M. Stulov/Vedomosti

With these words, President Dmitry Medvedev opened a meeting with representatives of the public committee of his supporters, dedicated to the reform of the political system, which he announced after mass protests against the falsification of the elections to the State Duma. "Life has changed... Now we understand that civil activity has increased many times over. People have changed, they want to more clearly represent their position, have better forms of expressing this position. And we are obliged to take this into account," he said.

At the same time, Medvedev emphasized that his proposals are "not a disjointed set of random measures that were pulled out in December or a little later," but "a deeply thought-out position." "A whole series of those bills that I submitted to the State Duma were prepared back in May-June and turned out to be in demand right now," the president assured. "In any case, these bills should acquire the quality of law no later than May," he added.

In late December, Medvedev proposed a concept for political reform in his final address to the Federal Assembly, introducing a bill to the State Duma to simplify the conditions for registering political parties. In mid-January, the president, who declined to run for another term in March in favor of Vladimir Putin, introduced a bill to the State Duma to return direct elections of governors. Work on preparing amendments to the law on the election of State Duma deputies, according to which the country will be divided into 225 districts with 500,000 voters each, which will provide preferential representation for the smallest regions, is, according to Medvedev, "nearing completion."

During his conversation with supporters, Medvedev came up with the idea of limiting governors' tenure to two terms: "You gave me an idea, which, in my opinion, is not in the law on gubernatorial elections. Maybe we should limit governors' terms to two?" "True, the rule that the law does not have retroactive effect will still apply here, but even for the future... we had such a rule," the president recalled.

Medvedev promised to complete the plans for privatization of state property, but stipulated that this would happen if he became prime minister: "If I deal with these issues, I can tell you that we will complete all privatization plans, no matter who resists and no matter what they say. Because this needs to be done, even for ideological reasons."

The president, who hopes to become prime minister if Putin is elected president, assured that his government will continue to improve legislation on state property management, including in terms of the powers of independent directors in state companies. According to him, in the course of finalizing this legislation, a proposal may be considered for independent directors to vote without a government directive.

He also promised to introduce a bill in the near future on the declaration of certain, most capital-intensive types of expenses by certain groups of high-ranking civil servants: "This document is currently being finalized, it is not that simple, but I hope everything will work out." Presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said that the issue concerns the disclosure of expenses on the acquisition of land plots, real estate, securities and vehicles by civil servants.

Medvedev: "Life has become more fun"