Vladimir Putin sought to cast Russia as the moral arbiter of the world on Thursday, as he hit out at America’s “non-traditional values” and its influence across the world.
In an annual state of the nation address, the 61-year-old Russian president said his country did not aspire to be “some kind of superpower”.
“We do not infringe on anyone’s interests, we do not force our patronage on anyone, or try to teach anyone how to live,” he said.
His comments amounted to an oblique rebuttal to the growing international movement against Russia’s restrictive laws on homosexuality. Support for a boycott of Russia in the run up to the Sochi Winter Olympic Games has widened with celebrities including Sir Elton John announcing they will not perform in Russia. Others including Joachim Gauck, the German president, have declined invitations for the event.
Mr Putin defended his government’s increasingly conservative values and decried the “review of norms of morality” in the West and elsewhere.
“This destruction of traditional values from above not only entails negative consequences for society, but is also inherently anti-democratic because it is based on an abstract notion and runs counter to the will of the majority of people,” Mr Putin said, adding there could be no benefit for society for treating “good and evil” equally.
In his 70-minute televised speech from an ornate Kremlin hall, Mr Putin said traditional family values where a bulwark against “so-called tolerance – genderless and infertile.”
Critics of the speech were quick to point that post-Soviet Russia has seen a deep and damaging decline in its birth rates to among the lowest of any developed nation.
While the speech did not contain a widely-trailed push to eliminate local mayors, one of the few power centres outside the Kremlin’s control, Mr Putin did appear to signal a push against oligarchs dominance of the economy.
The Russian leader attacked the prevalence of offshore companies in the economy, claiming the use of such vehicles was hampering growth.
“The main reasons for a slowdown in economic growth are internal, not external,” he said. “We must establish more stability and a good investment climate.”
Source: The Telegraph
