President Vladimir Putin on Friday hailed Russia's growing strength and its ability to compete in a new global "arms race" in a speech laying out his vision for Russia until 2020, according to dpa. Russian newspapers on Friday dubbed the speech just four weeks before the presidential elections "Putin's Will," referring to the plan the leader leaves his anointed successor Dmitry Medvedev, virtually guaranteed to win on March 2. In the speech broadcast live on state television, Putin named Russia's victory over terrorism, its return to order after the social chaos of the 1990s and a booming economy as the successes of his past eight years at the helm. But there was bite to his speech as Putin called for greater military strength and efficiency in Russia's security services to protect against the West's imperial designs on Russia and attempts to interfere in the upcoming elections. Putin attacked NATO's expansion on its border and US plans to base a missile defence system in Eastern Europe as a "new twist in the arms race" and said "Russia will always have a response against these new challenges." The speech provoked NATO ministers meeting in Lithuania to call on Russia "to lower the tone of the rhetoric coming out of Moscow." NATO spokesman James Appathurai said Russia should take advantage of available diplomatic channels and "not engage in unnecessarily heated rhetoric." Business newspaper Kommersant reminded readers on Friday that Putin, who is barred from a third term in office, had said in a final government address in April, "It is inappropriate for me to review my achievements here, and it is still premature for me set out my political will." The broad-ranging nature of Putin's address suggested he had found the time and place for a recapitulation of a presidency of which Medvedev has often promised to be the continuation. "There is a lot left to do, but a course has been set," Putin said adressing Russia's elite politicians, rank-pulling generals and religious leaders gathered in the gilded, largest hall of the Kremlin. Medvedev, who has the support of over 60 per cent of voters going into the March 2 elections, has been labelled a liberal, more soft- spoken than his mentor. But Putin on Friday called for the strengthening of Russia's military and renewed powerful rhetoric against the West that resonated popularly ahead of Russia's December parliamentary vote. The Kremlin leader promised "to take concrete steps" to develop new weapons, analogue to the West's. He accused NATO members of forcing the move by ignoring Russian security concerns in the post-Cold War reality. "We have closed down our bases both in Cuba and in Vietnam, and what did we get in exchange? Nothing but new US bases," Putin was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying Friday. Putin also warned the assembled Russian political elite against the West's designs upon Russia's "god-given" natural resources and against "illegal and immoral" efforts to meddle in Russia's politics in an attempt to disrupt the elections. In a break with form 750 politicians and journalists simply received a telegram invitation days before the quarterly meeting of the State Council, an presidential advisory body including Russia's governors. Analysts said Thursday the intrigue was a ploy to hype the event that served as an ideal platform for Putin to again recommend Medvedev. Medvedev, who both holds a cabinet post and chairs gas giant Gazprom, faces little competition in the presidential elections and is virtually guaranteed to step into Putin's place.
