Medvedev: "Russian democracy too young to judge severely."

Russian democracy is still too young to judge it severely said Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

In an interview with Interfax and European media he said that Russia should be given at least a hundred years before criticizing it for its human rights record.

Despite this being the case, Medvedev once again affirmed that Moscow is ready for a constructive dialogue on these issues and noted that Russia does not have some peculiar understanding of democracy.

"We have common approaches to the development of the political system, the protection of personal rights and freedoms and the protection of constitutional freedoms. In these areas we are no different from European countries. However democracy and constitutional order and the political system of a country always have a national character," said the head of the government.

He also stated that Russia has "lived through a very difficult XX century".

"Our democratic institutions are only twenty years old and there must be an understanding that before that there was no such tradition. This specificity of the Russian state can not be ignored," said Medvedev, Interfax reports.