Russia needs modernization, says Medvedev in key speech

MOSCOW: Russia needs to shed its dependence on exports of raw materials and build a new high-tech economy to survive, President Dmitry Medvedev said in his annual state-of-the nation address yesterday.

Medvedev said the country has continued to rely on an aging Soviet industrial base and to draw most of its revenues from exports of energy resources.

"The nation's prestige and welfare can't depend forever on the achievements of the past," he said.