Russia should solve the problem of poverty by 2020, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wrote in an article on his election website.
Russia will hold presidential elections on March 4, 2012. Putin is widely expected to secure a third stint in the Kremlin, although analysts say his declining popularity could see him forced into a runoff.
“Ten to eleven percent of our nationals are still beneath the poverty line due to various reasons. We must solve this problem by the end of the decade, by overcoming the poverty unacceptable for a developed country,” Putin said.
“For that, we should use both state resources and the efforts of society, of its interested and active part,” Putin said in the article.
The premier said the social assistance system should be improved in Russia and added that people with disabilities should be treated as equals.
“Society will be successful when its citizens do not doubt that is it just,” he wrote.
