[Newsbot]

<strong>Title: </strong> <a href="/link.php?id=33095" target="_blank">Putin's presidency to end as protege Medvedev takes Russia's top office</a> (click to view)

<strong>Category:</strong> <a href="/news/topic/16-world" target="_blank">World</a>
<strong>Posted By: </strong> <a href="/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=Hyack" target="_blank">Hyack</a>
<strong>Date: </strong> 2008-05-06 11:50:44

[romanP]

This is little more than a bait and switch. Elections in Russia are not democractic, and Vladimir Putin made it that way. His government is only made up of his closest allies, and Medvedev has been carefully selected because Putin knew he would continue the policies of the FPS, the KGB's replacement. There is very little freedom of speech in Russia, and those who dare to speak are arrested and imprisoned or assassinated. Putin's only interest has been restoring the USSR.

It's he same old Russia with a new face.