I am merely pointing out that it is not democratic. The only distortion, I think, is your definition of democracy which by my dictionary definition means broadly "a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people collectively". By no stretch of the imagination can the process you describe be termed "democratic". (Putin did indeed abolish governor (gubernatorial) elections for the regions in 2004, on the pretext of "security" - so often the excuse)) As far as Moscow is concerned Mr Sobyanin may well be an excellent choice of mayor, I don't know, but firstly he was not, as I understand it, elected by anyone. And secondly he wasn't even chosen by elected representatives of the city of Moscow, but by the President. The fact that he belongs to the same party as the "majority political party" Edinaya Rossiya, is neither here nor there. Natalia's argument in effect boils down to the point that Mr Sobyanin is the democratic choice because he might well have been elected anyway - which he may well have been - but as an argument in defence of his democratic credentials in ridiculous. I believe the only mayor of Moscow elected directly by the people was Gavril Popov, ironically back in 1991. We have been told so often that Russia is a "young democracy" but it's odd when you consider how in fact things seem to have regressed on the democracy front since the period immediately following the end of the Soviet Union. I believe Moscow is now more or less the only city in Europe (Minsk has been suggested as another) where a mayor is imposed from above with no say from its citizens. Now, whether that is a good or a bad thing, it is undeniably a fact.

Sevodnya_net You may disagree with this particular law, but don't distort it. " the President chooses the leaders of all the republics of the RF and has done so since Putin changed the rules several years ago." Again, that's not how it's done. It's how I explained. And then once the president proposes a candidate, the city council votes on his nomination. So I think the president power is in fact balanced: He has to propose a candidate only from the list proposed to it and then his candidate has to be approved. The political party with majority is ER, and so it's the party submitting a list of candidates. If people would have voted mojoritarily for another party,than this party would have submitted a list of candidates for the president to propose a candidate from. Now, if people have voted majoritarily for ER, what makes you think they would have voted for a mayor different then the one proposed by ER?

Meslin you were right first time. Of course it is not democratic. Natalia writes: "The President doesn't "designates" (sic) who will be the mayor. He chooses from a list ..." er quite so. The president chooses, not the people. And the President chooses the leaders of all the republics of the RF and has done so since Putin changed the rules several years ago. "The democratic process is done at the level of choosing who represents you." Indeed so. And that is plainly not done by anyone but the president.