Kremlin body proposes radical makeover for Russia

INSOR said Russia was at a crossroads in its history where it faced a choice between becoming a modern country or losing its power status.

MOSCOW, February 3, 2010 (AFP) - It's the near future. Russia is a thriving multi-party democracy with a media free of state control. It has become a member of NATO and is thinking of joining the European Union.

A crazed fantasy? This was the vision put forward Wednesday by a think-tank set up by President Dmitry Medvedev of the path Russia needs to take in the next years.

Among its other radical proposals were making Russia's army a slimmed-down voluntary force, restoring elections for regional governors and drastically reducing state participation in the economy.

The report by The Institute of Contemporary Development (INSOR) said Russia was at a crossroads in its history where it faced a choice between becoming a modern country or losing its status as a great power.

Entitled "21st Century Russia: the Image of the Tomorrow We Want," the report has been keenly anticipated for disclosing the vision of the modernizing figures seen as close to Medvedev.

INSOR was set up by Medvedev after taking power in 2008 to advise on economic policy and is seen as a key pillar of his vow to modernize Russia's economic and political system.

Medvedev has made modernization his mantra over the last months. But sceptics argue his ambitions carry little weight given the real power in is still wielded by his Kremlin predecessor and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"Russia's leaders have to make a choice on how we see our country in the future and what we are going to work for so we do not miss a unique historic chance," the report said.

Igor Yurgens, head of the institute, told reporters there was "great hope" that Medvedev was the right man to implement the changes.

But he was more cautious on Putin -- a man who Yurgens once said risked staying in power too long like Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

"The role of Vladimir Putin will be what he sees for himself," Yurgens said.

"This is a man who has earned a worthy place in the history of Russia. His popularity allows him to take any kind of decision. We count on his common sense."

Whereas Russian politics is now dominated by the ruling party United Russia, the report said Russia should have a multi-party system where the lower house is elected half according to party lists and half on a regional basis.

Regional governors should be elected by direct suffrage, as was the case under the presidency of Boris Yeltsin before Putin changed the law to presidential appointment followed by approval by the regional parliament.

On foreign policy, Russia should become a member of a reformed NATO organization, while the "prospects for full membership of the European Union should be considered."

The Russian military -- still heavily reliant on young conscripts -- should become an entirely voluntary force of around half a million people.

The Vedomosti newspaper described the proposals as a throwback to the era of former president Boris Yeltsin, whose reformist elements were largely wound back under Putin.

"Russia has always been in constant turbulence. Modernization should put an end to this stress and give Russia stable, civilized development," added Yevgeny Gontmakher, a top sociologist and one of the report's authors.

Helped by high oil prices, Russia enjoyed political and economic stability under Putin's 2000-2008 presidency unprecedented in its post-Soviet history.

But the economic crisis hit Russia hard, exposing its failure to diversify its hydrocarbon-dependent economy and raising concern amongst the authorities of an upsurge of social unrest.

At the weekend thousands of people demonstrated in Russia's western exclave of Kaliningrad, in the biggest protest since the economic crisis began, with some of the protesters calling for Putin to step down.