State of the Union (formerly USSR union)

international | racism & migration related issues | other press Monday April 25, 2005 11:18 by iosaf - "helping andorrans be democratic".

ribbid ribbid ribbid "what has moscow said?"

Vlad Putin has taken the podium to give his sixth state-of-the-nation address to the combined houses of the Russian legislature.

Present were -Members of both chambers of parliament and the government, heads of supreme courts, the Prosecutor-General, the head of the Central Electoral Commission, the head of the Auditing Chamber, members of the State Council (regional leaders) and heads of the main religious confessions.

And for the first time as a bumper extra, commanders-in-chief of armed services and heads of military districts.

This is very exciting.
Accordingly everyone is very excited.
Almost every street in Russia now has a TV, and viewers of the great democracy have been gathering socially and convivially all morning to watch the live feed of their president, mister numero uno, devout catholic as kid, former KGB officer, Vlad Putin.

This is all legal and completely above board.
In accordance with Article 86 of the Constitution.
Russia has a constitution, just like Eire (called the bunreacht) and Andorra (called the parish record).

The content of the address is not made public until the President reads it. The President explains that otherwise the address would lose its meaning.

Therefore I can't tell you, coz it isn't "translated" (a technical term we linguists use) into "english".

If you want to watch the speech, or read the transcript you'll have to go to one of the federal or state Russian telly stations.

Point your dish at any russian satelite, don't worry there's a lot and one will pass you by quickly, normally a few minutes after the astra.

Or if you don't have a directional dishy, and are using low tech, internet, go to these sites
where using microsoft windows player (coz you're most probably a capitalist lackey) you can open a bit stream (a technical expression we use for fast moving bits of "code" that help your "PC" show moving pictures).

http://www.rfn.ru/
http://broadband-television.com/tv/russian.html
http://russianinternet.com/video/

or you may be very old fashioned, in which case you'd prefer to listen to the radio from Moscow.
http://www.russianinternet.com/radio/

This year's speech is being made in the Marble Hall of the Kremlin.
Mr Putin will be wearing a dark suit, and will smile a lot. But he's not one for sickly sweet charm, no, he's not an idle believer in spin and lies. Commentators remember his speech last year when he reiterated his promise of 2002 to double GDP. He said this could be attained by 2010.
Last year he also had to reflect on the Beslan atrocity, and was very sombre, and some westerners thought he rattled his sabre a little.
On the subject of his sabre, the Russians do not want to leave the black sea a matter raised in the recent meetings with PM Julia of the Ukraine
C/f the ukranian file latest comment-
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=68497

Other key foreign policy areas include the relation with Europe, keen readers and non-andorran irish political thinkers of the XXI century will remember the "4 way summit" of Chirac, Putin, Shroeder and Zapatero earlier this year.

And of course the decision to sell really good surface to air missiles to Syria. Which has at first upset the Syrian's neighbours Israel, but they've sort of got used to it now, reflecting in the last week before passover, that if they hadn't repeatedly buzzed the president of syria's house with low flying really good jets, the Syrian's wouldn't want to fork out cash on Russian sams.

Putin has also in the last year announced military collaboration with China, the exercises are due in the mid Asia area in the month of June. As this is the 60th anniversary of the end of the "Great Patriotic War" (the russian way of saying WW2) there will no doubt be mention made of the sacrifice endured by millions of Russians and other peoples in the war against Nazi-ism and the liberations of the death, experimentation and concentration camps. It is doubtful however that any attention will be brought to the post-war camps in the Stalinist Soviet Union.

News just in from our wonderful network of "news for the deaf and ballerinas" confirms that Mr Putin has declared that Russia and her allies did the right thing on the Iraqi war and since then and supports the reconstruction of that country.

The allies being the other 3 European states of the European 4.

Putin announced his intention to introduce proportional representation voting rights in Russia last saturday, no doubt there will be mention of this today, which certainly western western (US orbit) commentators will see as a "good thing" for Russia's newest political party the liberals of chess master Kasparov
c/f
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69096

Putin will also mention the good working relationship he has with Bush, in "realpolitik" they are both moving to a multi-polar world which both want, and part of that is reminding their TV viewers and orbit commercial media interests that they are in fact the main and most powerful pole. This can be quite ridiculous on ocassion, but one you get the hang of it, its easy.


at the link to the end of this previous article which highlights the very serious environmental concerns which we in Europe share with our immediate neighbours to the East you may read the Kremlin Putin address for New Year 2005, which I sort of liked.

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=68089

I will post the "translation" of the speech in the comments, as soon as it's checked against the spoken words for litte glitches of "meaning"* with varying reactions, ranging from aunty beeb of london and cousin QdO of paris, to the german pontiff in Rome to the wonderful daily "bon dia" in Andorra.

(* just realised in the last days that the german pontiff's attack on moral relativism and liberalism (PDs) and marxism (SWM) and capitalism (FF&FG) which I had originally thought included us "lbertarianism " was a glitch, papa ratzi did in fact use the word "libertine-ism", which is bit hornier than libertarian and requires more viagra as you get older.) Which just goes to show making speechs in latin might be helpful. Q:E:D: papae.