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Kremlin Official: Opposition to Get "respectable" in 10 Yrs

Parliament AdjourningMOSCOW. Nov 18 (Interfax) - A senior Kremlin official has predicted that the ruling United Russia party will win the next parliamentary elections but that in about 10 years' time United Russia may form a ruling coalition with one of the opposition parties and that by then Russia's opposition would "become respectable."

"I'm sure that within the next 10 years our opposition will get strong enough and will become respectable," Vladislav Surkov, first deputy chief of the presidential staff, said at a meeting with the presidents of the student societies of leading U.S. universities.

If in about 10 years "the opposition takes power, there will be no catastrophic changes," he said. There may be adjustments "but not the crushing of institutions," Surkov said.

It is the task of the Kremlin, he said, to make sure that, if the opposition does take power some time in the future, it is a "systemic but not radical" opposition.

He argued it should be the goal of Russia's political development that "the centralist style of government should be gradually replaced by a softer and more elastic style."

He also said the present-day multiparty system in Russia "works and reflects the majority of public sentiments."

However, it is a "far from ideal" system, Surkov said, expressing support for the view that Russia has no influential liberal party and needs one. "It is disputable matter but most likely true. I for one share this view," he said.

In the foreseeable future Russia will have a "three-, four- or five-party parliament," Surkov he forecast.

"That's what will most likely happen in Russia. There will be gradual growth and strengthening of opposition parties and political competition. I think that eventually, within the next decade, we will have an elastic, diverse, and quite complicated political system. I'm absolutely sure of this," he said.


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