RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – July 3, 2008
TODAY: Medvedev interviews dominate the press, covering corruption, relations with the US and UK, and the presidential system; think-tank chaired by Medvedev says that anti-corruption plan is “not new politics”; Duma to intervene on children’s “morality”; National Bolsheviks protest at Foreign Ministry. President Dmitry Medvedev met with journalists yesterday, discussing Russia’s strong economic position and saying that Russia has a right to assume a larger role in the world economic system. He also outlined plans to combat corruption, which he acknowledged has become “a way of life”, and discussed his openness to political competition, although he insisted that Russia retain its presidential system, saying that “the creation of a parliamentary democracy in Russia would mean the death of Russia as a country”. It is being reported that, during the meeting, Medvedev “indicated that he would not get involved in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky”. The Prosecutor General’s Investigative Committee has completed a three-day preliminary investigation of the case against Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.