RUSSIA – Partiti politici

BBC Monitoring
Russia’s powerful prime minister urges political stability, competition for parties
Rossiya 24
July 15, 2011

Russia’s former President, now powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has emphasized the importance of political stability for the nation’s economic development. He was speaking to workers of the Magnitogorsk metallurgical plant, as shown on Russian state news channel Rossiya 24 on 15 July.

Putin in particular said: “One very important factor – although not the only one – is political stability. Who would like to invest in a country which is forever unsteady on its feet? This is a very important factor in any investment process. We need to maintain this stability. Stability is not at all the same as – it does not equate to – stagnation. But elements of reliability (Putin goes on to use a colloquial vernacular term for the word reliability) have to be there, must be there.”

The prime minister went on to speak about the role of the One Russia dominant party which he described as “very important” in the context of political stability. However, he also warned members of the party that “sometimes a person spends several years in the same office and starts taking things for granted, starts putting himself on a pedestal”. Putin also said that the spirit of political competition was essential and one of the reasons behind his idea to create the All-Russia People’s Front, a broad coalition of political parties and public associations.

Putin said that public organizations and smaller parties should have more opportunities to express their ideas on “how municipal territories, their region or the country should be developing”.