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Medvedev’s political reforms are not the answer to Bolotnaya Square

The initiatives of Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev on liberalization of the political system was not caused by the December events

MOSCOW, February 28 (Itar-Tass) ——The initiatives of Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev on liberalization of the political system, which the State Duma is discussing on Tuesday, are not a reaction to the events following the parliamentary elections in December, when those disagreeing with the results of the election campaign went to Bolotnaya Square and other avenues and streets of Moscow, the presidential representative in the lower house of Russia’s parliament Garry Minh said on Tuesday replying to the question from Deputy Anton Belyakov /A Just Russia/.

Belyakov demanded Minh to “confirm that the bills are a response to Bolotnaya Square and not a strategic line of Russia’s leaders.”

“Let us come out into the open,” he said.

Minh in his reply said the initiative to lower the number of required signatures for participation of political parties in elections of all levels is a consistent logic, voiced by the president.

“It is impossible to say that presentation of, for example, this bill is a reaction to the December events,” Minh said. “This is not and has not been true.”

He added that drafts of those legislative initiatives had been designed and ready by the middle of 2011 already, while the parliamentary elections were in early December only.

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