“We don’t want and won’t allow second edition of Ukraine for Russia,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said answering a question of a TV Rain reporter Ksenia Sobchak during a big press conference today in Moscow.
The opposition must come to the people with a positive plan and positive actions, Putin believes. “Against all – is it a positive action plan? What do you propose to resolve current problems?” he asked in response. Sobchak is running for presidency as “against all” candidate.
Putin compared Alexey Navalny, whom Sobchak mentioned in her question, with former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili. “Do you really want that such Saakashvilis would be running about the country and destabilize the situation? Do you really want Russia to live from one Maidan to another one, coming through coup attempts? We have come through it. I am sure most Russian citizens oppose it,” President Putin stressed.
“Competition should be taking place, of course, and it will be,” he continued.
“The question is about radicalism. Where is ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement? Where are those Saakashvilis who were running about calling for violent actions in the USA? Where are they now? Is it democracy or not? What is democracy then? It is a subject of a general discussion. And the government in Russia has never been afraid of anyone. But it must not resemble a peasant who is lazily picking cabbage out of his beard, while oligarchs are catching goldfish in troubled waters.
“We don’t want and won’t allow second edition of Ukraine for Russia,” Putin stressed.
