MOSCOW (AFP) — President Dmitry Medvedev acknowledged Thursday that domestic political competition was critical for Russia's development but said it must be "rational" and overseen by a strong executive leader.
In an interview with media outlets from G8 countries, the new Russia leader also called for creation of a "multi-currency" world economic system relying less heavily on the United States and its dollar.
"To ensure that our country remains competitive on a global scale, we must have political competition" at home, Medvedev said in the wide-ranging interview ahead of next week's G8 summit in Japan.
"But it must be rational," he added. "It must be competition built on the law."
Medvedev's Kremlin predecessor, Vladimir Putin, was heavily criticised in the West for rolling back democratic freedoms and Russia's G8 partners are watching closely for signs that Medvedev could take a different approach.
The new Russian leader, Putin's hand-picked successor who will make his debut on the G8 stage next week, has made clear that he may differ from Putin in form but that there was little daylight between them on policy substance.
Like Putin, Medvedev insisted that Russia was a country that required a strong executive leader and cautioned that introduction of a parliamentary system of government here "would mean the death of Russia as a country."
"Russia must remain a presidential republic for decades or even hundreds of years to come in order to stay united," he said.
A lawyer by training who served at Putin's side for nearly all of his two terms in office, the 42-year-old Medvedev also echoed his mentor's previous calls for revamping the post-war global economic system.
"This system must not be oriented only towards one country and only towards one currency," he said.
"In the future it should be based on the balance of the major economies, on their stable growth and on the principle of having several reserve currencies."
He said he was talking in particular about boosting the role of the euro in world economic affairs and about looking at "ideas" being discussed in some Asian countries for diversifying their currency reserves.
This proposal, along with Medvedev's recent calls for a sweeping new security arrangement for Europe that would, unlike NATO, include Russia, were likely to heighten interest in other G8 states about Russia's future course.
Turning to Iran, Medvedev said the world's goal should be to persuade Tehran through "positive stimuli" to resolve worries about the purpose of its nuclear program, which the West fears is for making weapons, a charge Iran denies.
"If we are holding negotiations with Iran in various formats, then we should not take actions that make the Iranian leadership nervous and that lead to imposition of additional sanctions," he said.
Speaking about relations with Britain, which have worsened markedly in the past two years, notably following the murder of a Putin opponent in London, Medvedev said Moscow was ready to turn the page if London was too.
"Russia is prepared to seek compromise, but we expect corresponding steps to be taken by our British partners," he said.
However, the Russian leader also signalled that he was not contemplating an executive pardon for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former head of the Yukos oil giant who was once Russia's richest man.
Medvedev hailed recent progress in international efforts to shut down North Korea's nuclear weapons program, saying recent steps -- notably Pyongyang's demolition of nuclear facilities -- were steps in the right direction.
And he said he thought it was important for Russia and Japan to continue discussions "in a friendly way" on resolving their dispute over four islands taken from Japan by Soviet troops in the closing days of World War II.
Regarding Kosovo, Medvedev insisted that only UN forces could have the chief mandate in the volatile region.
"We were surprised by the stance of UN secretary general who formulated a declaration on the necessity to replace UN troops, without the UN Security Council agreeing to this. Such decisions must not be made by the UN secretary general," said the Russian president.
"It is quite strange that the secretary general said something on this when the Security Council did not rule on the issue," he added.
Medvedev shrugged off a call from US Republican presidential candidate John McCain for Russia to be excluded from the G8 on the grounds that it did not share the same democratic values as the group's other seven members.
"It's totally obvious that any notion of excluding Russia or putting pressure on Russia appears simply not serious," Medvedev said.
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