There’s not much to object to in President Dmitry Medvedev’s most recent video blog statement, which is being interpreted as a preview to his address to the Duma next week and a continuation of his ideological development kicked off by the “Go Russia!” article.  Of course, the speech could be considered courageous and even visionary if only there were any chance that he could produce the changes that he says Russia needs.  However his record on converting rhetoric to reality is unfortunately well established.

Here is the paragraph that everybody is talking about:

What do we want to achieve? We simply want to make our political system more fair, more flexible, more dynamic, and more open to renewal and development. It must enjoy the confidence of our electorate. It is no secret that for some time now signs of stagnation have begun to appear in our political life and stability has threatened to turn into stagnation. And such stagnation is equally damaging for both the ruling party and opposition forces. If the opposition has no chance at all of winning a fair fight it degrades and becomes marginal. If the ruling party never loses a single election, it is just coasting. Ultimately, it too degrades, like any living organism which remains static.

For these reasons it has become necessary to raise the degree of political competition.