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PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS DEVOID OF THEORIZING AND TARGETS ORDINARY PEOPLE

MOSCOW, May 26 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin's annual state of the nation address was in the focus of political analysts' attention on Wednesday.

Gleb Pavlovsky, President of the Efficient Policy Foundation, called the address a national program.

"His program is devoid of general political reasoning, it addressed the nation, i.e. such topics as home, health, education, the security of property and life and freedom. This is a very practical, vital program addressed directly to the nation," Mr Pavlovsky said in a RIA Novosti interview.

Maksim Dianov, director of the Institute of Regional Studies, also noted that Mr Putin had focused on "earthbound" problems.

"Healthcare, housing and education are the problems that were brought to the foreground in the address," Mr Dianov told RIA Novosti.

The president's even more ambitious plans to boost GDP, achieve utter ruble convertibility and reduce inflation to 3% a year made a deep impression on the expert.

"This was the first time when the demographic problem had been highlighted at such a high level, which is very interesting. The president said the labor force deficit could be made up for by an inflow of foreigners, as well as internal migration," added the expert.

Mr Putin, who rounded off his speech with words about freedom and won applause, posed as a liberal rather than an advocate of the authoritarian regime, emphasize experts.

"The president posed as a liberal-minded leader as the greater part of his address was devoted to liberal values. He clearly repudiated state paternalism and tried to direct the electoral majority towards the line pursued by the government," Stanislav Belkovsky, President of the Institute of National Strategy, told RIA Novosti.