Russian Putin says all politicians must have equal work opportunities, even the opposition

Assures non-systemic opposition not an enemy of the state

Russian President Vladimir Putin said all politicians holding senior posts in the civil service should be entitled to equal work opportunities, adding that this rule certainly applied to the opposition.

Putin said in an interview with TASS for the project entitled "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin" that the state is obliged to create conditions for the adherents of any views to have an opportunity to work effectively."

When asked about government-funded limos provided for legislators, the head of state said all elected lawmakers used identical vehicles regardless of the party they represented.

"They use everything that the state supplies them with for administering their functions. They receive it from the state under the existing law, and not from the incumbent authorities," he explained.

Putin stressed that these requirements must be observed regardless of whether the authorities liked the political activity of any lawmaker or not.

Russian leader vowed that the non-systemic opposition members are not enemies of the state. "Nothing of the sort. This has nothing to do with reality." He said he believes that politicians, including opposition ones, should not just criticize the authorities, but have a clear vision of how to go about the business of addressing the problems the country is faced with.

"An average person wants to see not just somebody criticizing the authorities, but hear and understand what is being proposed by those who do the criticizing," he said. "When nothing but criticism is heard in reply, then the question arises: Who should you vote for?"

Putin remarked that Russians were far from being naive when it came to politics. "It's not enough to just offer to put food on their table," he pointed out. "The political awareness of Russia's ordinary citizens has grown over the past year."



Episode 15 of the video interview with TASS is available  HERE