About 10 years ago in Nizhny Novgorod, which is the home city of Mr. Nemtsov, Mr. Klimentiev was elected as a mayor. Few days after Mr. Klimentiev was jailed with direct involvement of Mr. Nemtsov, who was in that time was de facto the second after Yeltsin person in Russia. Why it happened? The reason is simple - Mr.Nemtsov did not want Mr. Klimentiev, who used to be his friend and helped him a lot to become a governor in Nizhny Novorod region, to reveal the way Mr.Nemtsov amassed his political and more importantly financial capital. There were numerous protests but it did not help – Mr. Klimentiev was sentenced for a few years and Mr. Nemtsov via his assistant said that the people did a wrong choice but fortunately for the people wise Moscow government is able to correct it. For millions of Russians it is obvious that Mr. Nemtsov has no morale right neither to govern the country (he already showed what he is capable to do) nor even speculate on democracy issues in Russia.

Roman, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

Mike, Paris, why do you think that Putin is a dictator? Because your media told you so?

Elena, Beds,

It's impossible to be calm during the reading!
Russia 10 years ago, before Putin, was weak and exhausted. Because of oligarchs and thiefs who had no patriotism in their souls.
Now it becomes stronger every day, life is getting more optimistic. Believe me, that's true! I'm ordinary Russian schoolgirl who even doesn't live in the center. My city is situated in Kuban region in the south of the country. We feel the changings! Even we, teenagers (for example I am 15) and also adults and retired people. My grantgrandma who died nearly a month ago at the age of 91(!) was very intelligent and being so old stayed sensible. She saw all the politicians from Lenin to Putin. She believed the last one, she voted for him commenting her choice: "He will make future for you, dear and for the whole Russia..."
You know, I will become an interpreter, I love languages especially English! I respect your country a lot. We don't need to make enemies! We want to live in piece! All of us, including Putin.

Anastacia Dyumina, Krasnodar, RUSSIA !

You're all so funny. Which country all around the world has real democracy? USA? There are only two political parties in USA. Is it democracy?
If we choice party which supports our president it means only one thing: we trust our president.
Yes, he's ex-KGB member. Does it mean anything? He's clever man who knows he does and speaks. I'm not ashamed for him as it was with previous heads of Russian government.
We don't need anyone tells us we have or haven't democracy in our country. First it all you should watch situation in your own country.

Ksu, Yar, Russia

Well Mr. Jones from Columbus, the U. S. are the ones with their military in 85+ countries of the world, and their CIA in 200+ countries, and a State Department and CIA "desk" for every village in the world... nothing is too small to escape U. S. "help," "oversight," and manipulation. And mK: Bush Senior was Head of CIA. And MIke: The moment someone calls a U.S. spade a spade, out come the cries that the message is "staged"! How about you guys, Jim, mK, and MIke - are your messages staged or just the usual unthinking blinkers and jingoism?

Jason T. Masson, Amsterdam, NL

Am I the only one who thinks the above comments coming out against this article are staged as well? A dictator is a dictator - no matter what he chooses to call himself.

Mike, Paris, France

Putin, like other dictators before him, needs an enemy. Unfortunately, his Russian ones keep dying or are put in jail. All that's left is the U.S. to blame.

Fernandez, San Francisco,

This guy (Putin) could reopen the gulag and his defenders would still feel he was the best thing since Brezhnev.

No doubt that freedom and democracy are imperfect, but they are still preferable to the autocracy that Russia has had to experience for most of its existence.

It seems that Russia must always be at one or another of the political spectrum, with either a criminal, duplicitous tyrant as leader, or no leadership at all. What a pity. It has so much to offer the world...

John, Mile, Texas

Several weeks ago Poland just refused to accept OSCE observers. But Poland was gently persuaded to accept them. Now we see another approach. It seems the aim really is to discredit the elections in Russia.

alex, Riga,

Mr Nemtsov, a candidate for the liberal Union of Right Forces, said: “There is absolutely no doubt that these elections will not be recognised anywhere in the world as free and democratic.”
It looks like that Mr. Nemtsov has a majic capability to see the future. Or may be he was told by his US puppet-masters about the scenario Putin is warning about. Mr. Nemtsov would be wise to concentrate on his election campain and get some support from Russian people, the thing that he definetely lacks of. Instead he is making predictions that show him as weak leader that thinks about excuses for his failures instead of working to win elections. Majority of Russians will vote for Putin's party because they belive in Putin and his record. Very few people will vote for Nemtsov or Kasparov, no matter how much support they get from the West. Urdur Gunnarsdottir would be wise not to be arrogant and to choose her words carefully, otherwise it looks like that Putin is right in his allegations.

Oleg, Toronto, Canada

So Urdur Gunnarsdottir said that what Putin had claimed was "nonsense." Would she feel entitled to say this about *anything* spoken by Bush? Of course not. Such asymmetry already shows who is pulling strings in Europe and in NGOs. The NGOs are accustomed to be pushing around various small countries such as Serbia at the dictates of the U.S.and Brussels and have for once bitten more than they can chew.

Jason T. Masson, Amsterdam, NL

Blame America for anything that goes wrong; what's new?

James Jones, Columbus, OHIO

What do you expect from the former head of the KGB?

mK, SLC,