But what is particularly important is that over the past 10 years Russia has produced a considerable segment of the population - people who in the West are called the middle classes. Their incomes allow them a certain freedom in what they choose to spend and what to save, what to buy and how to spend their holidays. They can afford to be choosy over where they work and have some savings under their belt.
Lastly, the middle classes are people who can choose politics. As a rule, their education is such that they can take a discriminating attitude to candidates rather than "voting with their heart." In short, the middle classes have begun shaping their real demands in various fields.
In 1998, they made up between 5% and 10% of the population - less than in the late USSR. Now the middle classes are estimated to constitute between 20% and 30% of the population. These are people whose earnings are three times as high as the average wage or salary in 1990.
These middle classes must continue to expand. They must become a social majority in our society; to recruit members from among those who really are the lifeblood of the country - doctors, teachers, engineers, and skilled workers.
Russia's main hope lies with the high educational standards of the population and above all of its youth. This is the case - despite the obvious problems with and complaints about the quality of the country's educational system.
As many as 57% of people aged 25 to 35 in Russia have a higher education - a level seen in just three other countries: Japan, South Korea and Canada. This explosive growth in demand for educational requirements is continuing: the next generation (15- to 25-year-olds) will likely be one of universal higher education - as more than 80% of young people will either be in the process of attaining, or will have completed courses of higher education.
We are entering a wholly new social reality. The "educational revolution" is fundamentally altering the key features of Russian society and the Russian economy. Even if our economy does not require that many workers with higher education at the moment - there is no going back. People should not have to adapt themselves to the existing economic and labor market structure - it is the economy that must change so as to enable people with a high educational standards and high requirements to find a worthy occupation.
Russia's main challenge is learning to exploit the "educational drive" of this younger generation, to mobilize the middle class's enhanced demands and its readiness to assume responsibility for its own welfare in order to guarantee economic growth and the country's continued stable development.
Better educated people mean a longer life span, less crime, less antisocial behavior, and more rational options. All of this - in and of itself - is creating a favorable background for our future.
But this is not enough.
The steady growth in Russia's wealth in the past decade has largely been due to government policy, including a more rational distribution of the country's commodity earnings. Oil revenues were used to boost people's incomes - to pull millions out of poverty. We have also ensured that the country had rainy-day savings to support it through crises or disasters. But the potential of our commodity-based economy is becoming depleted, and what's more, it has no strategic future.
The goal of diversifying the economy and creating new growth sources has been included in our programs and policy documents as early as 2008.
