russia's president is about to deliver his annual state of the union address to parliament what changes in the country's political system expected to dominate this year's speech bring you that live here on r.t. . you're watching our take on live from moscow addressing changes and the country dmitry medvedev is expected to announce a plan to reform russia's political system and his fourth and final address to parliament that's about to began at a time now while internal political issues are predictably anticipated to be the

main focus off the speech following the post-election developments let's now cross telling our correspondent who has more on this question hello to you and tell us more about this year's address and what can we expect to hear hello marina well first of all russia's political establishment will be cow fully watching from the fourth and final address to the column and expecting some sort of announcement on the leader's ongoing political reforms aimed particularly is also expected that nutriment that it will announce sketches he has ideas about how he plans to reform the country's political system also it's believed that these address unlike the three previous ones will be unconventional as he will have to react respond to the processes which followed the palm enter elections in the country we're talking here about met mass protests which followed the december fourth vote protests taking place moskos summit is broken to other cities. the biggest one the biggest rally

took place in moscow in december the town according to the most mortice estimates at least twenty five thousand people gathered for the rally demanding that the results of the vote council done arguing the fair and nice of the vote in response to the claims that the election had been raked from a vet if. ordered to thorough investigation fifty criminal cases have been already filed for alleged violations during the election process the results of twenty one polling stations cancelled course we have to understand however that twenty one polling stations out of almost ninety thousand across the country is not enough to council the results of the vote so this is why the new state duma held its first session yesterday they chose their new speaker former chief of staff said again not by the way one of the first things he told journalists was that mr medvedev has concrete plans to reform and more denies russia's political system also the

december four vote was the reason why these annual address to the poland by the president is held so late in december at the end of december traditionally it's held in november so obviously moved the date he wanted to trust the new working parliament so the last the last address of nature that if to the palm and asked the president but of course all the ideas initiatives boys today would be relevant should he become the next prime minister if demur putin wins the presidential election in march next year. particularly and thanks very much indeed for bringing us the subway down the bad ground and just to remind our viewers that we are on standby for the address of president medvedev state of the union address and we will be bringing you of course that live as it starts and well go there right now is going to show reporting there from the kremlin and she will be. talking to us so

as we continue to wait for president address in the meantime you are watching r t coming to you live from moscow let's now take a look at some other stories that we are following for you here today well arab league observers are due to arrive in syria on thursday as part of a plan to hold violence in the country and that's after one of the bloodiest weeks since the beginning of the end breast nine months ago activists say more than two hundred people have been killed in the last few days the u.s. has renewed its call for president assad to step down warning of new international measures on less it was draws security forces from the streets of syria is already suffering under a set of sanctions and. reports it's the ordinary people who are feeling the pain. it's been nearly ten months since syria's uprising began the capital of damascus has remained low as he sells it from the conflict right here in the bustling stand

say it seems like it's business as usual this one says it's in the winds of change have begun to float a little stronger the arab league's imposed tough economic sanctions the effects of which have you felt even here in the. well beginning his fourth and final state to parliament let's now take a lesson. was a. distinguished citizen immersion. to p.c. members and as a christian councillor listed the state duma of the six convocation gathered for its first session up i congratulate the deputies on the first experience and so wish them success and we are ready for

a dialogue on all the shoots. on the results of the president of the parliamentary election we heard a lot of statements some have expressed satisfaction some are not quite satisfied some a decertified the same happened after the previous election and it is always the way and i would like to underline that we treat with respect any criticism that that is addressed. governmental institutions and specific officials we draw conclusions if this criticism is justified and we try to restore order where it was which was violates its own name and we consult the main political forces. we expressed our position you know. we express our opinion if

the criticism has been and just if i use it it means that when the right of people to express their criticism and their opinion has been guaranteed by law but attempts to manipulate the citizens of russia with a to confuse them pretty soon sites. is unacceptable that we will not let extremists and probably could ters to draw society into their adventures into being we will not tolerate any external efforts to manipulate our domestic affairs. russia needs democracy and not chaos. russia needs hope for the future and just this. the fact that society is changing and people are more active in expressing their voice. is natural it's a good sign that our democracies are getting mature and it's

a good good trend that will benefit our country. just the same as tightening the political competition which will prompt the government. listen to the opinions of millions of russian families and i will get out of them will map out the measures that will enable people to influence the governmental decisions any decisions that touch upon their rights and interests but first and foremost. i will deliver my report on the results of our work and i express my gratitude to those who supported my policies as the russian federation . president it started in a very complicated sometimes the way that we all remember what happened in august two thousand and eight in south. with them and that's the month of march to that

we faced. a serious financial crisis for much of. what i was doing nicky's them probably it was a serious glow to our economy and some of the challenges have not been solved. by now but here are our main achievements we are a main. conclusion as we have passed through these periods. and have come back to the pre-crisis indicators economies are growing it's about four percent see on only which is the one which exceeds the pace. in the recovery of many of the country's foreign debt is still of the same level russia has become the sixth economy of the world. we deliver on our social obligation these pensions and good wages with the majority

of public servants who grew higher pay than we planned before the crisis and there are no pension is. below the regional level and pensions who grew by more than one hundred fifty percent. of the salaries of teachers and doctors have reached the average salaries specific regions this year we have the record low inflation rate. it is below seven percent. maybe around six percent by the years in us that we've got we have the highest allowances the highest salaries since and so it's science and yang highest real wages although it is still far from what we desire there are still a lot of poor people all the. number has.

