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Any politician not safeguarded against losing -- Medvedev

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev believes any politician, not excepting himself and Vladimir Putin, may lose the elections

GORKY, September 30 (Itar-Tass) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev believes any politician, not excepting himself and Vladimir Putin, may lose the elections. He expressed the view in an interview to the First, Rossiya and NTV channels. It will be broadcast at 20:30 Moscow time this Friday.

"Any politician and his political force may lose elections. Both in our country's history and history of other countries, it happened more than once. Nobody is safeguarded against anything. What predetermination?" he asked, describing talks about the beforehand known outcome of the elections as "absolutely irresponsible, cunning and even provocative".

"We just start the election campaign. Let us ask the simple and plain question -- what if people deny Medvedev and Putin confidence, how then to consider the United Russia congress decisions?" he asked.

"A choice is made by people. These are not just words. It is absolutely so," Medvedev stressed.

The president reminded that other candidates would also go to the elections. "Let people decide in whose favour to vote and who has greater authority, and only people, only our citizens can place the final emphases, casting votes for one or another person or one or another political force, or rejecting it," he noted. "This is what is democracy," he added.