Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Russia Davos party has unusual opposition flavour

Reuters

* Russian moderates feel squeezed
* Power can be lost like Gorbachev-Putin deputy
* Kudrin plays key role in Russian Davos delegation

By Dmitry Zhdannikov

DAVOS, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Kremlin clan in-fighting spilled into the open this week when government officials sympathetic with Russia’s fragmented opposition warned the country’s ultimate leader Vladimir Putin he may soon lose power if he doesn’t undertake sweeping reforms.

Putin, Russia’s president from 2000 to 2008 and now prime minister, is expected to return to the presidency after March elections, but is looking increasingly out of touch after the opposition brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets in December to demand a re-run of parliamentary elections.

Putin first dismissed the protesters as chattering monkeys financed from abroad, then backed a proposal from his protégé President Dmitry Medvedev for gradual political reform, but later had a former KGB spy appointed as Kremlin chief of staff.