President Medvedev annual address to nation

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Following are the highlights of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's annual address to the federal assembly on Wednesday:

ON RUSSIA'S RESPONSE TO THE U.S. ANTI-MISSILE SYSTEM

I have approved a new configuration for the military forces of our country.

Earlier we had planned to decommission three missile regiments of a missile division deployed in Kozelsk and to disband this division by 2010. I have decided to refrain from these plans ...

Besides, to neutralize -- if necessary -- the anti-missile system, an Iskander missile system will be deployed in the Kaliningrad region. Naturally, we also consider using for the same purpose the resources of Russia's navy.

... electronic jamming of new elements of the U.S. missile shield will be carried out from the territory of the same westernmost region, that is from Kaliningrad.

ON PRESIDENTIAL TERM

(I propose) ... an increase of the constitutional terms of the president and state Duma to 6 years and 5 years respectively. (from four years now)

CONFLICT IN SOUTH OSSETIA

The conflict in the Caucasus was used as a pretext for sending NATO warships to the Black Sea and then for the forcible foisting on Europe of America's anti-missile systems, which in its turn will entail retaliatory measures by Russia.

A local adventure by the political regime of Tbilisi has led to tensions way beyond the region, in the whole of Europe. De facto, the fundamentals of the global order were destabilized.

Our people are spiritually and morally rich, we have things we can be proud of, we have things to love and protect and we have things we can aspire to. For these reasons, we will not step back in the Caucasus.

ON THE GLOBAL CRISIS AND U.S. ROLE

We will overcome the consequences of the world economic crisis and will come out of it even stronger than we were.

The lessons of the mistakes and crises of 2008 have proved to all responsible nations that the time has come to act, and it is necessary to radically reform the (international) political and economic system.

The global financial crisis also started as a local extraordinary event in the U.S. markets. And this crisis also has a global character.