this is bbc news, i'm annita mcveigh. the headlines at nine... almost a year since russia's invasion of ukraine, vladimir putin prepares to give his annual state of the nation address. this is the scene in moscow. we'll be bringing you president putin's speech live very shortly. after his historic visit to kyiv, president biden arrives in warsaw to meet european leaders. junior doctors in england become the latest nhs staff to vote to strike, in another row with the government over pay. maximum stakes, affordability checks and controls on advertising, just some of the reforms the government's likely to bring in as part of plans to overhaul gambling laws.

and thousands of workers across the uk switch to doing fewer hours for exactly the same pay, after the world's biggest trial of a four day work week. president putin is to set out his latest thinking about the war in ukraine shortly, as the anniversary of the invasion of ukraine approaches. these are the live pictures from moscow — where he'll be addressing both houses of the russian parliament and senior military figures. it comes a day after president biden�*s surprise visit to kyiv where, in a joint statement with president zelensky, he said that "putin's war of conquest is failing."

president putin's speech was meant to take place in december but was postponed after a series of setbacks on the battlefield. his last state of the nation address was nearly two years ago in april 2021. the fighting has cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides and hundreds of thousands of russians have been drafted into the army. we are expecting president putin to portray this almost year long war, he calls it a special military operation of course, a phrase you will have heard being used by vladimir putin since then, he describes it as an existential battle against the west. president biden, who as we explained, is in poland today, we'll be giving a speech later in warsaw, will say the

war is a battle between democracy and autocracy. two opposing worldviews on display today, in moscow and later on in warsaw. a russia editor steve rosenberg told us more about what we might expect to hear from us more about what we might expect to hearfrom president putin's address. based upon what vladimir putin has said in recent weeks, from the comments he had made, i am not expecting any regret, any hint of remorse, any admission by the russian president that he has made a mistake or miscalculation by invading ukraine. contrition is not something vladimir putin does. instead, much more likely, he will use the address once again to try to justify the invasion of ukraine, and to present the kremlin narrative, the false narrative, according to which it is ukraine, the west, nato, america who are the aggressors in this conflict, and russia is the innocent victim fighting to defend itself

from the collective west that wants to destroy it. and thereby he will try to explain to the russian people why it is that a special military operation as he calls it, that was only supposed to take a few days, a few weeks maximum, has now gone on for a year. president biden will be holding talks with european leaders in poland today. hours after he left ukraine following the visit was planned with tight security and with much secrecy, mr biden�*s meeting with the ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky and cave came just days before the first anniversary of russia's invasion, which is this friday. later today he too will give a speech — and is expected to say the war is a struggle between democracy and autocracy. vincent mcaviney reports. air-raid siren. american presidents normally arrive to military—band fanfare,

but in kyiv yesterday, joe biden�*s historic visit was to the sound of an air—raid siren. after months of planning, biden travelled in secret via train for ten hours to an active war zone to mark the one—year anniversary of russia's illegal invasion on friday. with unprecedented security in the capital, the americans had warned the kremlin that joe biden was coming. a point was being made. ukraine was still under attack, but its most powerful ally was there to show its leader and people his support. the symbolism of the visit might be strong, but a few hundred miles away on ukraine's eastern front, it's more weaponry than matters. president zelensky has declared a coming year of victory, but to achieve that they will need more rockets and tanks, we will leave that for as the audience in moscow, everyone on

theirfeet as president audience in moscow, everyone on their feet as president putin takes their feet as president putin takes the stage, let's listen in. translation: ~ , , ., translation: members of the assembl , translation: members of the assembly, senators, _ translation: members of the assembly, senators, members| translation: members of the | assembly, senators, members of translation: members of the - assembly, senators, members of the duma, dear citizens of russia, in today's address i am speaking in a complicated and frontier time for our country, during the period of irreversible changes in the entire world, most important historic events that determine the future of our country and our people. when each of us is bound by huge responsibility to stop a year ago, in order to defend our historical lands, to ensure security of our country, to liquidate the threat that came from the neo— nazi regime that came from the neo— nazi regime that was set up in ukraine after

