On March1, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly. In his speech that with the elections in view could be seen as an election manifesto (although the Russian President explicitly rejected any such connection), Putin presented his program for Russia. The speech focused on economic developments, improved health care, education, and infrastructure, as well as expanding "freedom in all spheres." The speech climaxed with a description of Russia's achievements in the defense sphere accompanied by videos. Putin announced Russia's improved nuclear missile capabilities. In an unexpected move, Putin unveiled that Russia had begun development on new types of strategic arms including the Sarmat ICBM, that does not employ ballistic trajectories at all when moving toward a target and is therefore impervious to currently employed missile defense systems. Sarmat will replace the Soviet-era R-36M2 Voevoda (SS-18 Satan) ICBMs. Putin then added: "Nobody really wanted to talk to us about the core of the problem, and nobody wanted to listen to us. So listen now."

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