Putin says Russia’s political system needs new blood

The Russian political system needs new people to keep the country united and peaceful, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a video-conference with participants in the primaries of the United Russia party, Tass reports.

"To keep the country united and to avoid bloodshed in our country the political system should get new blood. Fresh, interested, promising people should be joining politics - people who know what is to be done and how it is to be done," Putin said in reply to a statement by a combat operations veteran, a participant in primaries in Krasnoyarsk.

Vladimir Putin also said that he hopes the United Russia Party’s primaries will be held in a more civilized way than in other countries.

"As far as your debates are concerned, I do hope that they will be held at a high level of culture, that we will not follow in the footsteps of certain countries of so-called advanced democracy, where candidates keep swearing at each other," Putin said in a video conference with participants in United Russia primaries.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was taking part in the conference.