guardian.co.uk,
Reuters, Sunday 18 December 2011
 |
| Russian opposition supporters at a rally protesting about how recent parliamentary elections were conducted. Photograph: Anatoly Maltsev/EPA |
President
Dmitry Medvedev has called for an overhaul of Russia's "exhausted"
political system in a sign that street protests and dissatisfaction with
Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule are starting to have some impact.
The two men
have dismissed the protesters' claims that a parliamentary election earlier
this month was marred by fraud and ignored calls for a rerun. They also sought
to play down the significance of the demonstrations as Putin prepares to return
to the presidency in an election next March.
But Putin
hinted at some token political concessions in his annual question-and-answer
phone-in on Thursday. He said he might change the law to let opposition parties
be registered and allow regional governors to be elected, rather than chosen by
the president, if their candidacy is approved in advance.
Medvedev,
who is junior to Putin under their power-sharing arrangement, went further on
Saturday by telling members of the United Russia movement that the political
system and the ruling party needed reforms.
"We
are facing a new stage in the development of the political system and we can't
close our eyes to it. It has already begun," Medvedev said in a transcript
released by the Kremlin and published on the presidency website.
"It
didn't begin as a result of some rallies. These are just on the surface – foam
if you like. It's a sign of human dissatisfaction," he said. "It
started because the old model which has served our state faithfully, truly and
well in the last few years, and we all defended it, has largely been
exhausted."
Medvedev
did not give any details of how United Russia and the political system, largely
built around Putin, should change. But evoking the chaos that followed the 1917
Bolshevik revolution, he said the risks of ignoring the mood of the people
could be far-reaching.
"The
street, this is the mood of our people and the authorities must say responsibly
and directly that this is their mood … The mood of the people must be
respected," he said.
"It's
absolutely unacceptable for there to be any delegitimisation of the authorities
… because for our country this means the collapse of the state.
"What
is Russia without government? Everyone remembers from the history books. It's
1917."
The hints
by Medvedev and Putin that they are ready to tinker with the political system
have made little impact on the protesters, who on 10 December staged the
biggest opposition rallies since Putin rose to power in 1999.
The
protesters remain angry the leaders have ignored their demands for a rerun of
the December election, which the opposition says was rigged to help United
Russia secure a slim majority in the lower house of parliament.
International
monitors also said the vote was slanted to favour United Russia, and the
protesters plan another day of rallies across the world's biggest country and
energy producer on 24 December.
"We
want to get at least as many or more people out on the streets next Saturday to
show they can't keep on cheating us," said Mila, a 26-year-old Muscovite
at an opposition rally attended by about 1,500 people in the capital on
Saturday.
Putin, a
former KGB spy who won support during his 2000-08 presidency by restoring order
after the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, ushered
Medvedev into power in 2008 because of a constitutional ban on three successive
terms as president.
But an opinion
poll last week showed Putin's approval ratings have fallen sharply. Many people
feel alienated by a system dominated by the 59-year-old leader, who looks set
to win the presidential election on 4 March and rule for at least six more
years.
For some, the
final straw was an announcement by Medvedev and Putin at a United Russia
congress on 24 September that they planned to swap jobs after the March
election, a decision widely seen as arrogant and undemocratic.
"We've
had enough. Putin was president, then Medvedev, now it'll be Putin again. Who
knows, maybe they're planning to bring back Medvedev again later," said
Igor Belyakov, 35, during Saturday's protest organised by the liberal Yabloko
party.
Putin
sought to rebuild support in his long television question-and-answer session on
Thursday, at which he discussed the protests and the allegations of electoral
fraud.
But when he
said he had mistaken the white ribbons worn by protesters for condoms, the
comment went down badly. Many young people dismissed him as out of touch on the
same social network sites that they have used to summon people to protests.
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