At an intermediate stage on the way toward cultural sovereignty

The past two months of socio-political life in Russia have been rich in important events: the World Russian People’s Council (November 27-28), the official approval on December 7 by the Federation Council of the date of the presidential election (March 17, 2024) and Vladimir Putin’s announcement of his decision to run for president (December 8), his communication with Russian citizens in the live broadcast format, combined with a press conference with journalists (December 14). All these events at the end of Vladimir Putin’s 4th presidential term sum up the events of the past six years and at the same time focus our attention on the tasks that society expects the head of state to address during his upcoming presidential term. The following issues are highlighted as being of increasing importance: achieving the goals of the special military operation, forming the national idea and ideology, nationalizing the elites, increasing the effectiveness of dynamic growth in the standard of living and quality of life; these events are analyzed in the paper. We consider in more detail the work of Vladimir Putin aimed at addressing the issue regarding the nationalization of elites throughout his presidential terms. Based on expert assessments, we analyze the factors that prevent the President from solving this problem promptly; most likely, the solution of the problem of nationalization of elites will be postponed for 2030-2036, that is, for the possible (according to the current Constitution of the Russian Federation) sixth presidential term of Vladimir Putin. Nevertheless, according to many experts, without qualitative ideological changes within the elites (primarily in the system of public administration, culture, education), as well as without achieving the goals of the special military operation, it is impossible to make significant progress in shaping the image of the country’s future, achieving the consent of the majority of the population on the essence of a new Social Contract, which is based on the image of a just social state with equal opportunities for the main segments of the population on the territory of Russia. The article provides a comparative analysis of the most significant public statements that Vladimir Putin made throughout his presidential terms: his first program article “Russia at the turn of the Millennium” (1999), the RF President’s speech at the conference on international security policy (“Munich speech” on February 10, 2007), all the speeches of the head of state at the World Russian People’s Council (December 13, 2001, November 1, 2018 and November 28, 2023). The conclusion is made about Vladimir Putin’s key personal qualities (perseverance, strategic foresight, courage in setting ambitious goals, systems approach to their implementation) necessary for a national leader to continue the development of Russia along the path of strengthening cultural and, in general, national sovereignty.