On December 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin (second from right) came to a polling station in Moscow to prepare for the fifth Russian State Duma election. Xinhua News Agency reporter Shen Bohan photo
Under the leadership of President Putin, the United Russia Party won the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) general election on the 2nd without any doubt, and its vote rate soared from 37% in the last election to over 60% this time. The complete victory of the United Russia Party not only affirmed the "report card" of Putin’s administration, but also laid a solid foundation for continuing the "Putin Plan".
Rectify oligarchs and stabilize domestic order
In Yeltsin’s era, the practices of "oligarchy ruling the country", "shock therapy" and transplanting western democracy plunged Russian society into turmoil. The core of "Putin Plan" is to eliminate unstable factors, restore social order and create favorable conditions for Russia’s development.
Under Putin’s rectification, the oligarchs who used to control the political and economic lifeline of the country either fled, went to prison, retired or surrendered. Most of their ill-gotten gains were nationalized or redistributed to state-controlled enterprises.
Economically, Russia entered the world’s trillion-dollar GDP club last year, and its gold foreign exchange reserves jumped to the third place in the world, basically paying off the foreign debts of the Soviet Union. The strong ruble has not only achieved free convertibility, but also embarked on the road of internationalization.
In addition, in order to reverse the situation that the western democracy introduced by Yeltsin caused disputes between the ruling and opposition parties and conflicts of local interests at home, Putin promoted "controllable democracy". Although this practice displeases the west, it has built a framework for ensuring the stability of the Russian political situation. After gathering the power to appoint the local chief executive, Putin signed a series of laws and regulations aimed at preventing the "color revolution", such as the Law on Non-Governmental Organizations.
Attach importance to people’s livelihood and win high support rate
Another key point of "Putin Plan" is to attach importance to people’s livelihood. Different from the implementation of "shock therapy" and radical privatization in Yeltsin’s era, Putin’s gradual reform is not simply to pursue economic growth figures, but ultimately to benefit the people.
The data shows that since 2000, the real income of Russians has more than tripled, and the number of poor people has been reduced by half in recent years. Putin also promised to increase the average pension in Russia by 65% in the past two years.
It is worth mentioning that during Putin’s reign, he had the idea of "doing everything in one battle", and hastily launched the welfare monetization reform plan in January 2005, but it set off a wave of protests that swept the country, and Putin’s support rate fell below 50% for the first time.
However, in the autumn of the same year, Putin timely put forward four "national priority projects" to develop medical care, education, housing and agriculture, which stabilized the people’s hearts. Putin not only personally supervised, but also made the first deputy prime minister Medvedev specifically responsible for implementation. Last year, the budget of the Russian Federation spent more than 130 billion rubles on "national priority projects". These funds are mainly used to raise teachers’ salaries, purchase teaching equipment for primary and secondary schools, support agricultural production, improve the treatment of medical personnel and speed up the construction of affordable housing. Paying attention to people’s livelihood has also won Putin a return: his support rate has remained at a high level of 60%-70% for a long time.
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