2014, we decided to conduct a special military operation and step—by—step we carefully, consistently will settle the task we are facing. starting from 2014, the donbas has been fighting, proving the right to live in its own land and speak to his native language, fighting without surrender in the environment of constant threats and hatred that was coming from the kyiv regime, waiting for russia to come for assistance. applause meanwhile, and you know it very well, we were doing everything possible, really everything possible to settle that problem by peaceful means. we were patiently negotiating

about a peaceful exit from that hard disk conflict, but behind our back, quite a different scenario was being prepared, promises of western leaders, they are assurances about their adherence to peace turned out as fraud, e. coli. they werejust playing for time —— a cruel lie. closing their eyes to political threats, political assassinations, mistreatment of believers, encouraging ukrainian neo—nazis to commit terrorist attacks in the donbas. western academies and schools trained nationalist battalions, supplied weapons, and i want to emphasise, even before the start of the special operation, we were negotiating, kyiv and the us were negotiating, kyiv and the us were negotiating, kyiv and the us were negotiating the supply of

tanks, aeroplanes and other military equipment. remember, the kyiv resume's aspirations to get nuclear weapons, they spoke publicly about that, the united states and nato were speedily deploying their military base secret biological weapons, we are mustering the future of the age of military actions, where training the kyiv regime, for a huge war, and now they admit, they admitted publicly and openly without embarrassment, they look proud of their infidelity, they call it a diplomatic show, bluff. that means all the same when the donbas was burning, but was shedding, when russia was sincerely aspiring to a peaceful revolution, they were

playing on people's life, playing despite the honest cards, as they say, that is disgusting, a way of fraud, of deceit. it is well known. they destroyed yugoslavia, iraq, leaving the same man, they can never cleanse themselves from that disgrace. honour is not for them. faithfulness is not for them. during these centuries of colonialism, they dictate, got used to spitting at the entire world, nature and how they treat their own nations in that cynical way because they deceived or were deceiving in a cynical way about searching for peace, adhering to it, the un security council resolutions. ukraine and donbas have become a symbol of total lie,

principal lie, so we stick to our position that the modern world must not discriminate between the so—called civilised countries and everyone else. we need honest partnerships that would exclude any exclusivity. to say nothing of the force, we were open to constructive dialogue with the west, insisting that europe and the entire world required an individual unequal security system. for many years we were proposing to our western partners to discuss, to work for it, implementation, but in response we have got unintelligible hypocritical statements. that is about words, but there were practical steps, the expansion of nato towards our borders, creation of new positional areas of anti—missile defence, they wanted to cover themselves from us

with an umbrella. deployment of military contingents, not only on the borders with russia, but i want to emphasise, it is well known, none of the countries in the world has such a great number of military bases abroad as the united states. there are hundreds of them, i want to stress. hundreds of them around the entire world. just enough to have a look at the map, the whole world witnessed how they withdrew from fundamental agreements about disarmament, unilaterally did they breakfundamental agreements disarmament, unilaterally did they break fundamental agreements that mean they maintained police on the planet, but they did not do that for nothing, nothing is done in vain as is and finally at the end of 2021, were officially sent our draft resolution to the united states and nato, regarding security on all

important points, and all important points we virtually put point—blank denial. then we realise they got an approval to conduct aggressive action. so the threat was going day by day, it was hopeless that by february of 2020, everything was ready for another bloody action in donbas, and it was clear, still in 2014, that the kyiv regime through everything, tanks, aeroplanes, to strike on donbas. notjust donbas, durness, but other towns. strike on donbas. notjust donbas, durness, but othertowns. into strike on donbas. notjust donbas, durness, but other towns. into this and 15 they made another time, a direct attack on donbas —— in 2015. while continue to block, blockaded and continue their campaign of terror. it was quite contrary to the

un security council resolutions. quite contrary. but everyone was pretending nothing was happening. i want to repeat, it is them who are guilty and culpable for the war... and we are using force to stop it. applause those who were planning a new attack on donbas had a clear understanding that the next aim was the crimea and we knew and understood that as well. now, such far reaching goals are also discussed in kyiv openly. finally they revealed themselves. as we thought. we are defending people's lives. our native home. the us plus my goals is limitless power. they have spent billions of dollars

to assist the kyiv regime. —— but the west was my goal is limitless power. forthe the west was my goal is limitless power. for the assistance of the poorest country in the world, the big seven allocate only $60 billion, 150 billion for the war, but to help the peerless countries which require constant assistance, only 50. —— poorest countries. which was accompanied by the demand of their obedience and return for that assistance and aid. where are those idle talks about environment, sustainable development? the monetary aid which calls for war is still going in full flow. and this is carried on around the world. recently, there were endless threats and accusations of russia.

