MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. The non-systemic opposition has contributed a great deal to the nation’s political life and daily affairs, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
"I believe that they [non-systemic opposition members] are needed very much. I can say that they do have an impact on daily life, locally in particular, on a municipal level in major cities, and so on," Putin told TASS in an interview for the project entitled "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin".
"God bless them," he remarked.
He recalled that in every country there was a certain part of society that disagreed with the incumbent authorities. "And it is very good that such people exist," Putin said.
"Those who instigate a revolution usually don't stay in power for long. Very quickly, the public becomes disgruntled with the revolutionaries who took power. The Bolsheviks were probably the sole exception. They remained in power after the October coup for a rather long time. But then… They fell apart and took the country down with them,"
Earlier, Putin told TASS in an interview that criticism of the authorities was important, but at the same time, he advised the opposition to address the public with a positive program, rather than playing the blame game with the current administration.
Episode 7 of the video interview is available at https://putin.tass.ru/en.