Russia needs strong presidential power, parliamentary republic is inadvisable — Putin

The head of state noted that parliamentary republics are widely spread across the world, especially in Europe. Germany is a parliamentary republic, while France is a presidential republic. One of the world’s largest countries, India, is a parliamentary republic, while the United States is a presidential republic.

"Is this possible here? In theory yes. Is this advisable or not? Everyone has one’s own opinion about this. I believe that no," Putin stressed. "We should better not carry out any experiments," Putin said, noting that in some cases parliamentary republic has certain "setbacks." Russia, which has huge territory, many religious denominations and a large number of nations, "still needs a strong presidential power," he noted.

The Russian leader explained that for a normal operation of the parliamentary system, the political structure in the country should "develop for a long time," like in Europe, where some parties have existed for centuries. "Here [in Russia], as a rule, a party is linked to a particular person. The brightest example in the country is Vladimir Zhirinovsky. If there is Zhirinovsky, there is the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, if there is no Zhirinovsky…" Putin said, calling liberal idea a good thing, but voicing doubt that the party would be able to operate without its leader.

 Speaking on the parliamentary system’s setbacks, the head of state noted that some countries are unable to form the government for half a year. "Can you imagine how Russia would live without the government for six months? It’s a disaster! Believe me, this is just impossible, this is a huge damage for the state," Putin noted. In other cases, in order to establish the government, parties agree on coalitions although they have opposite views on the tools of achieving their goals, the president said.

"In reality, Western experts, whom I read sometimes, say that parliamentarism is experiencing a crisis in some ways and they think about how to revive it and give it a new quality, and how to make this system more effective," the Russian leader noted.