SOCHI, October 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will never become a totalitarian state again because it would leave the country without prospects of evolutionary development, President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
"We have no desire to return to our totalitarian past, not because we are afraid of something, but because I am deeply convinced that it would be a dead-end development for Russian society," Putin said at closing meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in the Russian Black Sea Resort of Sochi.
Answering a journalist's question about Western criticism of the situation with democracy in Russia, Putin said that instruments of democracy must reflect, in the first place, the current state of social and political development in the country.
Western politicians and media repeatedly stated that Russia is sliding towards a totalitarian regime – a claim denied by Russian politicians.
The figures of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) poll conducted earlier this year showed that seven out of ten Russians believe that the order, including political and economic stability and full compliance with the law, is currently more important for the country than democracy.
