President Dmitry Medvedev has warned of a new arms race and restated his commitment to promoting family values in a modern Russia.

During his annual address to the Federation Assembly, Medvedev called on the international community to reach agreement on European missile defence – or suffer dire consequences.

“If we do not reach an agreement in the next decade, a new round of arms racing will start,” he warned.

The stark statement comes at a time when the ratification of START is threatened by a Republican-backed US Senate, and while Russia is still anxious about NATO’s planned missile defence shield in Central Europe.

Eurasia vision

Medvedev also outlined his dream of a unified trading block “from the Arctic to the Pacific Ocean, on all the territory of Eurasia” in his speech.

And boosting that idea would see him talk about cancelling visas with EU countries while cementing the rising importance of the BRIC quartet and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Strong links with China also form a key plank of Medvedev’s vision, he added.

What crisis?

On domestic matters the president highlighted statistics which point to the end of the economic crisis.

He cited projected growth of 4 per cent and a unemployment falling from 7 million to 2 million since the “peak of the crisis”.

“We managed to stabilise the economy after a significant slump,” he said. “Despite the rise of food prices, and it, unfortunately, happened all over the world, we did not allow a sharp rise in inflation. The task over the next three years is to reduce it to 4-5 per cent a year.”

That target is lower than 7-8 per cent figure most experts had anticipated.

He said Russia will aim to reduce budget deficit and the budget policy would be more balanced once the crisis was over.

Modernisation is key

Medvedev’s favourite topic, modernisation, will get a further boost with at least half the money saved from other areas of the federal budget being invested there.

“Our aim is to increase the energy efficiency of the economy by 40 per cent by 2020. This target is realistic and possible, I am absolutely sure of it.”

And it’s not just about gleaming research centres – Medvedev’s dream is to see public services dragged into the 21^st century as well.

At a time when bureaucracy and poor facilities have been blamed for the death of a baby in Novosibirsk, he pledged to spend big sums on reforming paediatric care.

“No less than 25 per cent of money for healthcare modernisation should go to developing children’s healthcare. It is a big sum, and in practice it should be about 100 billion roubles in two years.”

Emphasis on families

Better childcare will also help to tackle Russia’s demographic problems, with the president urging families to breed – and offering incentives to do so.

He ordered the allocation of free land for housing or dacha construction to families which have a third child, in the hopes of stimulating populating growth.

And once the extra infants are born, better kindergartens will be provided to take care of them, while the country’s orphans are set for a further boost.

“There are unfortunately 130,000 kids that remain outside of family care – they have no parents, no guardians, they are deprived of the main thing – family warmth.”

“There should be no more ‘nobody’s children’ in our country,” he added.

Medvedev called for people charged with violent crimes against children to be banned from working in organisations that work with children – a measure long enforced in most western countries.

 http://themoscownews.com/russia/20101130/188242612.html