“Putin believes there is no need for more and more political parties in Russia, and instead Russia should move towards a model featuring several political forces with active internal discussions, a battle of views and primaries, bringing new leaders into politics”.
Participants of 8th annual meeting of the Valdai Club discussed plans for the future of Russia with the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who will run for presidency in 2012.
Nikolai Zlobin
, director of the Russia and Eurasia Project at the World Security Institute in Washington said that “Putin understands that there is a certain amount of stagnation in Russian political life and is leaning towards the Western political model.”
“Putin believes there is no need for more and more political parties in Russia, and instead Russia should move towards a model featuring several political forces with active internal discussions, a battle of views and primaries, bringing new leaders into politics,” Zlobin noted.
Piotr Dutkiewicz
, director of the Centre for Governance and Public Management at Canada’s Carleton University highlighted that President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are working on a concept for reforming Russia’s political system. He said the new reform concept will likely be unveiled in March 2012 immediately after the presidential election.
“[Putin] said the change will entail greater involvement of the public in political decision-making. He has been discussing this with President Medvedev and they have come up with some plans already. But it would be premature to unveil them now. I think they will do it after the elections,” Dutkiewicz added.
Further on the political scientist said that “Putin didn’t say anything except that there is a group of well-trained people who could be in the new government. He did not cite any names, saying only that they would add fresh blood to the Russian government,” the political scientist said, adding that “unfortunately, he did not go into detail about the measures planned to promote economic growth and overcome Russia’s commodity dependence.”
Following the meeting
Alexander Rahr
, director of the Berthold Beitz Center at the German Council on Foreign Relations, told journalists: “I think Putin will continue to pursue modernization, while Medvedev will be instructed to head the government with the team of his choice, which Putin will endorse. Medvedev will continue the liberal course and will have even more powers than the president over some economic issues.”
Rahr also conveyed Putin’s view on the country’s political system. “He hopes for the consolidation of separate parties and that internal democracy within each party will make radical progress,” Rahr said. He added Putin is absolutely convinced of United Russia’s victory in the forthcoming State Duma elections.
Andranik Migranyan
, head of the New York office based Institute for Democracy and Cooperation quoted Putin as being sure that his voter support “will be around 65%-70%, a level he has always enjoyed.”
As the analyst said, the current head of government is better aware of the country’s economic problems, because he has had ample opportunities to explore the national economy firsthand over the last few years.
