spy vladimir putin what for himself and for his country with me to discuss all of this our yevgenia albats editor in chief of the new times in moscow vladimir pozner a prominent russian american journalist and former soviet union spokesman i'm glad to be occurring mirza a leading russian opposition figure an activist thank you all for joining me on up front given there are a presidential elections around the corner i want to begin by asking whether russia whether russia these days can really be classed as a democracy a lot of people say you know a lot of it positive. partially you could say that there are some democratic element elements today in russia but i would hesitate to call it a democracy it's got a long way to go before it becomes a democracy if it becomes a democracy so yes more than during soviet times but still not really a democracy the way i understand one you have good news is that if you show is an accurate description you know by any means as much as i respect the idea that paulson not i would say that it's impossible to call russia a democracy it's not a democracy it's no

albats. yevgenia: thank you very much. i would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the ambassador, who invited me and asked me to write a paper to the council and the center. and thank you very much all for coming for this event. institutional persistence, that's the main topic of the paper that i wrote, and then in this paper i argue that we have been witnessing the transformation of the regime in russia. which is now just known in ,istory with italy, mussolini franco in spain and portugal. to be sure there is no conspiracy in the story i am outlining, i just argue that when putin has become the president of the russian broughton in 2000, he people from his old job, the kgb and over the years, they staffed all the way from the russian --ernment to the upper edge apparatus and the government, the presidential administration. -- percent of all jobs in the upper levels of the government were occupied by kgb, army officers and some from the intelligence group. became viewed in the public sphere that the country is pretty m

albats. yevgenia: thank you very much. would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the ambassador, who invited me and asked me to write a paper to the council and the center. forthank you very much all coming for this event. the main topic of the tape her -- the main topic of the paper, i argue that we have been witnessing the transformation of the regime in russia from the person listed regime to a corporative type of regime, history,now in comparable to mussolini, franco in spain, and also in portugal. sure, there is no conspiracy in the story that i am outlining. whenjust arguing that vladimir putin became president of the russian federation in 2000, he brought with himself a whole range of people from his own job, the kgb. over the years, they staffed all layers of the russian government the upper levels of the , government and the presidential administration and as a result, by 2008 almost 60% or 70% of all positions in the top layer of the russian government were occupied by the kgb. it was also occupied by people f