the people he was supposed to investigate for criminal acts and corruption, the kremlin shut down the ntv channel. that's the difference and the example. s in this is just a small thing. there's several. you mentioned some senators for 30 years. i'm sure there are a couple like lugar who just lost in the primaries so he won't be there longer. so what, the can't be here longer than two four-year terms. imagine bill clinton would still be president. how would that be? would that be conceivable here or george bush senior? no, because such thing is a term limit we can have this conversation for several hours. democracy say tricky one because the word is loaded in russia and not always has positive connotations. if you look at all the polls and ask people to kind of to decide their preferences, would you want to elect your leadership people would want to the choose it is freely. do you think the press should have a right to criticize public firvels, the people would say yes. do you think local governors should it be an int. 0ed or electeds, people would say electeds. if you actually do a serio

still the name ntv but now it's a symbol of trash journalism but it used to be the most popular independent television. if he tried to do that now, can you imagine what kind of the numbers of people you would see on the streets and squares of central moscow? it's nothing like 2000 or 2001. he may do things the same, but it's not going to lead to the same results. >> roger, atlantic council. what is sort of the timing of these regional elections and particularly people that have just been appointed? do they have a certain fixed number of years? how soon will this kind of wave actually take effect on election day? >> absolutely. initially there were supposed to be a dozen gubernatorial races. supposed to be a dozen regions. we're now down to five out of the dozen because they have made all those appointments in the last few weeks. they still have two weeks more of that power till june 1st. so they may still make more of those appointments. you can see where they're making one. one region where putin's party even officially got 30% in december. we don't know what the real results was. that reg

some of the people he was supposed to investigate for criminal acts in corruption, they shut down the ntv. i think that's the difference and example. this is just a small thing, but there's several. you mentioned senators for 30 years, and i'm sure there's a couple like lugar who just lost the primaries. he won't be there longer, and a handful of congressmen there longer. the president can't be here longer than two four year terms. imagine if bill clinton was still president. how would that be? would that be conceivable here or george bush, sr? no. we can have this conversation for several hours, but the world "democracy" if you ask people to define them, it's tricky because the word in russia not always has positive connotation. if you look at the polls and if you ask people to decide their preferences, you know, elect your leadership or have it imposed on you, people want to choose free. do you think the press should have a right to criticize public officials, the vast majority says yes. should they be elected or appointed? and the vast majority says elected. define democracy, please. w

of the people he was supposed to be investigating, the kremlin shut down the ntv channel. i am sure there are a couple like luge who just lost -- lugar, who just lost in the primaries. the president can't be here longer than two four-year terms. imagine if bill clinton was still president? would that be conceivable here? no. or george bush. no we could have this conversation for several years. the definition of democracy is a tricky one. the word democracy is a difficult one. if you ask people to decide their preferences, would you want to elect your plerp or have it imposed on it, they would want to choose. do you think local governors elected or appointed? the vast majority would say elected. without that loaded term, if dow serious polling like some do, you would see that a strong majority of the russian society are democratic. all the things like elections for governors, parliament and the head of state, they want elections. in terms of the democratic reaction of the opposition. there are well-known characters like imonov and others who are less than democrats. that wa