http://www.smh.com.au/world/russia-a-oneparty-state-20101125-18976.html
Russia a 'one-party state' November 26, 2010 MOSCOW: President Dmitry Medvedev has admitted that Russia is a one-party state with no meaningful opposition in an apparent attempt to distance himself from the Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. In a video blog on the Kremlin's website, Mr Medvedev said the country's political system showed dangerous signs of stagnation, a phrase that Russians use to evoke the moribund period when the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was in power in the 1970s. ''This stagnation is equally damaging to both the ruling party and opposition forces,'' Mr Medvedev, who assumed the presidency in 2008, said. He claimed in the same breath to have pushed through a raft of minor improvements in the past two years, but his description of Russia's political landscape was damning. ''If the opposition does not have the slightest chance of winning in a fair fight it degrades and becomes a marginal force. But if the ruling party has no chance of losing anywhere or ever it simply 'bronzes over' and eventually also degrades.'' Mr Medvedev said the ruling United Russia party, led by Mr Putin, should not be packed with ''dummies and performers'' or be a mere appendix to the executive branch of government. Telegraph, London [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: prole...@egroups.com Subscribe : proletar-subscr...@egroups.com Unsubscribe : proletar-unsubscr...@egroups.com List owner : proletar-ow...@egroups.com Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: proletar-dig...@yahoogroups.com proletar-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: proletar-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
