State Duma finalizes work on 2011 budget plan Wed.

MOSCOW, November 24 (Itar-Tass) - The State Duma lower house of the
Russian parliament on Wednesday finalizes work on a draft Federal budget
for 2011 and for the planned out period of 2012 and 2013.
The House members are to endorse the budget plan in the third and
final reading. They are to approve the departmental pattern of Federal
budget expenditure for the regular fiscal year, as well as for the first
and second years of the plan period, in line with the established
distribution of budget appropriations by sections, subsections,
purpose-oriented items, and types of spending.
After the lower house of parliament passes the budget plan, it is then
referred to the Federation Council upper house of parliament for
consideration.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said earlier that the main purposes of
the future budget are to guarantee absolute fulfillment of social
obligations to the citizens, to carry on the modernization of the real
sector of the economy and key elements of the infrastructure, as well as
to maintain macroeconomic stability.

.Democracy in RF is still imperfect, Medvedev believes.

MOSCOW, November 24 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
believes that democracy in Russia is still imperfect but that the
implementation of the programme to transform the political system in this
country makes headway. The President stated this in his video blog on
Tuesday night.
"Beginning from a certain period, symptoms of stagnation began to
appear, and the threat of conversion of stability into a factor of
stagnation arose. Such stagnation is equally ruinous to both the governing
party and the opposition forces. If the opposition does not have the
slightest chance to win in honest struggle, it becomes degraded and
marginal. However, if the governing party has no chances ever to lose
anywhere, it simply 'gets a bronze glow' and, in the final analysis,
becomes degraded as well, just as any living organism that remains without
movement," the President pointed out.
"Our main task, the task of any democracy, is to raise the quality of
people's representation. So that a political majority would not be simply
a static one. Or, to be more exact, it would not become a majority
consisting of extras and (complaisant) executors," the Head of State
maintains. "So that the governing party would have both the rights and
duties and not just serve as a (mere) supplement to the executive branch
of power".
"The political system must be arranged so that the opinions of
everyone, even those of the smallest social groups, would be heard well
and taken into consideration," Medvedev pointed out. "Ideally, the voice
of even one person must be heeded".
The President proceeds from the assumption that "political reforms
should not lead to chaos or to paralysis of democratic institutions", but
"must be gradual but steady". He said the country had made considerable
headway towards this goal over the past two years.
Medvedev recalled that the State Duma had completed the adoption of a
whole package of bills which he had referred to the parliament in 2009 and
2010. The President pointed out that due to that, the risks of
manipulations during the election process had been minimized and the role
of the human factor in the counting of votes had diminished. Besides, "An
equal access to state-run media is guaranteed for (political) parties at
both Federal and regional levels. This is what members of our opposition
parties told me more than once".
"Parties which have a majority in regional parliaments gained the
exclusive right to suggest candidacies to the President for the positions
of governors, that is the leaders of regions, territories, and republics,"
Medvedev pointed out. "Thereby a majority of constituents have an
opportunity to participate through a party they support in the formation
of executive power (bodies) of their region".
The rights of minorities are protected by a whole lot of measures.
"Guarantees are established for the opposition to fill vacancies in
regional parliaments," the President said. "The number of signatures that
must be collected in order to take part in elections has been reduced".
"In actual fact, the barrier for the party members' election to
parliaments at all levels has been lowered to five percent. On the whole,
votes mustn't disappear: those who gained more than five percent but less
than seven must have their representative. However, we do not limit
ourselves to that. We shall continue to refine this institution and
broaden these possibilities," Medvedev pointed out. He recalled that the
country's constituent entities regularize the number of representative
bodies of power. The principles for representation of regions in the
Federation Council have changed as well.
So, the President is convinced, the political system in Russia "has
become more open, more flexible and, in the final analysis, more just".
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