Moscow, 5 May: Leonid Gozman, one of the co-chairmen of the Right Cause party, welcomes Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev's statement that the seven-per-cent threshold for (political parties to win seats in) the State Duma may be lowered.

"Of course, if this occurs, one may only welcome it, because the seven-per-cent threshold is an absolutely anti-democratic act," Gozman told Interfax on Tuesday (5 May), commenting on the Russian president's statements.

Gozman noted that "we even in the party's programme wrote that it is necessary to strive to reduce the threshold to five per cent".

"However, I personally believe that it should be lowered even to three (per cent), because our country is very diverse, and if indeed one is to speak about the need for different territorial, confessional groups to have their representatives in the parliament, for groups with particular political views, then precisely such an approach will make it possible to resolve this issue," Gozman said.

Yabloko party leader Sergey Mitrokhin expressed a similar opinion.

"It is absolutely necessary to return the five-per-cent threshold, although it could be lowered even to three per cent," Mitrokhin told Interfax.

"Maybe it will not be done at once - step by step - but I very much hope that this reduction will take place by the next State Duma election," he added. (Passage omitted).