Comment: The following essay by Vladimir Putin first appeared on the website of the Government of the Russian Federation on December 31st, 1999, when Putin was prime minister and had just been named acting president of Russia by the departing Boris Yeltsin.
While it was obviously too early to specify the steps Russia would take to come back from the brink of collapse, it did recognise where Russia was at that point, and outlined the broad strokes of what might be considered Putin's 'strategy' - pragmatic reform, selectively assessed and implemented, and based on the world as it is, not on 'the world according to ideology'.
At that point, Putin had had relatively little experience in politics, much less as an administrator or civil servant. It is remarkable for someone without the maturity earned from decades of experience in government to produce such a document immediately after landing a job he was neither anticipating nor wanted.
Remarkably, Putin estimated back then that it would take Russia 15 years to get back on its feet...
New Possibilities, New Problems
It may be a coincidence - but then again, it may not be - that the beginning of the new millennium coincides with the dramatic turn in world developments in the past 20-30 years. I mean the deep and rapid changes in humankind's whole way of life related to the formation of what we call the post-industrial society. Here are its main features:
- Changes in the economic structure of society, with the diminishing importance of material production and the growing importance of secondary and tertiary sectors.
- Consistent renewal and quick introduction of novel technologies and the growing output of science-intensive production.
- Landslide developments in information science and telecommunications.
- Priority attention to management and the improvement systems of organisation and guidance in all spheres of human endeavour.
- And lastly, human leadership. It is the individual and his or her high standards of education, professional training, business and social activity that are becoming the guiding force of progress today.
Comment: New Year address by Vladimir Putin, December 31, 1999 (with English subtitles):