MOSCOW, May 10 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin's state of the nation address neither threatened businessmen nor called for a new round of the arms race, a Kremlin source said Wednesday.
Putin said in his speech that corruption remained a major problem that stood in the way of Russia's economic prosperity and should be eradicated for the good of the nation, and also that defense spending should be comparable with that of any other nuclear power.
"The address did not voice any threats to business," a source in the presidential administration said. "The fight against corruption has always been a topic of the annual address."
The source said Putin's ideas on defense spending did not mean that Russia wanted to compete with other countries in terms of amount of budget spending for defense purposes.
"We have no intention to catch up with either the United States or Europe in the amount of defense spending, and we are not planning to inflate the defense budget," the source said. "We will focus on the development of new weapons to ensure appropriate response to threats and challenges with the least amount of expenses."
The source also said that the reduction of the military personnel in the Russian army would continue "naturally," through expiration of contracts and reduction of administrative positions, and not by actively laying off staff or decreasing the number of military units.
