ИСТИНА

From 1994 onwards, Russian presidents give annual addresses to the Federal Assembly. In these speeches, state leaders outline the country's current economic, social, national defense, and international relations conditions and shape specific directions for future progress in these areas. These addresses are aired nationally and are similar to US presidents' State of the Union addresses or those of the CCP chairman. Since his return to the presidency in 2012, Vladimir Putin has held nine addresses that have both modernizing and traditional themes—the former having to do with rendering Russia able to catch up with the most developed states while the latter emphasizing the country's uniqueness and the need to preserve its distinct cultural identity in the ever-globalizing world. We assess the contents of Putin's speeches through a constructivist lens distinguishing modernizing and traditional tendencies and trying to trace the enduring topics of the president's interest. Overall, the Russian president, even though considered a conservative by many, in his annual addresses, maintains a balance between the two currents showing that they are not mutually exclusive. Conservative/traditional tendencies in the Russian policies make the country more attractive to conservatives in western democracies. In contrast, modernizing policies, including advances in arms and technologies and large-scale infrastructure projects, add to the country's soft power in the eyes of less ideology-driven observers in Asia and elsewhere.