apparently it was done to have everything forget what the west have done over the last decade. it was then building the genie out of the bottle, then who plunge the whole world into chaos. according to american experts themselves, following the wars, we did not invent those numbers, american data, following the worst lunch by the united states nearly 900,000 people died. —— following the war is launched. theyjust want died. —— following the war is launched. they just want to wipe launched. theyjust want to wipe it all out for a man came's memory. they pretend nothing has happened. but nobody in the world forgets, nobody will forget. human sacrifice and tragedies are not accounted by them, because trillions of dollars are at stake. they must carry on stealing from everyone, disguising

themselves with slogans of democracy and freedom. putting labels on the entire countries and nations, insulting the looters publicly, separating dissenting opinions in their own countries. diverting people's attention from corruption scandals. it is all being kept on screens, growing internal economic, social and international problems and contradictions. let me remind you, the 1930s, they were spiritually opened the way for the nazis to power. in our days, they are making an anti—russia out of ukraine. it is not a new project. those who know a little bit of history know very well this project dates back to the 19th century, was grown by the austro—hungarian empire, poland and other countries, with the only purpose to tear those

historical territories from our country, what is now called ukraine. nothing new, no novelty. everything repeats itself. the west is forcing the realisation, implementation of the realisation, implementation of the project, supporting the coup d'etat in 2014 and even reported how much money they spent, business as usual. that all give rise to russia phobia, extreme nationalism and very recently one of the bigots of the ukrainian armed forces, it is shamefulfor me to ukrainian armed forces, it is shameful for me to tell that, was named. the hitler type division that took part in depredation of dues, military impunity actions in yugoslavia, and the national guard

of ukraine has a very poor symbol, other nazi symbols. the ukrainian taxpayer the signs of wehrmacht nazi germany, neo—nazis —— the ukrainian tanks bear the science of wehrmacht. nobody in the west does not notice that... they don't care... they don't care who to stay gone in the fight against us, against russia. the important thing is that people carry on fighting us. you can use anyone, terrorists, neo—nazis, the devil himself. the only thing is to through their will serve against

russia with their weapons. it is part of the revenge politics towards russia creating the focal point of instability. 0n russia creating the focal point of instability. on our borders. back in the 1930s and today, the conception is the same. to direct aggression... to start a war in russia to eliminate their competitors with somebody else's cans. we are not fighting against the ukrainian nation, they became hostages of the kyiv route regime and their western bosses, who actually occupied that country in the political, military sense. for decades, they have been destroying ukrainian industry, robbing their natural resources and the national outcome was social degradation, exponential growth of poverty. it is easy in such conditions to provide materialfor military action. nobody thinking

about people, they were prepared to be sacrifice, and eventually when work on it is sad to speak about that, but it is the truth. the possibility for starting the ukrainian conflict, the growth of victims, is entirely on the western leaders... and on today's kyiv regime, for which the ukrainian nation is actually an alien nation, they are not serving the national interest, they are serving the interest, they are serving the interest of third parties. the worst abuse ukraine is a ram against russia. i will not go into details on the attempts of the west to change the situation in their favour, their plans to increase military supplies, bottle one circumstance must be understood by everyone. the more long—range weapons arrive in ukraine from the

west, the more we will have to push the threat from our borders, that is natural. applause the western elites doesn't conceal their goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on russia. what does it mean for us? it means to finish with us, to finish with us forever. they want to finish with us forever. they want to grow a local conflict into global opposition. that is the way we understand it. and accordingly we will respond to that. in that case, it is a matter of our very existence. but they cannot be unaware that it is impossible to conquer russia on the battlefield. that is why they carry on with their

