VOA标准英语2009-Kremlin Calls for Sweeping Modernization of

（单词翻译）

By Peter Fedynsky
Moscow
12 November 2009

 
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev (file photo)
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev is calling for sweeping¹ economic, social, political, and military modernization² of his country. In his second annual State of the Nation address, the Kremlin leader said Russia must become a society of smart, free and responsible people - instead of an archaic³ society in which a few think and decide for all. 

In a nationally televised address to hundreds of government officials and cultural elites⁴ in the Kremlin, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said the prestige and well-being⁵ of Russia cannot forever rely on past achievements.

Mr. Medvedev says facilities for oil and gas production, which guarantee the lion's share of Russian budget revenues, nuclear weapons, which ensure national security, as well as the country's industrial and public utility infrastructure⁶ were for the most part created by Soviet⁷ specialists.

The Kremlin leader says modernization is a matter of national survival. Russia, according to Mr. Medvedev, must move from an economy based on natural resources to innovation and high tech, which will require democratization.

Mr. Medvedev expresses hope the well-being of Russia in the near future will directly depend on a successful market of ideas, inventions, and discoveries. He underscores the importance of the state and society being able to identify and encourage talented and critical thinkers, adding that young people should be raised in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom and civic⁸ engagement.

President Medvedev's proposals spanned a broad range of problems and goals - from government corruption⁹ to social charity; from nano-technology to nuclear engines for spaceships; from the pay of military sergeants¹⁰ to the need to reduce the number of Russian time zones.

In between he spoke¹¹ of helping¹² one-industry towns, raising pension benefits, enticing¹³ émigré and foreign scientists, building housing for veterans, constructing roads, central bank lending, elimination¹⁴ of counterfeit¹⁵ pharmaceuticals¹⁶, fighting drug addiction¹⁷, encouraging sports, laying fiber¹⁸ optic cables, bringing the Internet to faraway regions and GPS systems to automobiles¹⁹. 

Nor did he overlook the handicapped, orphans²⁰, police corruption, violence in the Northern Caucasus, defense²¹ procurement²², NATO, nuclear proliferation, and a foreign policy that helps raise the Russian standard of living. 

Opposition²³ leader Boris Nemtsov told VOA that Mr. Medvedev's diagnosis²⁴ of Russian problems is correct, but he offered no specific steps to address them. 

Actual modernization, says Nemtsov, is impossible without naming and removing the people responsible for the stagnation²⁵ and authoritarian²⁶ rule in the first place. 

Nemtsov says Mr. Medvedev could carry out his program if he demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, insisted that state TV directors lift censorship, permitted independent political activity, and most importantly, punished those who falsify election results.

The opposition leader says the Russian president offers no indication of taking those steps. 

In addition, Nemstov says the people Mr. Medvedev addressed in the Kremlin were the very ones he would need to fight to carry out his program. He says president is unlikely to do so. The lack of concrete presidential action leads Nemtsov to conclude that the democratization and modernization of Russia remain impossible. 

The Russian stock market continued falling after the president's nearly 100-minute speech, which Nemtsov says is an indication that it did not inspire confidence among investors²⁷.