Putin quotes Stolypin and says that Russia has every right to be strong

The most important objective for the Russian authorities is to ensure security and well-being of the people, as well as sovereignty and national interests, President Vladimir Putin said during his Address to the Federal Assembly.

Putin then quoted Stolypin:

"In the matter of defending Russia, we must all unite, coordinate our efforts and rights, in order to maintain one historical right — the right of Russia to be strong."

Certain economic crimes should be decriminalised

One should revise the norms of the criminal code and decriminalise certain economic crimes, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his Address to the Federal Assembly.

The most important element of economic sovereignty is the freedom of entrepreneurship, he said.

"It is private business that proved its ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment against the background of external attempts to contain Russia,” the president stressed.

Under these conditions, every business initiative aimed at helping the country should receive support.

"I consider it right to revise a number of norms of criminal law in terms of economic offences,” he said, without specifying which norms they could be.

The state should control what is happening in this area, the head of state believes. "But there is no need to go too far,” he stressed.

In addition, the state, in cooperation with business, government, parliament and law enforcement agencies should develop measures to contribute to the deoffshorisation of economy.

"Business, primarily in business sectors, should operate within the Russian jurisdiction. This is the basic principle," the President said.

Maternity capital programme to be expanded to new Russian regions

The state maternity capital programme will be expanded to the new regions of the country — the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, as well as to Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Putin said.

According to him, parents of children born since 2007, that is, from the year when the programme was launched, will be able to apply for maternity capital.

"Let me remind you that we made the same decision for Crimea and Sevastopol back in the day,” Putin said.

In 2023 the authorities would index mother's capital by 12.4 percent, and payments would be increased to 589,600 rubles for the first child and up to 779,000 rubles for the second one.

In 2024, the amount of maternity capital is going to be increased by another 5.5 percent (for the first child it will amount to 622,000 rubles, for the second — about 822,000 rubles).