President Dmitry Medvedev has revealed the key points of his first parliamentary address. In his video-blog on the Kremlin website, the Russian leader says the Caucasus crisis and the near collapse of the world banking system will dominate his speech on N

Good afternoon!

Today, I would like to say a few words about the preparation of the Presidential Address.

On November 5, I am going to speak in front of the Federal Assembly of our country, our Parliament, with the annual presidential address. This is my constitutional responsibility and, at this moment, the preparation is happening in the usual way, as it has always been done in the president’s administration. I know this process rather well as I dealt with these issues, together with my colleagues, for nearly eight years while I worked in the president’s administration and, later, in the government. It is a rather complicated process that follows a certain set of rules. It is an internal kitchen at which various positions are agreed, views defended and propositions formulated to adjust our legislation and improve the social and economic situation. The process this time also touched upon key issues within our foreign policy. In general, we are working on everything that will appear in the presidential address.

This time, my colleagues and I are working on this document. We are working on it hard, having regular meetings where I give certain instructions and share my views. On some issues, we argue quite a lot, while other issues take very little time to settle. I hope that we will soon be ready with the final document, which I am going to present to the council.

However, even right now I can say that this document is going to include answers to some of the most urgent issues our country is facing. Of course, I mean the situation that the Russian Federation encountered in August. I mean the challenge that our entire society had to face – the Caucasian crisis.

We will not be able to evade its consequences, not only for this country, but for the entire world and the global situation in general.

Another major challenge the entire planet is facing today is the international financial crisis. It is a crisis that started in one of the biggest countries, the United States of America, and which
unfortunately spread across the planet, forcing almost every country to look for answers to it.

At the forthcoming G20 summit in Washington, these issues will also be considered. While I am not going to reveal any of our propositions, as they are still being prepared, I assure you that Russia will step forward with its initiatives.

And, of course, I am bound to devote a part of my speech to the social and economic problems that currently exist in our country. I will speak about measures that the government and I propose to improve the situation and improve the life of every citizen and the country in general, to strengthen our armed forces and to resolve a number of key international issues.

This is a standard set of subjects to review in an address, yet life is so rich with events that in every new address these subjects appear in an entirely different light.

Thank you.

Medvedev's Blog on Kremlin.ru