RUSSIALINK: “Putin on national projects: Everyone preferring well-trodden road better quit now” – Interfax

Vladimir Putin file photo with VOA logo; screen shot from video still

MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) – No time must be wasted in the fulfillment of national projects, and everyone who prefers the well-trodden old roads had better quit now, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his address to the Federal Assembly on Wednesday.

“We have to move on and constantly gain pace. Everyone who prefers a well-trodden road free from pressure, initiative, and responsibility had better quit now,” Putin said.

“I have heard ‘this can’t be done; that’s too complicated; that sets the bar too high.’ This is not the right attitude for getting down to business,” Putin said.

People cannot be deceived: they keenly sense hypocrisy, disrespect, and injustice and care little about bureaucracy and red tape, he said.

“They care about the things that really improve their life and the lives of their family. Right now, not some other day. We must not repeat the mistakes made in the previous decades and wait for communism to come. We must change things for the better now,” Putin said.

“The executive authorities should be doing streamlined, substantive, and energetic work at all levels. The Russian government must set the tone,” Putin said.

[featured image is file photo from another occasion]

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