information attacks. they choose the young generation first of all, and they carry on lying. distorting historical facts. they carry on lying. distorting historicalfacts. they they carry on lying. distorting historical facts. they are they carry on lying. distorting historicalfacts. they are never ceased with a tax on our culture, our orthodox church, other elitist organisations. look at what they are doing with their own people, destroying families, cultures, national identities. her versions, up national identities. her versions, up to paedophilia declared to be a norm of their lives. —— perversions. priests are forced to bless single sex marriages, same—sex marriages. what can i say? people have the right to live what way they want. nobody in truth —— intrudes upon private life, nobody wants to do

that. but i want to say to them, here is the scripture and other scriptures of world religion, they see everything, including that the family is a union of man and wife cut applause but even those sacred texts are put under doubt. figs but even those sacred texts are put under doubt-— under doubt. as it is well known, the anglican _ under doubt. as it is well known, the anglican church _ under doubt. as it is well known, the anglican church is _ under doubt. as it is well known, | the anglican church is planning... conceive of the idea of a gender neutral god. what can i saydo not know what they are doing. millions of people in the west understand that they have brought true spiritual disaster. the elites are

just going mad. this is incredible, apparently, but it is their problem. while we are bound to defend our children, and we will do that, defend our children from degradation. it is obvious the worst will try to break apart our society, to stay on those who have the same policing of content to their homeland and the wish to gain from selling that poison to those who are willing to pay for that. somebody became real traitors, committing crimes directed against the security of our country. those people will be punished by law, but we will never be similar to the kyiv regime and

western elites. fist be similar to the kyiv regime and western elites.— western elites. at this point we will say goodbye _ western elites. at this point we will say goodbye to _ western elites. at this point we will say goodbye to viewers - western elites. at this point we will say goodbye to viewers on | western elites. at this point we - will say goodbye to viewers on pbs in the united states.— in the united states. disregards those who betray _ in the united states. disregards those who betray their - in the united states. disregards l those who betray their homeland, in the united states. disregards - those who betray their homeland, it is their concern on their problem. what is important is the people of our country have given them a troop model evaluation, we are proud our entire nation, our mountain national people, arab majority have become —— arab majority have principal attitude to our special military operation, they supported our actions in defending the donbas and showed real patriotism. the feeling that has been historically natural for our people, which is

distinguished by a deep realisation of our close connection, close connection of our destinies of our homeland. i would like to thank everyone, the whole russian people, for its courage and decisiveness. thank you, say thank you to our heroes, to our armed forces, security forces, the fighters of donetsk and luhansk cause, patriots who fight in the reserve. i want to tender my apologies and asked for forgiveness that i cannot mention everyone during my speech. when i was preparing my speech i wrote a long, long list of those heroic divisions, but then i decided to take it out of my speech because i cannot mention, it is impossible to

mention everyone. i was worried i would offend those whom i omit. i bow low to their parents and wives. families of our defenders, doctors and nurses, those who save the wounded, railway people, drivers, builders to build fortifications and restore houses, workers and engineers of defence industries who work literally around the clock. those who work in agriculture and provide the agricultural security of our country. i thank the teachers who care sincerely about the younger generation, especially those who work in extremely difficult

conditions, almost front line conditions. the artists who come to the front line to support soldiers, volunteers to help the front and the local population, journalists and military correspondence, military reporters who do their best to tell the truth to the world... parsers of traditional religions. military priests, those civil servants and entrepreneurs who fulfil, discharge their civil duty and their human duty. special thanks, special thanks to the inhabitants of donetsk and luhansk republic, is upper asia, and

kherson, my friends, you decide upon your own future, made a firm choice despite threats and terror of neo—nazi, while the hostilities were taking place right next door to you, but there was nothing greater and your decision to be with russia, with your motherland —— zaporizhzhia. we have already started and we will carry on increasing... applause. i want to emphasise this response from the audience in favour of the

ukrainian residents. we have already started and we will carry on increasing the programme of restoration, social restoration, those new subjects of our confederation. the task is to regenerate industries and workplaces, build new modern roads the way we did in the crimea, which has got a reliable connection with the rest of russia. by all means, we will implement those plans. today the regions of russia support donetsk and the canvas, republics directly. they do it sincerely like real brothers and sisters. we are now together again. that means we have become even stronger. we will

do our best to have the long—awaited peace returned to our homeland. applause. for our ancestors, for the future of our children and grandchildren, to restore the historicaljustice, the reunification of our nation, it is for all this are fighters and heroes are fighting now. dearfriends, iam asking you to remember our friends, those who gave up their lives for our freedom and who fell under the hands of neo—nazis and villains.

