I understand your suspicion but in this case it appears to be unfounded. Keep in mind that this is an English-translation of something said in Russian, so you shouldn't read too much into the "phrasing".
You put a question mark after "above all" but I believe that's an unfair and probably inaccurate parsing. You make it sound like he said "State above all". Maybe he was saying something more like, "The primary responsibility [i.e. the responsibility above all others] of the state is to ensure rights".
If so, that would not be at all out of line with what the U.S. Founding Fathers thought:
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,
Finally you insinuate that Putin has in mind only positive rights, and thus (I guess) is too socialistic, because he notices Russian poverty. But poverty is not something the Russian President should not notice. Moreover, if anyone is moving in a more socialistic direction, it's us, not Russia. Russia still is considerably socialistic (i.e. state run health care, most people live in some kind of public housing), but notice that Putin said (as the article reports) "The tax burden on the economy should be slashed." That alone should make you rethink your assumptions. Best,