been has dropped to a record low level of the crisis indicators that the policy of accumulate seeing funds from the sales of whirling gaz he's a reasonable policy and that is why we did you know it's have a currency crisis today and the level of gold in currency reserves are close to the crisis level of the deposit deposits in the banks have reason eighty percent we've. provided distance to the small and medium these ines we provided funds for large corporations based on their business plan on their strategy of on their desired see hiring new people and create new jobs we have supported our agricultural produce and these helped industry these held in markets to compensate for the losses of the previous year relates it sooths of the of that

upward drought safire's the number of people with unemployment decreased by two million people today we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world. and you get what i thought over what on the whole brushes into crisis policy was better then in some other country little countries and it was more efficient use of then the packages introduced in previous crises i think we were up to mark we don't like full fields are a demographic programs and we helped to restore the population of the country more than six million children were born within these four years it's something that i say with pleasure it's a record for the past twenty years. that limited to rates

went. from zero to high peace with russia has the highest rates of life expectancy in modern history it's now close to sixty nine years of life expectancy of women and. take more care of themselves is almost seventy five we have never had such an indicator such a high level never of course these figures should i wrote. that the goal of our health care modernization program was that we have taken all the decisions necessary to put a new life well. last year i spoke about maternity which children support we will have twenty three prenatal centers in them in russia various regions we have allocated sufficient resources medical checkups school children we will be across the whole year one more hour of physical training has

been introduced and we have taken decisions that will allow. mothers to use their maternity capital for housing and for other purposes a. i spoke about that year ago but i would be russian in the region is can now afford that you can now have the rights to provide the land for a for the construction of housing on the if you want to pre-pay says which and we now have a man for a children's rights in every region. children that are raised in orphanages taken by public boards and so their problems are solved now them easier. at the peak of the financial crisis initiate.

policy is now announce the modernization of our economy and education and i'm sure this was the proper decision with now we have received good results on all of the aspects which we have now reached the highs since the time they rate of financing for research institutions us. and we have introduced a lot of energy saving solutions and allow you to long think of that it also means that some of the funds that are needed to pay utility bills will stop down the road certain point and the fwe use energy in a rational way it's going to drop. introduce the facilities to produce in your medication those we are working with our european partners or a new generation on the medicines you have developed supercomputers that's likely

to support the work. in their space industries and shipbuilding industries we are now working on the documents of for a new generation of nuclear power plants that will be resistant to any external shock waves and will also be fishy and you can see on the economic leader half of russia's regions are using russia's globe. system services and you also have other services broadband. lines and you have increased and we now have about fifty five million people using the broadband internet it's the highest indicator among all european countries. and that's why we've got them up before your television and radio stations will move on to digital

broadcasting it will stimulate competition by twenty fifteen we'll have about twenty two stations that will be free for our citizens for our people and us number of. number of channels that will be provided by the paid so cable stations theater number of two stations could rise to one hundred s. asterisk agua projects we all know that have been skeptics but here are the facts facts for more than three hundred companies don't fall due cutting edge technologies and research are no residents of the skulker projects with we are building one of the approaching we're building a university we have partnership programs we are the world's major companies who will create a very said centers in school of course is just the beginning and i'm sure that school will be the example of the first research projects of

a global scale in russia in educational innovations in science it will be the first step but not the last project of this kind of young women going to. the modernization of the political system has made it more effective we elect remember that every year in my dresses so i expressed my wishes and. i'd like to thank the federal assembly that all of the measures that i've proposed have been implemented so we feel we've increased the quality of popular representation stimulated political competition with what they have for the past few years but on the role of the party is seen creases in the life of a country they now have the right to superimpose their can. did that for the governor leave this party when we got to the election in this specific region.

and also the government is accountable to the state duma and the governors of the regions that are accountable to the legislature as the heads of in this appellate cities are accountable to their regional legislatures to their municipal tle municipal legislature was the parliamentary parties have now guarantees that they have equal access in state t.v. and radio stations will also have live broadcasts on the web of the regional assemblies in the region and these improves. the transparency of the deputies work and allows the parties to commit convey their message to the electorate so that the court. as for non-parliamentary parties they have the right to speak of a state to man and in regional legislatures. to improve

the quality of the popular absent ation further on we need we have taken for the decisions. of the place and people but with you but then we'll. see more improvements on that the african threshold has been down to five percent. we have increased the social activity of civic organizations and we've seen it happen in your past few weeks the increased exceeds the event has been one of the major achievements of the past year we have done a lot to stimulate volunteer movements country we've done a lot to support them we now have more than you do with one hundred thousand n.g.o.s it's now easy to register them and they have been fewer checks. that second

but a lot of them receive direct state grants the overall amount of the donations are close to one hundred billion rubles. and the grooves people help them they help to help families in hard situations searching for missing people here they are. working to conserve our environment and this should be respected. but i mean the number seven would seriously advanced in the reforming of our judicial system. and especially in the criminal legislation. or made it more just more humane and more adequate to the goals of the development of our society like it will be if you get only that one of my initiative to pass a law making amendments to the criminal code of court into those amendments.

