Word: vladimires
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...democratic mettle of President Dmitri Medvedev was put to its greatest test this month. Perhaps naively, many of the country's liberals had believed that Medvedev, a doe-eyed and often bashful technocrat, would finally rise up to challenge the unrivaled dominance of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. After all, they thought, he is technically the commander in chief of the country and he has cultivated the image of a reformer intent on bringing true democracy to Russia. But in the wake of rampant fraud allegations in local elections, Medvedev yet again disappointed the hopeful...
...groundbreaking document. Although Medvedev did not criticize Putin overtly - that would have been political suicide - he did lament Russia's isolationism, its vulnerable economy and its "negative democratic tendencies," all jabs at the authoritarian political system that Putin cultivated during his eight years as President. (See pictures of Vladimir Putin on vacation...
...chamber, the members of the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Just Russia Party, which was created by the Kremlin to attract opposition votes, demanded a meeting with Medvedev to urge him to live up to his promises. "We do not recognize the nationwide election results," said Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the right-wing Liberal Democrats. "We will not sit in a room with fraudsters...
...deputies also called for the resignation of the head of the Central Election Commission, Vladimir Churov, who, in their view, epitomizes all that is wrong with Russia's electoral system. A bearded apparatchik with Coke-bottle glasses, Churov served under Putin in the St. Petersburg mayor's office in the early 1990s. After Putin became President, he paved the way for Churov to lead the election commission, and Churov has since repaid the favor by deflecting the fraud allegations that mar every election in Russia...
...Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called a fourth round of sanctions "counterproductive" and reaffirmed Moscow's commitment to continuing diplomatic talks with Tehran. Lavrov's statement came just three weeks after Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signaled an openness to sanctions. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, declared that it was too early to scrap negotiations, telling reporters, "There is no need to scare the Iranians." Though the U.S. has insisted on keeping sanctions on the table, Clinton conceded that Russia is "not at that point...