did not neglect the country's powerful defence industry, saying that more than 30 ballistic missiles should be deployed in 2010 and three nuclear submarines commissioned.
The address contained no details on how Mr Medvedev's ideas for economic modernisation would be implemented, which worried some financial market participants. Political analysts said that Mr Medvedev, who reaches the mid-way point of his four-year term next May, had failed in the speech to explain how his ideas would be followed up.