and again then you get those sentences for the first time like in the news but in the lead you can only face spending time in jail. for the presence of aggravating circumstances but unlike you we wouldn't. list of punishment has been developed that i can beat up and can serve as alternative to prison time including community service the law the money bailouts and home arrest of me. that along with a loosening of some criminal some articles of the criminal code punishment was severe for for example terrorism the assistance of terrorism and of violence and children in the raping child molesting me and other crimes against minors. finally started the reform of the law enforcement system which opened the doors for

more professionals into the system that are really committed to protecting the rights and with lawful interests of our citizens when we will get to the new number eight on my instruction that a large scale work has begun against corruption you'll excuse not russia has joined international conventions on in this year. and laws have been passed for the first time in our history relevant laws have been passed against corruption but almost when you go on the problem is when you move and now people involved in corruption crimes where you know parts from other kinds of punishment are now that would have subjects to discharge does her loss of trust people from now on law enforcement officers military service men. are now obliged to file. tax declarations which will be checked and the result of the results of such checks will be valid today special commission you know when you go over three thousand

three thousand officials have been held liable since the like but. since the passing of those measures and i would like to point out that fighting the corruption on a large scale has just begun and we're going to pursue it determinedly and consistently. that there what i'm good number nine. we have been actually modernizing our forces. equipping the army with the latest with the latest weapons and equipment we have started the transition to a professional army in the next year they'll be two thousand and twenty two hundred twenty thousand officers serving on contract and over one hundred eighty thousand. at the soldiers noncommissioned officers for the men. but at the new armaments are being developed out of the base on the cutting edge technologies. and military

orders have been in place for several years in advance which is beneficial for me for the defense industry. and despite the financial crisis we have made we have done steps that might be limited that will allow to make our army and the navy more compact more mobile and more combat ready. yet the poor number of service men in our army is now one million people which allows us to build a truly efficient and modern the armed forces in the old ways and get me to go out on a new branch of the forces of armed forces was created aerospace on the bridge and military forces recently but only recently most combat exercises and maneuvers were carried out on maps in headquarters and now we have mil trigger and high scale field exercises that are going to involving all branches of forces you know from generally the first of two thousand and twelve the money allowance of

servicemen will be tripled i think that it was dressed really changes the situation in the armed forces giving officers i mean extra motivation living away and to serve. in the material standing of military pensioners is also changing. their pensions will be increased by at least one points one point six times which is an important step towards appreciating their merits of them into their motherland. and their allowances are going to grow by at least two percent room over the inflation and for the first time in the history of our country we have gotten closed close to solving one of the most pressing problems with the young i mean providing military service men with permanent housing. and you get them get them you know but only in two thousand and nine two thousand and ten the defense ministry procured almost one hundred thousand you with an

apartment that was away with an eighty eight the blue chips with an eighty more thousand to be more procured later what you know i mean those who have signed contracts before me by those who signed contracts before two thousand and seven with the with the will get housing one mortgage scheme. and twenty thousand flats for what rushes to that end and buy a two thousand with fourteen. in the specialized housing foundation he will be established with. and those measures will allow to fully solve the housing issue for service people. out there number ten. now international policy has become more modern of the media and aimed it would be good at serving this the purpose of our country some breakthroughs of initiate at the posts of it union territory in the save fuel of the customs union between russia kazakhstan and russia i think you began to work

with them but be fully aware of when you and recently the says country. signed a free trade treaty that starts working next year i am very pleased. that together with our colleagues which will finally could solve those urgent issues. i feel the pitcher on you but i would like to point out the practical here but you know of the human side of that i remarked is a removal of the hurdles of which a free trade will sometimes little more than the sales market for russian products by very conservative estimates has grown by some twenty percent. and they are out of trade within the customs union has grown by one third. and a common competition environment is growing within this. one free trade and the transit potential is it. has been years more fully and market players have been better opportunities to. to access international markets from january the first two

thousand and twelve because that's what the single economic space that will open it . could be. and free motion of the services capitals and labor force that will be you. it should end but one thousand and fifteen will quit and your or your asian economic union which will largely determine the future of our countries of the me in the new year to you and as for e.u. states we have signed twenty three partnership agreements. and behind them our agreements on tens of specific projects of them we have activated our work with the european union with the aim of fully canceling the visa regime for russians. and after eighteen years of negotiations russia finally joined the w t o one conditions. on the that fully meets and consider.