Official website of the President of Russia

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Russian President Vladimir Putin: Dear friends!

I thank you for your decision. I promise that I will do everything possible to strengthen the influence and authority of the party, and to use its resources for the development of the country.

Russia’s new President-elect, the Party and its supporters all still have a lot to do together.

We must not relax. The country continues to move forward, and we must continue to work to implement all the commitments we have made to the Russian people, so that everyone in our country lives better and looks to the future with confidence.

At this new stage, during the public discussion and finalization of the development strategies through to 2020 that I proposed, it has become even more apparent that the scope and ambition of our plans are not the result of anyone's whims or idle fantasy. In the true sense of the word, the future of the Russian nation is at stake.

We need to become one of the five largest economies of the world (as Boris Vyacheslavovich Gryzlov explained) not only because that would be a prestigious honour, but because a rapid move forward is the only way to preserve the integrity and independence of a vast and resource-rich country like ours.

We must strive for intellectual and technological superiority in our battle to be competitive. We have to do this so that our citizens are able to perform the most highly skilled and highly paid jobs in international markets.

And that is why today, to an even greater extent than ever before, we need to consolidate the political forces and spiritual unity of our people. We need a responsible government that works smoothly and effectively at all levels and acts as a single body on behalf of the majority, but in the interests of every Russian citizen, in the interests of all of Russian society.

Thank you for your support.