"It will be face-to-face": Putin's message to the Federal Assembly will take place on April 21

Russian President Vladimir Putin will deliver his annual address to the Federal Assembly on Wednesday, April 21.

This was announced by the press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov.

"The President will read out a message to the Federal Assembly on April 21," he confirmed.

Peskov said that the venue of the event will be announced later, when the accreditation for journalists begins.

He did not begin to reveal the topics of the upcoming message. 

“We traditionally do not announce either the content or certain topics that will be touched upon in the message.

We will not do this now, ”TASS quoted him as saying.

At the same time, Peskov clarified that the event will be held entirely in person.

“The message will be in person.

The rest of the details are now being worked out, "said Peskov, answering a question about possible restrictions against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic. 

In turn, the chairman of the State Duma, Viacheslav Volodin, said that the Duma would propose to postpone the annual government report to May 12, since the president's message will take place on the previously scheduled date.

"We will not push back the date of the government's report and propose to bring it to the plenary session on May 12, so that the discussion will take place as soon as the deputies return from their constituencies," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Let us remind you that once a year Vladimir Putin addresses the parliament with a message about the main directions of domestic and foreign policy and the state of affairs in the country.

The annual message of the head of state to the Federal Assembly is provided for in Art.

84 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Traditionally, the event is attended by senators, State Duma deputies, members of the government, public figures and representatives of the largest media. 

In 2021, Vladimir Putin will address the parliament for the 17th time.

The record for the duration of a performance - 1 hour 57 minutes - was set in 2018, when Vladimir Putin delivered a speech at the Central Arena.

In 2019, Vladimir Putin spoke to the audience at Gostiny Dvor for 1 hour and 27 minutes.

2020 Address to the Federal Assembly

The previous message took place on January 15, 2020 and lasted 1 hour 10 minutes.

The President paid attention to the issues of demography, health care and support for young families, and also introduced a number of constitutional amendments for discussion. 

Thus, Putin called the demographic situation in Russia difficult, recalling that families are now created by a small generation of those born in the early 1990s, and called for ensuring the growth of the country's population.

The head of state also listed the difficulties faced by young parents and announced a decision to introduce monthly payments for children aged three to seven years.

In addition, he noted that an increase in maternity capital should be an effective measure to improve the demographic situation.

In addition, Vladimir Putin came up with a proposal to fix in the Constitution the regular indexation of pensions and the rule that the minimum wage cannot be lower than the subsistence level.

In addition, Putin proposed to include in the Constitution a requirement for persons applying for the presidency: they must have lived in Russia for at least 25 years and not have foreign citizenship.

For the entire package of constitutional amendments, the Russian leader proposed to hold a vote of citizens. 

The all-Russian vote on amendments to the basic law took place during the week - from June 25 to July 1, 2020.

77.92% of voters supported the changes.

At the same time, 21.27% were against the amendments to the Constitution.

The amendments to the Russian Constitution entered into force on 4 July.

Speaking about foreign policy in his previous message to the Federal Assembly, Putin said that the nuclear powers must develop new approaches to ensuring stability.

“We do not threaten anyone and do not seek to impose our will.

At the same time, I can assure everyone: our steps to strengthen national security were taken in a timely manner and in sufficient volume.

For the first time, I want to emphasize this, for the first time in the entire history of the existence of nuclear missile weapons, including both the Soviet period and modern times, we are not catching up with anyone, but on the contrary, other leading states of the world have yet to create the weapons that Russia already possesses, " the president stressed.

He noted that the country's defense capability has been ensured for a decade to come, while Moscow is open for cooperation with all partners.