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Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his annual state of the union address Thursday in front of parliament and other government officials. It was supposedly his last.
He put on quite a show. The speech was surrounded with a level of pomp and circumstance not seen since before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Russian national anthem -- based on the 1944 Soviet anthem -- played as parliamentarians, generals, religious leaders, Cabinet ministers and close Putin confidants took their places. The camera slowly panned to the two candidates thought most likely to succeed Putin, First Deputy Prime Ministers Sergei Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev, sitting side-by-side.
Presentation aside, the speech itself was a departure from previous state of the union addresses. Putin has traditionally used it to refocus on where Russia sees itself at present. Last year's address dealt largely with the domestic issues facing the country, with only a small amount of time devoted to criticizing the international community. One would assume that this year -- as he prepares to leave office in March 2008 -- Putin would recap all that he has accomplished. But instead, he used his time at the podium to reassert an identity for a united Russia and to talk in no uncertain terms about where Russia is going.
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