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Russia's youth takes center stage in Medvedev's address

© RIA Novosti / Go to the mediabankPresident Dmitry Medvedev
President Dmitry Medvedev - Sputnik International
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The wellbeing of Russia's youth is crucial to the future stability of the country, President Dmitry Medvedev said in his annual address to the nation on Tuesday.

The wellbeing of Russia's youth is crucial to the future stability of the country, President Dmitry Medvedev said in his annual address to the nation on Tuesday.

Medvedev cited population decline as a major threat to the nation.

"In the next 15 years we will feel the effects of the demographic situation in the 1980s, when the birth rate was low," he said. "It is a serious threat. It is a challenge to our nation."

The president proposed measures to reward families with three or more children, including tax breaks and plots of land to build houses.

He also pledged to improve conditions for Russia's 130,000 orphans

"Guardianship must be directly focused on child placement in families and helping foster families," Medvedev said. "There should be no un-adopted children in our country."

Medvedev said convicted child offenders would be banned from working in the education sector, and said anyone caught abusing a child should face the harshest punishment the law could give.

Whilst the address was primarily devoted to domestic issues, the issue of European missile defense also made an appearance.

"We are facing the following alternatives in the next 10 years: either we reach an agreement on missile defense and create a fully-fledged joint cooperation mechanism, or we begin a new arms race by adopting decisions on the deployment of new strategic weapons," he said.

The president also devoted some of his attention to the environment - a topic rarely touched upon in Russian politics.

"I instruct the heads of the [federal] subjects to report on the environmental situation in their territories every year," Medvedev said, adding that tackling environmental problems should be one of the criteria used to assess the efficiency of regional governors.

He said it was reasonable to grant an "environmental amnesty" to companies ready to compensate for damage done to the environment.

Comment on business and the economy ran thin, although Medvedev did say Russia needed to cut inflation to just four or five percent in the next three years. He called for more government spending on economic modernization, and said lower insurance rates would be introduced for small business.

MOSCOW, November 30 (RIA Novosti)

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