United Russia Think Tank: Russia Does Not Need More Democracy
A think-tank with close ties to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party issued a report stating that the country does not need greater democracy as strong leadership is more important.
Reuters reports that The Public Projects Institute, which is lead by Russian State Duma deputy Vladimir Pligin, said: "It would be more honest and realistic to say that the democratization of Russia's political system in the near future cannot be a priority...The priority for now is good governance."
However, Russian newspaper Vedomosti previously published an early draft of the report (which was missing from the final version) in which the think-tank said that Russia's tight media control "resembled that of the Soviet media during the so-called "period of stagnation" prior to Mikhail Gorbachev's "perestroika" reforms in the 1980s".