"The president practically outlined the concept of a new Housing Code, because the old housing legislation was not fully just," the chairman of the Duma committee on legislation, Pavel Krasheninnikov, said.
Gennady Seleznyov, who was the first and the second convocation Duma's speaker, said:
"Unfortunately, the issues of the pension reform and fight against poverty were not mentioned at all. Earlier, these issues were discussed widely, but there are fears that we might start fighting the poor instead of fighting poverty," Seleznyov said.
KPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov believes it positive that much attention was paid to issues of housing and education. At the same time, he regretted that industry was not mentioned.
"Industry is the motor of any state machine; you can make any plans, but if the industry does not work, they will hardly be realized," Zyuganov is sure. In his opinion, the address insufficiently touched upon the issue of relations with Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, but extensively covered the relations with the U.S. and the EU. "We need to think about establishing a union of our own, because the EU is a mighty rival," Zyuganov stressed.
Lyubov Sliska, the State Duma's first vice speaker, called the Address "integral and comprehensive." "We started to speak specifically about how we can ensure the affordability of housing, how we can change the taxation system. The prospect of how to undo our transport problems, including the gas and oil transport mainlines, was touched upon as well," she said.
Sliska pointed out to the president's words about the fact that a decree can't introduce the notion and feeling of freedom, democracy and patriotism. "Everybody has to make it go through themselves, that they are living in a big and great country, to awaken inside of them this state - the feeling of freedom, democracy, respect for the law, authority, non-acceptance of those negative things that exist in our country," she believes.
State Duma Vice Speaker Vladimir Pekhtin noted the importance of the issues of the army reform, fight against poverty and establishment of civil society voiced by the president.
"For the last four years we've been moving in an absolutely right direction. We were able to solve the tasks facing us in politics and economics. Today the time has come to solve large-scale tasks," he emphasized.
Federation Council international committee chairman Mikhail Margelov said the president in his state of the nation address outlined strategic trends of the domestic and foreign policy for the long-term perspective.
"The state's competitiveness is defined today by not imperial ambitions but first of all by the level of development of the economy and democracy in the country," the senator said.
He stressed that special attention in the Address was paid to economic diplomacy aimed at protecting the interests of Russian business in the international division of labor. "As follows from the Address, this kind of protection is the main condition for our accession to the WTO and EurAsEC," Margelov believes.
In his turn, Federation Council Vice Speaker Alexander Torshin gave a particularly high assessment to theses of the presidential address touching upon the economic block. "I believe that doubling the GDP by 2010 and [achieving] the ruble convertibility are especially important for us, absolutely realizable and must become a priority trend of work," Torshin said.
The leader of the oppositional Agro-Industrial Union, State Duma deputy Nikolai Kharitonov believes that the Address insufficiently touched upon the mechanisms of achievement of goals set.
In his opinion, the problems outlined by the president are urgent for Russian society, though, in his words, "not a single word was said about the agro-industrial sector." A member of the oppositional Rodina faction, former head of Russia's Central Bank, Viktor Gerashchenko believes that full convertibility of the ruble cannot be achieved in three years' time and Russia does not need it. "I don't understand why we need it at all," said the deputy. He said there are only five convertible currencies in the world in countries developed economies, and Russia's economy should aim at other goals.
At the same time, Gerashchenko paid heed to issues of modernizing the transport sphere the head of state had spoken about. "It should have been done long ago," he said.
A deputy from Chechnya, Akhmar Zavgayev believes that the Address reflected a thorough analysis of the transformations carried out for the last four years. Priorities were clearly defined - raising the social level, reformation of the health sphere and the pension reform, he said.
