Good morning!
Putin's annual address is expected to start at 12.00 p.m. Moscow time (9.00 a.m. GMT).
- By Current Time
Putin's annual address to the Federal Assembly (the State Duma and the Federation Council), plus much of Russia's political elite, will be broadcast live on most, if not all, Russia's state-run TV channels, plus related radio and online streaming platforms.
Current Time is also streaming Putin's speech, and offering commentary and analysis -- before and after. (In Russian).
You can watch on Current Time's main web page here, or on their YouTube channel:
- By Carl Schreck
Putin is expected to discuss poverty in Russia and the defeat of Nazi Germany ahead of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. In this tweet, opposition leader Aleksei Navalny takes a swipe: "Why didn't he fight poverty earlier, and what does Victory have to do with anything? It's clear: Putin spent the past 20 years on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, and he didn't have time to deal with poverty."
For the first time, Putin's state-of-the-nation address will be projected onto the facades of buildings throughout central Moscow.
Six of Moscow's largest advertising screens will show the broadcast, RBK reported, including the Cosmos hotel, the Central Telegraph building, the October cinema, and the Russian capital’s largest bookshop.
The speech is routinely shown on the TV screens of state institutions across Russia, but this initiative is an expansion on the theme.
President Vladimir Putin has entered the hall to a standing ovation, about five minutes late.
Putin opens by noting that this is the earliest in the year that he has ever given the state-of-the-nation address, saying there can be no delay in dealing with the issues confronting the government.
Putin emphasizes that people are expecting improvements in their lives -- "results they can feel" and "an improvement in living standards." Turns his attention to demographics.
"We have entered a complex, very complex, demographic phase," he said. Notes that earlier policies had led to an increase in birth rates, but now the "small generation" of the 1990s has entered reproductive age and birth rates are in decline.