we all understand. i understand how hard it is, it feels to the children, spouses and parents of our fallen, those defenders of the motherland. those who fought against nazis the donbas. their courage, their persistence, their strength of spirit are still remembered by the whole of russia. 0ur duty is to support those who have lost their friends and family members. help them raise their children, give them an education. the family of each participant of the special military operation must be in the focus of our attention, surrounded by care and honour. their needs must be responded to immediately. i proposed

to create a special government foundation whose job will be to provide targeted aid to the participants in the military operation and their families. it will coordinate social, medical and psychological support, send them to sanatorium is, help them with education, employment, entrepreneurship, raising the levels of their skills, entrepreneurship, raising the levels of theirskills, providing entrepreneurship, raising the levels of their skills, providing new professions. another task, an important task is to assist them with home care, provide them with false legs and arms in the most efficient manner. i appeal to all

regional heads to solve the organisational housekeeping issues in the shortest possible terms. the work at the front must be open. their principle of action must be as simple as possible, no bureaucracy. every family, each family of a lost fighter, each veteran must have a personal, social work and care coordinator attached to him or her. which must communicate with them personally and settle their issues in real—time. please remember, in this year this foundation must be deployed in all of the russian configuration. will already have the support schemes for the veterans of

pastels, participants in local conflicts. now i hope this foundation may take care of those issues, too. buti foundation may take care of those issues, too. but i want to emphasise, creating the special foundation does not relieve from responsibility, other structures of power. i expect all other regions and municipalities to pay the closest attention to the veterans and their families. closest attention to the veterans and theirfamilies. in that connection i want to thank the heads of local governments, the mayors of cities who keep meeting people, who come to go to the front line to support their countrymen. another special emphasis... the professional service men solving issues with

civilians, various logistic issues, medical assistance. civilians, various logistic issues, medicalassistance. but civilians, various logistic issues, medical assistance. but i have still appeals from local governors and military procurators, human rights activists, that not all those issues have been settled. you must find out what is going on in each particular case. but another obvious fact, the special military operation involves a lot of psychological and physical threat. including a threat to health and life. so i think it is essential to have, for all participants in the special military operation, including the volunteers, to give them regular, annual leave of at least 14 days. to have each fighter

to have an opportunity to visit theirfamily and spend to have an opportunity to visit their family and spend time with them. dear colleagues, as you know, we have a presidential decree to build and restructure our military force. while it is being implemented and adjusted as necessary but i want to say again, further steps in strengthening our army and navy in their prospective development must be definitely based on the actual military experience acquired during the special military operation. it is extremely important, it is precious, valuable to us. right now the support level, procurement level of our military, our nuclear forces is over 91%. but now, considering

the experience we have got, we must reach the same qualitative level for all parts of our armed forces. the officers and sergeants who have shown themselves to be competent and confident commanders, will be, as a matter of priority, promoted to higher positions, sent to military schools and academies and act as a powerful tool of specialists. but they must also find application of their skills in civilian life. i want you to pay attention to that. people must realise that the motherland values their contribution to its defence. we will actively implement the most advanced

technologies that will increase the quality of the potential of the army and navy. such developments in the area of armaments and equipment are already in place and many of them are considerably superior to western analogues. but are important is to launch the cereal production, mass production. that work is being done. it's tempo is increasing. i want to emphasise it is on the basis of our own industrial and scientific facilities. today our factories, own industrial and scientific facilities. today ourfactories, our design bureaus, our research institutes attract more and more young people, talented people, highly qualified people who are faithful to our traditions to do everything to ensure victory. it is

also necessary to improve the guarantees for work teams, in terms of wages and social security. i propose to launch a programme of providing concessions for home buying of those who work in the military sector. the government will assume a greater part of the purchase price of properties. we have been discussing how to finalise the programme and how to begin building that leasehold housing facilities as soon as possible. in the first place, for our defence and research institutions. as i said,

