I applaud to the President Medvedev for the latest ideas he expressed. Finally, he seems, found the right advisers who have vision and care about Russia's future. The next big step would be to turn those ideas to practical things. Which, is not so difficult, as I see it. For example, the first big step would be to remove from power all remaining oligarchs (like Lishkov) who still dragging the country down and bring new generation of Russians into Kremlin palaces...

Yes medvedev ... how about investing in the health care ... a friend of mine has just returned from moscow ... he said that a relatieve of his .. a highly educated doctor lives with his family in a 1 room appartment and those THIEVES on rublevka live like kings

The advantage of democracy is not that it suddenly makes everyone wise, or that the best national policies necessarily emerge as a result. Its great benefits are that the policies which do emerge are broadly based and are therefore likely to avoid extremism. With the presence of a genuinely free press and genuinely independent judiciary, leaders are called to account for their actions, and corruption and despotism is minimised. With genuinely free and fair elections and a genuinely independent legislature, ideas and policies can be freely argued back and forth, and however vigorous the arguments may get these will still be far short of armed insurrection in the streets. Russia suffers on all the above counts through not having genuine parliamentary democracy. As a result its national policies are often even more short-sighted than those of democracies, large segments of its population feel passively uninvolved or worse, actively excluded, the leadership is not called to account for its blunders, corruption flourishes, investigative journalists are murdered and armed unrest splutters on here and there around the country. All this handicaps not only the state’s attempt to modernize but also its relations with neighbouring countries and with the wider world community. The end-result is, that Russian people cannot live as well as they otherwise would. Russia has absolutely no shortage of natural resources nor of talented people. But it lacks a political system that would empower its people to use their abilities to the full so as to best utilise their country’s resources for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world community.

Marzipan6 - as usual, a most incisive and well-expressed view. Sadly, it's a rather Utopian one. As Medvedev said in the article, Russia has only had authoritarian rule for 1,000 years. You can't just add water and achieve the circumstances you're talking about. The president is correct in saying that things have improved here in the past 5 years - that's how long I've lived here, and I've seen it. Definitely a long way to go - real change here will take at least a couple of generations.

I actually prefer a constitutional republic, not a democracy. I rather have my rights defined for everyone and be ever lasting then have to fight each election period for representation to make a life I believe is better. That is why democracy wasn't written in the American Constitution. I think that paper was the best attempt at a just life for all. The modern era of harping on democracy is just a Globalist dictate that pushes globalism because a democracy is the most easily manipulated form of government by those in power. It is a disgusting form of government. You'll see the same faces in power and the same nonsense played out over and over. Alex, you are right! The doctors and those who work hard with good education usually make about 2000 dollars a month and live in 1 or 2 room flats. It is those who are apart of the Russian monopolies and high government figures that get to live like kings. Nothing changes with Medvedev except for more selling out to Western interests and companies.