Re: Analysts - Putin to Launch Systematic Campaign Against Oligarchs

[Waistline2@xxxxxxx]

Putin promises brighter future for Russians plagued by poverty
VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
The Herald, May 27 2004

THE president promised Russians affordable housing, education and health
care and shrugged off allegations of authoritarian trends in his state of
the nation address yesterday.

Vladimir Putin focused on social and economic needs in his fifth annual
address - his first since being re-elected in a landslide to a second
four-year term - saying Russia could double its gross domestic product
faster than earlier planned.

He said rapid growth was essential for eradicating poverty and making the
national economy competitive abroad.

He alleged some foreign nations were trying to tarnish Russia's reputation
by accusing the Kremlin of an authoritarian streak. "Sometimes they
deliberately interpret the strengthening of our state as authoritarianism,"
Putin said.

He said Russia would adhere to democratic values, but issued a warning to
unnamed non-governmental organisations, saying many of the thousands of
groups were more interested in getting funding from abroad or corporate
sponsors in Russia than in defending the "real interests of the people".

"They cannot bite the hand that feeds them," Putin said in an apparent
reference to human rights groups funded by such organisations as the Open
Russia Foundation of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a jailed Russian tycoon.

Vladimir Ryzhkov, a leading liberal MP, said Putin's criticism of
non-governmental organisations sent a bad signal.

"That sounded like a veiled threat," Ryzhkov told reporters.

Putin has been riding a wave of strong economic growth, largely driven by
high prices for oil. He revealed economic growth for the first quarter of
the year was 8%, and at that rate Russia could meet his goal of doubling
GDP - set in last year's state of the nation address - by 2010, instead of
the previous target of 2012.

However, Putin admitted about 30 million of Russia's 144 million people
lived in poverty, adding that stable growth was necessary to tackle the
problem. He said that by 2010, one-third of Russians should be able to buy
adequate housing and urged the government to guarantee free basic health
care services.-AP