The Media Mirror: what's in today's Russian newspapers?

Wednesday's Russian press features a series of articles about presidential hopeful Dmitry Medvedev. Newspapers analyse his speech at the Second Civic Forum on Tuesday in which he highlighted the main goals in Russia’s development.

ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA daily reports from the Forum. A correspondent listens to the discussion in a corridor. The topic is what is the main goal of the forum. Finally, says the paper, the group arrives at the conclusion that the forum was convened to ensure direct dialogue between politically active citizens and the government.
 
NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA daily publishes a detailed look at the First Deputy Prime Minister’s speech. Among them, democracy as the force unifying our national traditions. Another is the 'national idea', which needs to be based on concrete tasks approved by society – freedom and justice, dignity of citizens, their personal prosperity and responsibility.  A third theme is 'stability', meaning Russia needs decades of stable development, in the Twentieth Century the country lacked that very much.
 
VREMYA NOVOSTEI says Medvedev’s speech at the Civic Forum turned into the first presentation of a candidate’s programme in the presidential campaign. The paper adds that Dmitry Medvedev vision was actually a version of the Putin plan, delivered in his own words and his own manner.
 
KOMMERSANT’s Andrey Kolesnikov who is now following both Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, writes most of the people at the forum were there to find out for themselves what kind of man Dmitry Medvedev is, and how, using the words of Jasen Zasursky, the veteran Dean of the School of Journalism, Moscow State University, “this configuration, this two-headed eagle of ours, will work”.
 
KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA agrees that most participants were there for Medvedev. The paper also has a few comments by Russian experts. As Gleb Pavlovsky notes, the speech was delivered in the language of active young middle class people. Vyacheslav Nikonov says it was “a very comprehensive speech”, adding that he personally “completely agrees with his principles of creating the national idea”. Sergey Markov highlights the change in priorities: “Medvedev confirmed the continuity of the political course. But the priorities shifted. The first stage – stabilisation – is already behind us. Now it is development we will invest in. That means, the highlight will not be the state but society”.