Moral values critical to Russia's future: Putin

Russia must increase its population and develop its patriotic and spiritual values or lose its soul and face collapse, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

In his first State of The Nation address since he started a six-year third term in May, Putin mixed discussion of the need to fight corruption and improve state services such as schools with a theme of talk of the Russian identity and soul.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual State of The Nation address at the Kremlin in Moscow on Wednesday. [Photo/Agencies]

He issued a warning to the West and his own political foes, saying that foreign meddling in Russian politics was unacceptable and that politicians must not accept financial support from abroad.

On the world stage, he said Russia was counteracting those who sow chaos, an apparent reference to US military action abroad and Western support for government opponents in nations such as Libya and Syria.

But the focus in the speech to lawmakers in an ornate Kremlin reception room was mostly domestic -and Putin suggested the biggest threat to Russia was from a population that has fallen by millions since the 1991 Soviet Union collapse.

Russia's population fell to 141.9 million in 2011 from 148.7 million in 1992, according to the World Bank.

"If the nation is not capable of preserving itself and reproducing, if it loses its vital bearings and ideals, then it doesn't need foreign enemies - it will fall apart on its own," Putin said.

"For Russia to be sovereign and strong, we must be more and we must be better," he said in comments televised nationwide.

Putin reiterated warnings against extremism and calls for ethnic harmony, saying that despite the country's diversity "we are one people - Russians".

"We must not only preserve but develop our national identity and soul. We must not lose ourselves as a nation - we must be and remain Russia," he said in his 80-minute address.