notjust informational research institutions. as i said, not just informational and research institutions. as i said, notjust informational and military not just informational and military but notjust informational and military but an economic front against us, but an economic front against us, but they will never achieve anything. applause. moreover, the initiator of sanctions are punishing themselves. they have provoked price growth, closure of businesses and an energy crisis in their countries and to their own citizens they say that the russians are to blame for everything. what means have been used in that sanction an aggression, they try to sever connections with russian businesses, turn off information channels, electronic channels, deprive us from access to industrial

markets, to plunder our currency reserves, attempts to cause the exchange rates of the rouble plummet, inflation. buti exchange rates of the rouble plummet, inflation. but i remind you, the anti—russian sanctions are just a means. the end, i quote, is to make russia suffer, to make our citizens suffer. how humane of them. they want to make us suffer, their plans will not be fulfilled. the russian system has turned out to be much stronger than they expected, thanks to the interaction of parliament, the bank of russia and our business community work teams, we have ensured the stability of the economic situation. defended our

citizens, prevented the deficit of work power, supported our work financial system and the entrepreneurs who develop our country. already last march we launched a package to support business in the economy in the amount of1 trillion roubles. i want to emphasise, it is notjust our emission policy. we have it all on a firm market foundation. following 2022, the gdp has gone down. i had a call from the minister, who told me i want you to say the information was published yesterday. everything is going to plan. remember, the 22% fall was predicted, now it is 2.5,

2.9. the gdp in 2022 has decreased by 2.2% only. i will remind you, already in february and march, they predicted a collapse of the russian economy but russian business has reviewed its logistics, its partnerships. they are in the majority in the world. the share of russian roubles in international transactions has doubled and it is one third now. plus the currencies of friendly countries, it is over a half. we will carry on working with our partners on building a safe and stable system of international payments, which wouldn't be dependent on the dollar and other similar currencies. who, in such

conditions will inevitably lose the compulsory mandatory character of their use. it is them who are doing that themselves. we are not reducing the operations in the so—called universal currency, it is them who are doing that. there is a famous expression, cannons instead of butter. the defence, of course, is a priority but solving priority issues, we must not repeat our mistakes, we must not destroy our economy. we have everything to ensure our security and create the conditions for the confident development of our country. we work within that logic and we will carry on acting within that.

many basic industries of the economy, not only reduced their output, but increased it. that concerns the housing sector, for example, which has exceeded 100 million square metres. as for agriculture, thank you to the agricultural workers. my bow low to them. russian agriculture gathered a record harvest, over 150 times, 150 million times of grain, 100 million times of wheat, which means by the end of 2023 weaver managed to increase the export volume of grain. it will look like a fairy tale. even ten years ago, absolutely invisible.

some who are present here still remember. fairly recently, the last deputy premier... 60 million would be exported only. not the whole harvest, but only the export volume. we didn't allow a collapse in the labour market. we managed to decrease the unemployment with all those difficulties all around, we managed to carry on with our labour market and make it more comfortable than before. you remember? we used to have 4.7% unemployment. now it is 3.7%. how much is it? 3.7? the

russian economy has overcome the risks it faced. many of those risks were impossible to calculate in advance. we had to respond straightaway as the problems arose. both at a government level and business level, we had to make our decisions as soon as possible and the private initiative played a key role. smalland the private initiative played a key role. small and medium enterprises, we avoided excessive administration, we avoided excessive administration, we avoided excessive administration, we avoided the economic downfall, was recorded only in the second quarter. in the second and fourth quarter. in the second and fourth quarter we recorded a rise. we reach a new cycle of the economic growth. according to the specialists its

model and structure are assuming a new character. new prospects and global markets. our own markets, scientific, technical and human resource basis, our production of goods with high value goods, with high added value, it allows us to develop the potential in all our sectors. a growth in the eternal demand. i am sure our economy will use it to grow the most demanded areas which fill the nation vacated by the western companies. we understand the picture. we understand the picture. we understand the picture. we understand the problems we have two cells in the logistics, finance, human resources. —— have to solve. we keep talking about changing the

structure of our economy in recent years, but now those changes have become vital, vital for our survival. that changes the situation for the better, in this case. we know what to do for confidence and development of russia. a development that would be independent irrespective of any external pressure and threat, with a guarantee of security and interest of our state. i want to say again, the sense, the meaning of our work, notjust to adjust the sense, the meaning of our work, not just to adjust the current traditions, the goal is to bring our economy to new frontiers. everything is changing now and it is changing quickly. it is not only a time of challenges, but also opportunities. todayit challenges, but also opportunities. today it is really so, and that determines the way we implement

