Population growth, moral values critical to Russia's future, says 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.

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.