&host=rt.com&uri=/politics/year-medvedev-unity-great-069/&via=(none)&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html))
New Year address: Medvedev calls for Russian unity
Published: 01 January, 2012, 00:43
TAGS: Medvedev, Russia, Politics
President Dmitry Medvedev has called on Russians to overcome their differences and work together in the next year to make Russia a great and prosperous country worthy of its great past.
Citizens of Russia,
Friends,
In a few moments the Kremlin tower chimes will strike and we will wish each other a Happy New Year. Now a festive mood and a very special atmosphere reign in every home across the country.
By tradition, we use these moments to bid farewell to the outgoing year. It was not an easy year but its outcome for our country has been positive. This is the result of our joint efforts, and what next year will bring also depends on us.
Exactly 20 years ago we celebrated our first New Year in a country called Russia – a name celebrated for the illustrious deeds of our great ancestors, who over the centuries built up a huge and very strong power, a great country. It is our duty to preserve it and to build a progressive state, where all of us can live comfortably and do stimulating work.
Yes, we are all different, but this is precisely where our strength lies, as well as in our ability to hear, understand and respect each other, to tackle challenges together and achieve success.
Dear friends,
The New Year is approaching. It’s time to open the champagne and make our wishes. Tonight I wish health and prosperity to you and your loved ones, for your lives to be full of love and all your dreams to come true.
Believe in yourself, and I believe in each one of you. We will succeed!
Happiness to all of you!
Happy Holiday! Happy New Year 2012!
30.12.2011, 17:23
8 comments
Russian-US relations: Looking ahead to 2012The year 2011 was a rocky one for Russian-US relations, in which the early hopes of a reset have been overshadowed by a series of setbacks. President Dmitry Medvedev is calling on his US counterpart to help make 2012 a better year. |
10.01, 12:47
47 comments
Putin’s program: New worldview on offer in presidential bidVladimir Putin’s press secretary has said that the PM is personally writing his program for the upcoming presidential elections and that this program will contain exact practical steps as well as a fresh worldview. Election 2012 |
-"Why dare Medvedev not kick Obama's ***?"
-"He's overweighted but he's not."
-"What's the biggest lesson from Republican candidates debates?"
-"None are overweighted."
-"Why is Euro doomed?"
-"They're overweighted."
Russians cannot revive overweighted, overdrunk (is the misery binging over from Soviet collapse?).
In my New Year's Speech, I'd also advise each Russian to learn to fast (and pick up some kind of sweaty sports, hopefully long-distance running, which is part of fasting), and over which Medvedev unfortunately has not much to advise. (Imagine otherwise he's a marathon gold-medalist, but which would then made him not to advise so... Yes, Ahha! Bla bla bla...)
Russia has more land than US to run.
So what exactly are "the illustrious deeds of our great ancestors who over the centuries built up a huge and very strong power, a great country?"
Let's set mythology aside, and deal just with facts. Russia's borders encompass about the greatest store of natural resources on earth, includes almost every type of climate and geographic zone that exists, has unfettered land access to two continents and relatively easy sea access to two more -- yet Russia has never enjoyed prosperity, hardly ever enjoyed freedom, and its people have almost always lived under enormous self-imposed oppression, fear and terror. And the country regularly keeps collapsing into ruin, and has to be reinvented from scratch. This does not appear to be a hallmark of a powerful country. In almost any contemporary international index measuring standard of living, quality of life, openness of government, freedom of press, corruption, etc., Russia languishes in the bottom third of the world's nations. And its on-going relations with most of its neighbours are pretty poor.
Such is the fruit of the illustrious deeds of Russia's great ancestors and of its present-day leaders. Russia's love of grandiose mythology and of epic heroics repeatedly blinds it to its past realities, its present prospects and its future challenges, and traps it in bubbles of heroic dreams. Unless it leaves this kind of stuff behind and orients to reality, nothing much is likely to change.
The Russians are not in love with these Muslim terrorists either!