Analysing Putin's speech

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a speech at the State Duma on October 5th during the opening session of the seventh convocation.

His statement was brief, but at the same time it contained a succinct messages which immediately attract attention.

1. The President said that these elections to the new Duma proceeded under special conditions, and they were conducted transparently and honestly. The Duma, according to Putin, should be a permanent platform for political and social dialogue. He called for the development of ерi-parliamentary diplomacy, which will aim to work with foreign partners. The protection of national interests, including the adoption of crucial decisions must be the main purposes in the activities of the Parliament.

Obviously, the challenge for a more expansionist approach (in the legal sense) in the international arena is laid out in these words. Not only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the members of Parliament should understand better, deeper, and more clearly the realities of the modern challenges and respond to them.

It was significant that Vladimir Putin quoted Peter Stolypin, who was an eminent statesman of the Russian Empire. "Everybody should join, coordinate their efforts, their obligations and rights in order to maintain the higher historical right of  Russia - to be strong",  Putin declared, referring to the need to strengthen the power of Russia (including the future political elite of the country in the next decade). It was interesting that the phrase to the State Duma was taken from Stolypin's  speech of  about the hierarchy of power associated with army leadership.

Stolypin declared in 1911, apropos the attempts of some deputies to influence decisions making, "... impress upon our army even a shred of the idea that it simply depends on collective will, and it’s power has already stopped being a single, unchanging, connected military force power - one that is supreme. The Duma, within the prescribed framework, has a lot of work for the prosperity of our army. But it would be illegal to use the legislative institutions of their budget or credit to secure the rights of the army pleasing her order ... I am sure that the State Duma will reject with its power the request of 32 members, affirming that, we all need to unite, to coordinate our efforts, our responsibilities and our rights to protect Russia and maintain a higher historical right. The right of Russia is to be strong».

In view of the ongoing reforms of power structures, it is possible to make an unambiguous conclusion according to the president’s speech about the subtle hint of the need not only to preserve the vertical way of power, but also its institutionalization.

3. Moreover, Putin proceeded on to the concept of strength. He opened it in the following statement. At the same time, Vladimir Putin said that every country and every people have the right to be strong, and Russia had never been imposing anything on anybody. 

The president said: "It (the power) is in our people, our culture and traditions, in our economy, our vast territory and natural wealth .... Our strength is in the unity of our people. We must always remember that all - the constituent power of Russia, about which I have just said - is the most important, the key condition for the preservation of our statehood, independence and the very existence of Russia as a single, common, native home for all peoples which it is inhabited by".

Here the paradoxical nature of power was observed, as well as the ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity of Russia, which makes up the power of the Russian Federation. And this one is the principle of the Empire, which Russia used to be and which is.

It is revealing that Putin mentioned that Russia's power should dispense with the notes of the great power, which the position of the West understands very difficult. Since Russia and the Russian people are inclusive and can accommodate the variety of ethnic groups and cultures, this factor is important for understanding the potential and the current Russian capabilities.

4. Overcoming the disagreements. In conclusion, he thanked the deputies of the State Duma of the previous convocation and its Speaker - Sergei Naryshkin, noting that the work of the Parliament can be coordinated and coherent. An appeal to the succession, stated in the words that reinforced the previous theses, linked to the strength and structure of the government, to the achievement of unity, hence - the elimination of the opposition. Perhaps, from the perspective of liberal democracy, such an approach seems authoritarian, but in Russia the liberals are the fifth and sixth columns that act solely to the detriment of the interests of the state and nation.

In the current geopolitical situation, the presence of such elements in power is fraught with disastrous consequences. According to "Katehon" the balance of power in the current parliament is more favorable to the conservatives. In addition, a number of personnel changes in the president's administration indicate a decrease in the influence of liberal western agents.