Havel, Others Warn Putin on Democracy in Letter
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Former Czech President Vaclav Havel and some 100 other world figures have signed a petition criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin for using the Beslan school hostage drama to undermine democracy.
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RUSSIA&#39;S President Vladimir Putin fired another blast at the West today, warning efforts to push its own interests in parts of the former Soviet Union, ostensibly in the name of promoting democracy, were discriminatory and destabilising.
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December 24, Yesterday was the first time RF President Vladimir Putin sharply criticized US actions and attitudes on Ukraine, Chechnya, YUKOS, and the issue of democracy within Russia.
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Russia's President Vladimir Putin on  Friday urged the West to persuade Georgia's leadership to  change its "irresponsible" policies, the Kremlin press service  said in a statement.
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Description: Russian President Vladimir Putin responds to the school massacre in Beslan by saying he&#39;ll restructure parliament and eliminate the direct election of governors.
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President Vladimir Putin pledged on  Thursday to give Russians a "free democratic choice" in next  year's presidential election and said he would express his own  preferences during the campaign.
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The State Department expressed concern Tuesday that efforts by President Vladimir Putin of Russia to concentrate more power in the Kremlin may set back the country's democratic development.
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President Vladimir Putin sought to convince the nation Thursday that his electoral reform was not a retreat from democracy but was needed to save Russia from international terrorists and to limit the political influence of business barons.
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President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday warned of a threat of extremism and ethnic and religious intolerance in the months before parliamentary elections and he ordered law enforcement agencies to do more to protect Russia's secrets.
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Russian officials have helped organize a  wave of rallies calling for Vladimir Putin to stay on as  president after his second term ends next year, according to  two documents obtained by Reuters on Monday.
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The government faces a warning today from Robin Cook and a liberal-oriented foundation that it must work harder to reverse the increasingly authoritarian tendencies of Vladimir Putin.
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Is Russia sliding back into czar-like autocracy, after a brief liberation from Soviet dictatorship? The leaders who ushered in democracy fear so, as President Vladimir Putin pushes to centralize yet more power in his own busy hands.
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MOSCOW -- Hundreds of Kremlin critics gathered yesterday on Constitution Day to denounce what they call a retreat from democracy as President Vladimir V. Putin signed a bill scrapping gubernatorial elections.
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Critics say Putin's regime stifles dissent in the press.
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President Bush said Wednesday he worries that Russian President Vladimir Putin's overhaul of his country's electoral system "could undermine democracy."
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Russia's first post-Soviet leader Boris Yeltsin issued a veiled warning that President Vladimir Putin's decision to hand sweeping new powers to the Kremlin in the wake of the Beslan hostage crisis could roll back democratic freedoms.
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Accusations by the United States that Russia has backtracked on democracy are unfair, President Vladimir Putin's top foreign policy aide was quoted as saying two days before Putin meets U.S. President George W. Bush.