Businessman Mikhail Prokhorov, who is supposed to be elected the leader of the Right Cause party on Saturday, has criticized Russia's current sociopolitical system and proposed a number of amendments.
"We are called the Russian Federation, but it is an empire in its essence. Only the presidential branch is working here. This form does not even ensure stability," Prokhorov said at an extraordinary congress of Right Cause on Saturday.
Prokhorov suggested that a single-winner voting system should be reinstated in Russia so that at least 25 talented and bright personalities could win parliamentary seats.
He also insisted that "the institution of presidential envoys to the federal districts has completed its mission and can easily be gotten rid of."
"Perhaps the only exception is the North Caucasus Federal District – and absolutely not because it is led by my friend [Alexander Khloponin]," Prokhorov added to the audience’s laugh.
It is also necessary to expand the powers of governors and "make the chiefs of police, courts, and possibly even prosecutors elected," he said.
"Mayors of Moscow and St. Petersburg should certainly be elected," he said.
"Our whole country is systemically degenerating: our industry has collapsed, and we are nothing but a supplier of raw materials, although quite a powerful one," he said.
"The education, healthcare, and culture sectors are degenerating now. Expenses on these should be higher than the expenses on security, law enforcement, and defense," he said.
Prokhorov also called for "putting an end to the civil war, which has lasted for nearly a hundred years."
"We divided the people into those who are with us and enemies in the 1917, but now we have to return Russian citizenship to all of them without any preconditions," he said.
Talking about upcoming elections to the State Duma, in which Prokhorov believes Right Cause should do well, he said, "Who are our voters? I do not think it is right to presume that we are a party of major, medium and small-sized businesses and intelligentsia. We should address the heads of families, and our party could be a party of the young," he said.
