Moscow: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has stated that Russia should solve its poverty problem by 2020.

The country will hold presidential elections March 4, 2012. Putin, who held the presidential post in 2000-2008, is generally considered a shoo-in for a new presidential term this year.

"Ten to eleven percent of our nationals are still beyond the poverty line due to various reasons. We must solve this problem by the end of the decade, overcoming poverty which is unacceptable for a developed country," Putin stated in an article on his election website.

"For that, we should use both state resources and efforts of society, of its interested and active part," Putin said in the article.

The premier said the social assistance system should be improved in Russia and added that people with disabilities should be treated as equals.

"Society will be successful when its citizens do not doubt that is it just," he stated. IANS