Putin speaks about liberalization of Russian economy

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Russian President Vladimir Putin made his annual address to the Federal Assembly. As is tradition, the address took place at the Kremlin’s St George Hall before an audience of more than 1,000 people. At the beginning of the speech, Putin defended his country's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and accused the West of using the Ukraine crisis as a pretext to impose sanctions on Moscow. He referred to Crimea as Russia's spiritual ground. He called the region "the same as Temple Mount in Jerusalem for those who confess Islam and Judaism. And this is exactly how we will treat it from here for ever." “It is well known that Russia not only supported Ukraine and other brotherly republics of the former Soviet Union in their aspirations to sovereignty, but also facilitated this process greatly in the 1990ies. Since then, our position has remained unchanged. Every nation has an inalienable sovereign right to determine its own development path, choose allies and political regimes, create an economy and ensure its security. Russia has always respected these rights and always will. This fully applies to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.,” he stressed. Putin also announced about the liberalization of the Russian Federation. He said Russia is open to the world, to investment and to carrying out projects together, but ultimately, Russia’s development depends above all on the country’s own efforts. Mr Putin named development of new technology and competitive goods, giving the country’s industry and financial sector a more solid foundation, and training the needed personnel as priority tasks. The President also talked about relations between the state and business, in particular the need to free up the environment for doing business as much as possible and the concrete steps that can be taken to achieve this. Mr Putin proposed that no changes be made to the current tax rules for the next four years, and also proposed an amnesty for capital returning to Russia. The President set the goal of reaching growth rates above the world average within the next 3-4 years. On the subject of Western sanctions, he said, "When anyone thinks Russia has become strong, independent, such instruments are applied immediately.