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Role of the Writer: The PresidentVladimir Putin

Audience: Citizens of Russia
Format: Speech
Topic and Strong Verb: Economics Past, Present, and Future
To the citizens of Russia,
As your president, I would like to address the recent economic concerns that our country
has been facing. There has been much anxiety recently about the economic status of Russia due
to the recent store closings and businesses shutting down. In addition, I know that there has been
frustration with sanctions that have been enforced and inflation on many goods. Our country
appears to be on the verge of a recession, and it is projected that we may not have any economic
growth over the next two years. We are suffering from a number of different things, but our most
significant economic downfall is that oil prices have plummeted. Because oil is one of our most
important exported goods, we are really taking a hit with their prices dropping.
Oil consumption has been slowing over the years, even before the prices began to fall.
The drop in oil prices was also met with a forty percent increase in government spending,
unfortunately. If we want growth of the country to immediately happen, we will need to reform,
and I just do not see that as an option for our country at the time being. I have been challenged
and faced with people who do not support the fact that I give business loans to people that I am
acquainted with. I can assure you, as your leader, which I would not jeopardize the well-being of
this country, and will be receiving payment for these loans by each and every person and
company who has borrowed from us. However, because of these loans, most being from the
Sochi Olympics which costs upward of fifty billion dollars, the central bank has been forced to
triple is provisions of liquidity to the banks. Most of the money from the central bank has ended
up in the foreign-exchange market which is putting pressure on the economy as well.
Just last year, our economy was better than it had ever been before. Our country has no
doubt seen its fair share of bad years economically. To prove to you, citizens of Russia, that our
country is not doomed economically and that we can pull through tough economic times, I will
give you some history of our country's economy. Throughout the years 1917-1990, Russia was
under communist rule. The Bolsheviks established the basic foundation of the Soviet economic
system back in 1917. They nationalized land, industries, foreign trade, and banking which
ultimately led to the Civil war between the White and the Red Army. War communism was set up
and, as a result, the economy performed rather poorly. Agriculture was suffering, with only half
of the pre-World War I output levels being met, foreign trade was virtually nonexistent, and
industrial production was extremely low at only a fraction of what it was before the war.
As the leader at the time, Vladimir Lenin called for a new program, called the New
Economic Policy, which allowed private activity in agriculture, small businesses, and services.
After Lenin's death in 1924, however, the government abandoned the NEP and the first five year
plan was developed by Joseph Stalin. The Five Year Plan was to begin the nationwide
collectivization of agriculture to ensure production and distribution of food supplies. This plan
failed, and agriculture output declined tremendously, further hurting the economy. By the Third
Five-Year Plan, the Soviet Union was spending great deals of money on weapons for war against

Nazi Germany, and the fourth Five Year Plan was structured on rebuilding the country after war.
As you can see, the economy has suffered a great deal over the years even from the very
beginning of this country. As the economy seemed to be getting worse, after the war was over,
during the 1950s through 1975, the economy had significant growth rates. The Soviet gross
national product increased about five percent each year. However, by the mid-1970s and into the
1980s, average Soviet gross national product decreased to about two percent due to a decline in
laborers and thus a decline in production. Leaders following this economically troubling time
tried to reform the economy to make the Soviet system more efficient, but most failed.
Resistance to reform was strong because central planning was a main part of the Soviet economy.
In March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev took matters into his own hands in order to try to resume the
growth rates of the previous decades. He introduced the idea of perestroika in the hopes to
restructure the economy. Local managers gained greater authority over their farms and factories,
and people were now allowed to open small businesses. Gorbachev's attempts at economic
reform were not enough to boost the economy, however, and by 1990 the government had almost
completely lost control of the economy. In fact, Gorbachev's reforms caused the economy to
plummet even further.
When Boris Yeltsin took over in 1991, the economical state of Russia was in turmoil. He
had a plan called shock therapy which was an abrupt shift to free market economies, removing
price controls, lowered trade barriers, and ended subsidies to state owned industries. Shock
therapy only made economic matters worse, prices for good were getting higher and higher with
inflation being at nearly eight hundred percent. Yeltsin was very unpopular because of his failed
economic plan and also because of war between Chechnya and Russia which only added to the
economic downfall. When I became president in 1999, I had to deal with the horrible Russian
economy and the war with Chechnya. Since I was appointed as president, I have successfully
turned this economy around. Russian economy has thrived as well as foreign investment.
Russians are able to afford consumer goods and the middle class has grown tremendously.
With what we know about the past economic troubles that Russia has faced and how
these hardships have been turned around completely to the point in which our country has
thrived economically, I do not have any worries about the current state of our economy. We are
facing some difficult times, but I can assure you that I will do everything in my power to keep
this country where it needs to be economically. I have turned the economic status of Russia
around before, and if we happen to fall any further into economic hardship, then I will do what I
did before and turn the country around so that we may thrive again. The future of Russia's
economy remains bright.
Thank You.
Sincerely,
Vladimir Putin

Works Cited
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International Economics. Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, July
2008. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. <http://www.iie.com/publications/papers/paper.cfm?
ResearchID=974>.
Flintoff, Corey. "Russia Heads Toward Recession, With No Relief In Sight."NPR. NPR, 3 Dec.
2014. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/12/03/368143679/sanctions-and-low-oil-pricespush-russias-economy-toward-recession>.
"Historical Background."Country Studies. U.S. Library of Congress, 2003-2013. Web. 3 Dec.
2014. <http://countrystudies.us/russia/56.htm>.
Levy, Clifford J. "Hard Times In Russia Spell Trouble for Putin."New York Times. New York
Times, 01 Feb. 2009. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/world/europe/01iht- putin.1.19837562.html>.
"The Russian Economy: The End of the Line."The Economist. The Economist Newspaper
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