them, it determines our future life. we must remove any interdepartmental contradictions, formalities and fences. everything must be done for the result, everything must be tuned to the result. the good start of russian companies, small family businesses, that is already a victory, new schools and kindergartens, another victory. scientific discoveries another victory. that is the important thing. applause. what areas should we focus on to develop the partnership of government and the regions, to improve the economic connections,

including external ones. for example, and internal ones, extend the highways from moscow to kazan and prospective to mongolia and china. that will substantially increase our connections with east asia, developed the seaports of the black and as sexy. pay special attention to develop the international north, south corridor. the caspian canal will be able to transport larger vessels which will develop our connections with india, iran and the middle east. we will carry on developing that channel. we will modernise our railways, trans—

siberian. northern shipping routes, notjust extra cargo siberian. northern shipping routes, not just extra cargo flows, siberian. northern shipping routes, notjust extra cargo flows, but national, nationwide task to develop the siberian far east, develop the infrastructure of regions, including telecommunications and road networks. in 2024, at least 85% in large cities of russia will be brought in correspondence with the currently effective norms. we will carry on our free gas supply, it is planned to expand to social use, schools and health facilities, for ordinary people that programme will be active on a permanent basis.

anyone can apply now to have a gas supply installed in their home. starting from this year another programme is launched. a building programme, a building co—operative, building societies, plan to invest at least 4.5 trillion roubles in it, we know how important it is, we know how neglected it is, how much attention this requires. it is important for the programme to take a powerful start and to get a stable funding. second, we must increase the technical basis of russia. we have launched the industrial mortgage instruments, mortgage financing can beat notjust for development but also for

construction and upgrade of industrial facilities. construction and upgrade of industrialfacilities. that construction and upgrade of industrial facilities. that is a substantial amount that has been allocated. an amount is such a loan can be up to 500 million roubles. 305% interest up to seven years. i think it is a very good programme, it must be made use of. —— three, 5%. starting from this year we will have a new regime of industrial clusters where tax burden has been reduced and the demand for innovation all products which has been launched into the market is supported by long—term subsidies from the state. according to the estimates, by 2030, this must ensure the implementation of highly demanded projects. already in this

year, the expected volume of investment is about 2 trillion roubles. it is notjust focus, it is clearly set goals. i asked the government to increase, to facilitate the launch of those projects as much as possible, to propose the right measures and including tax concessions. i know how our financial block loves tax concessions and how much streamlining of our tax system requires. creativity is welcome here. starting from this year, russian companies can decrease their profit tax, the corporation tax by using artificial intelligence. and

those concessions are calculated against actual costs. every rouble invested in buying those products will account for 1.5 tax concessions and i propose to expand that tax concession on purchases of russian high—tech equipment. i suggest to make a detailed list by industry, how those tax concessions work in each sector. third... that is a good decision that will revive the economy. thirdly, another important factor of economic growth is sources of investment. we have been talking a lot about that. thanks to a good balance, russia doesn't have to borrow money abroad, to beg for

money and then to negotiate how much and on what terms to repay. 0ur banks work on a stable and firm basis. they have enough tolerance margin. the output, the amount of loans to the corporate sector grew last year. there was a lot of controversy, there was a lot of doubt about that but it has been recorded, that growth is 14%, more than in 2021. in 2021, the growth was 11.7%. now it is 14%. the mortgage portfolio has also grown. by mortgage portfolio has also grown. by 14%. mortgage portfolio has also grown. by 2.4%. last year the banking sector made a profit, less than the

previous year, but a good profit. 203 billion roubles. another good sign of the stability of russian financial sector. according to the focus... studio: you are watching president putin's state of the nation address live from moscow and bbc news on the bbc news channel and bbc world. it is only 4%, perhaps five, depends on the opinion, whether the central bank of the ministry of finance, but we are approaching the target figure. these and other micro economic parenthesis will provides for the creation of interest rates on our financial sector, making financing more affordable. private citizens saving is another factor of

the economy and we