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By Wang Zhaokun Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged Tuesday for more political competition in the country, warning that political stagnation would be dangerous for all parties. "At a certain point, our political life started showing symptoms of stagnation, and this stagnation is equally damaging to both the ruling party and the opposition forces," Medvedev said in his video blog. "If the ruling party has no chance of ever losing anywhere, it eventually 'bronzes over' and also degrades, just like any other living organism that does not move." Medvedev's comments came ahead of his meeting with the leaders of the country's four major political parties in the State Duma - the Russian Parliament's lower house, to discuss reforms of housing and public utilities and the implementation of the new provisions of next year's budget, according to the ITAR-TASS News Agency. The president is thought by some to be a more liberal leader than his predecessor and current prime minister, Vladimir Putin, and there are rumors that major differences have already sprung up between the two leaders. Xia Yishan, a researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, believes that Medvedev and Putin basically have the same ideas of governance, and the split between them is obviously exaggerated. "It is important for Medvedev to craft a different image from that of Putin, as this will lead to more public support for the ruling party. Otherwise, people will doubt who is really running the country," Xia said. "I think they actually cooperate very well." A recent poll also shows that a majority of Russians don't believe that there is any major disagreement between the country's president and prime minister, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Agencies contributed to this story |
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