Mikhail GORBACHEV, ex-President of the Soviet Union and the current president of the International Foundation of Socio-Economic and Political Studies
On the whole, my impression of the President's address to the Federal Assembly is positive. However, there are quite a few questions. For much of what we heard has been said before. And it is not clear how plans can be implemented.
Take the economic part of the address. The President spoke about small- and medium-sized businesses and the tax system. Moreover, Vladimir Putin suggested a three-year protection of our businessmen from bureaucracy and strong bureaucratic pressure. In itself, this is exceeding economic boundaries. But how can these tasks be fulfilled? This is the main question.
He must talk openly with the people. At least he must do his best to prevent the deterioration of the situation in the country. We cannot progress at any cost. I am perfectly sure of this.
Here is one more question. Has the President estimated the resources we will need to fulfil the new tasks? And do we have them? I can assume that he will reply that the head of state determines the priorities and sets tasks, while the government should make necessary estimates. This is the correct answer. But I think that a completely new attitude to the situation in the country is needed to attain these apparently positive goals. Can the current government do this?
It is true that the Cabinet and ministers and the parliament have done much for Russia. And the President noted this in his address. And yet they should have done much more. I am not grumbling; I am analysing the situation from the angle of my political experience.
As for what I liked in the address, I must say that the President is clearly strengthening policy designed to serve the interests of the majority of the people. He will apparently not serve the interests of any economic or political clans. At the same time, Vladimir Putin does not intend to provoke a confrontation with big business or natural monopolies. This is a sufficiently constructive stand. Business must see that to get a piece of the pie it should first make it. And we must start now and make a big pie.
I noted the stand of Anatoly Chubais. The conclusion is apparent: the Right forces, and Chubais is their ideologist today, are still not worried over the social price of the reforms.
I see it as a strong side of the President that he does not forget when drafting his addresses that standing behind him is the country. Two-thirds of the people are living at the edge of poverty. Can one imagine a worse situation? And so I want to ask Chubais: Is he prepared to shoulder a part of expenses? What billions of dollars are exported from the country every year? The time has come to invest the money in the national economy.
And then, where do these billions of dollars come from? I continue to insist that the country needs a substantiated tax on natural resources. The Americans have asked me more than once why we cannot deal reasonably with our natural wealth? Maybe we should create a nation development foundation, where we would accumulate returns from the sale of mineral resources, as Norway does. We have sources of income but we should use them cleverly, to the benefit of the people.