Medvedev State of Nation Address Continues Policy Shift

Russian President Medvedev delivered his annual State of the Nation message on Thursday, Nov. 12, and struck some of the critical themes that have been at the center of Russia's new collaboration with China, and of the prospects of Russia playing a pivotal role in what Lyndon LaRouche has identified as the Four Powers alliance to defeat the power of the London-centered global financial oligarchy. Lyndon LaRouche commented that the address was in accord with the agreement between Russia and China and was what he sees as under way as a solution to the problems facing Russia. A further report, and a complete assessment of the President's remarks will not be available until tomorrow, but some highlights can be cited here.

Medvedev focused on the need for the Russian economy to be based on technological and scientific innovation, rather than raw material extraction for export. He recalled French scientist Louis Pasteur, saying that "Science must be the most elevated incarnation of the Fatherland, as, of all peoples, the one who will be the first is the one that will overtake the others in the field of thought and mental activity. We should make sure that scientific specialists are willing to work in their own country."

Medvedev elaborated, "The nation's prestige and national prosperity cannot be upheld forever by the achievements of the past. Oil and gas production, which provide a large share of the budget revenues; nuclear weapons that guarantee our security, industrial and communal infrastructure—this was all to a large degree, created by Soviet specialists. In other words, we didn't create them. The time has come for us, the current generation of Russians, to make its voice heard; to raise Russia to a higher level of civilization. The well-being of Russia in the near future will depend on whether it will be successful in developing ideas, knowledge and science; finding and supporting people, who are creative; and bringing up very young people to be intellectually free and active."

He continued: "We gave preference to further developing our old economy based on raw materials, and few and non-systematic measures were taken to promote our innovative technologies. We can't put this off any longer. We have to begin modernization of the whole industrial base. I think this is the matter of surviving of our country in the modern world."

"It is high time for today's generations of the Russian people to express themselves and raise Russia to a new and higher level in developing civilization," the President added.

The President devoted an entire section of his State of the Nation address to Russia's expanded role in state-of-the-art nuclear power, including a new generation of nuclear plants, and fuels, and collaboration with other nations on thermonuclear fusion research.