"Russian President Vladimir Putin has put forward an ambitious plan for his fourth presidential term - the decree" On National Purposes and Strategic Challenges ". In it, announced on the day of its inauguration this month, a number of large-scale tasks are listed, including raising the average life expectancy to 78 years from the current 72 years and turning Russia into one of the five largest economies of the world by 2024, "writes The correspondent. Daily Beast Anna Nemtsova.

Some Russian bloggers and independent analysts nicknamed the decree "May theses". Others compared the new strategy to the Soviet five-year plan, she notes..

"Human rights defenders demanded that President Putin aim at another task - to turn Russia into a country where the life of every person matters, where all constitutional and personal rights are well protected. But, as the Americans say, in response - silence - or perhaps something worse, "- reads the article.

"On the day when President Putin signed a new strategy, the police arrested more than 1,600. person for participating in the protests "He is not our king" in more than 22 large Russian cities, "recalls Nemtsov.

"There will not be real economic growth in Russia without political growth - a lesson that could be learned from Soviet history if there was a desire," writes the author of the article. As independent analyst Dmitry Oreshkin said, "Putin's new program is similar to the Soviet manipulation of economic indicators, since without reforms nothing can turn Russia from the 11th or 12th economy in the world into one of the five largest".

"Six years later, I would like to see that people in Russia freely express their views, without fear that they will attack brutish Cossacks," said Zoya Svetova, a human rights activist.

"I would also like the Kremlin to reform the judicial system and allow people who are being investigated for economic crimes to be placed under house arrest, and not locked up in crowded prisons, where Aleksey Malobrodsky was placed".

"Malobrodsky, former director of the popular Moscow theater Gogol Center, as reported last week, was handcuffed to a bed in the intensive care unit in the hospital. The day before, Malobrodsky had lost consciousness in court and was hospitalized with symptoms of a heart attack, "the author recalls..