Russian society should develop in an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary manner, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Saturday
Putin was speaking on the 10th anniversary of the death of Anatoly Sobchak, St. Petersburg's first mayor. It was Sobchak who brought Putin into public life, making him St. Petersburg deputy mayor in 1994.
"His role in the establishment of a new Russia was colossal," Putin said after visiting his mentor's grave. "He was a democrat to the very roots of his being."
"As for today's state of affairs," Putin went on, "If we understand by democracy a system of government whereby ordinary people have the chance to influence what happens in the country, then any civil society in the world, by virtue of its maturity, opts for a balance between stability and those elements of development that allow the country to move ahead without shaking up society."
"This balance has been established in today's Russia," Putin said. "Any breakdown of this is fraught with the danger that we will either stagnate or disintegrate."
But the premier also said that while he was in favor of the maintenance of the status quo, it was also necessary to "react timely" to the challenges of a changing world.
"But these changes should be carried out in an evolutionary, rather than a revolutionary manner," he said.
Praised as a reformer, Sobchak was mayor of Russia's northern capital from 1991-96 and was responsible for restoring then Leningrad's original name of St. Petersburg. He also was earlier credited with persuading military commanders not deploy tanks in support of an ill-fated 1991 coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
ST. PETERSBURG, February 20 (RIA Novosti)
