Out of Ashes of the 90’s, a New Generation of Youth Rises Ready to Rebuild Russia

Russian society must safeguard its freedom and stability so that real improvements become irreversible, has said Vladimir Putin today at the Russian Popular Front Action Forum.

The forum is held in Moscow and today it is on its second day. The main directions of the Front's work are being discussed. These are ecology, education, condition of roads, government procurement control, and other issues important for Russians. According to the President, the work is already showing tangible results.

Our observer Pavel Zarubin is reporting on these results.

 

At the Russian Popular Front Action Forum, Putin, in fact, talked about how the country must act going forward. According to the President, Russians are sure to make new achievements because over the past 15 years they have proved that there are no dead-end situations.

Vladimir Putin: "We heard all kinds of prophecies at the beginning of the 2000s. They said the country would break apart, the state would collapse, the nation would die off, that we'd fail to tackle the challenges of fighting international terrorism, and that we'd never be able to resolve many of our social problems. Truly, the situation was very difficult, and even critical sometimes.

But we not only managed to preserve Russia’s unity and sovereignty and to make our way to the revival, but to achieve true breakthroughs in the most important development areas. We made a giant step forward in the economy, the social sphere and the country’s security.

We did this ourselves through the efforts and will of our workers, engineers, farmers, researchers, businesspeople, teachers and military personnel, through our faith in ourselves and in our country, in Russia."

Now, six-month delays in small pension payments seem unthinkable, as well as mass rallies everywhere. And it was back then that our weak and humiliated country had an ideal relationship with the West.

Vladimir Putin: "Remember that after the collapse of the Soviet Union we heard a lot of sugar-coated and sympathetic words, but in reality, nobody did anything to help us. And we didn't expect them to. We don't need help.

We were building a new country and reviving an independent Russia. We learned to defend our interests, we realized our strength and the continuity of our common history, the value of our achievements and the reliability of cohesion.

There are so many young people here in this hall today. But all of us, young and old, as the saying goes, we must all remember that Russia, our people, and, in fact, all our families, lived through a very complicated and extremely hard period in their history in the past century. Through revolutions, wars, upheaval in their lifestyle."

These young people have lived most of their lives in new Russia but the childhood memories are the brightest.

Young people:

- I remember that when I was a child, there was nothing, we could hardly feed ourselves, my parents hardly could. Now, we have everything.

- I remember the lines to buy bread. That chaos of the 1990s is over. Our country has achieved a lot by now, and we need to develop further without scaling back our aspirations.

- In the 2000s, when I was young…

- Aren't you young now?

- Yes, I am now, too! Now, we have much more opportunities.

- And, of course, we need to keep and multiply these opportunities.

Vladimir Putin: "Today, it's our obligation to safeguard our statehood and freedom, stability and social harmony, safeguard everything, even the modest successes we have achieved so far so that our achievements and real improvements become irreversible and our strength benefit the wellbeing and the development of our Fatherland. I see it as our common task, as well as my personal duty and my civil and human responsibility, both as the incumbent head of state and a candidate for President of the Russian Federation."

Putin's words about his tasks and responsibilities as a presidential candidate, of course, immediately attracted more attention to the speech. In fact, it means that he outlined his election program when speaking about the most important things in future Russia.

Vladimir Putin: "Preserving and enlarging our nation, building a new economy, developing the Arctic, the Far East, Siberia and, in fact, all regions of our enormous country. Finally, there's a challenge of the future, fundamental changes in medical technologies, in technology in general, in a broad sense, in education.

Shutting ourselves off from these global trends or just trying to follow in the rear is certainly not our choice. This can't be our choice.

We have every opportunity, and we've done much to restore the competencies in which we were always undisputed leaders, We will, by all means, break through to new competencies that we need for our development. There's no doubt about that. We must be leaders in knowledge, intellect and social and cultural development, while at the same time preserve, of course, our identity and rely on our best traditions.

Those are our tasks for years ahead. We mustn't make a misstep, mustn't get off the chosen course, otherwise, we'll have to start virtually from point zero".

- The Far East is with you, Mr. President!

- We're one team, we do support him, and it comes from our hearts.

- I can say one thing: Russia is moving ahead. We have a resourceful youth, we are ready to act, not just talk.

This Russian Popular Front Action Forum was the biggest and has more than 4,000 participants. But the results of the work are more important.

Ineffective government procurement worth 250 billion roubles were canceled due to strict control of the Russian Popular Front, as well as thousands of waste deposits all around the country were removed.

And those governors and mayors, who don't want to deal with the problem for some reason, were sent a special parcel.

Forum delegate:

- We think it's a unique attribute, and we suggest those negligent officials be put on brooms and sent away as in Harry Potter.

Vladimir Putin:  Don't mix the addresses up, there are many of them.

Today, the Russian Popular Front finalized the youth contest. Most of the young people wrote essays on the topic of education.

Vladimir Putin: "It's good and right. But it's a pity that only 1 percent is interested in culture. We need to pay attention to it. It means we missed something there. And this is an extremely important sphere, one of the vital ones. It represents us. Our culture is our identity".

Over six years of its existence, the Russian Popular Front has become a real social force. It successfully copes with its main goal.

Vladimir Putin: "To protect our people. It's no coincidence that the idea of the Popular Front was proposed in Volgograd, the city that fought to the bitter end during the Great Patriotic War for the interests of Russia, when our soldiers died for their families and for our future.

Of course, we're living in peace now, but you chose correct and useful areas for protecting people’s interests.

You're doing very well. My congratulations. Good work. Thank you.

The very idea to establish the Russian Popular Front didn't deteriorate into some nonsense if you'll pardon the expression. It turned into a broad nationwide project, which is alive and responds to the most urgent challenges and issues."

Backed by the most active part of the society, which is ready to change things for the best itself, Russia will be changing for the best.

Vladimir Putin: "We all need a strong and future-oriented Russia, and everything depends only on us! Thank you very much for your support. Good luck!"

It wasn't at once that he left the stage.

Pavel Zarubin, Oleg Makarov, Pyotr Ravnov, Andrei Ryazantsev, Natalya Gubina, Yuliya Shchedrova, Irina Kharlamova, and Oleg Shavyrin, Vesti, Moscow.