“Russian grand reforms peter out”

“I have seen this movie before,” said Fred Weir, journalist from Christian Science Monitor, commenting on Medvedev’s call for the citizens’ involvement in the discussion of key problems the country is facing.

“There’s been no shortage of Russian politicians who can bluntly, and sometimes with quite a lot of interesting and frank detail, opine the fundamental dilemmas the country faces,” he said.

But, Weir added, “I can also tell you how this movie ends.”

“When citizens start to show initiatives that challenge the authority or the traditional prerogatives of the state, they get put down,” Weir said.

“There are short circuits in this Russian political tradition. You start with these grand statements and necessary reforms but they peter out in various ways,” he said.

Weir and RT’s political commentator, Peter Lavelle, were commenting on Medvedev’s article published on Thursday, presenting his vision of strategic goals and challenges which Russia currently faces.