President Medvedev has said Russia "needs democracy not chaos" in the wake of recent protests over alleged election abuses. In his fourth and final state of the nation address as president, he proposed a set of reforms to liberalise the political system.
He said the government would strongly resist any foreign pressure and would not allow external influences to undermine stability. "We won't allow provocateurs and extremists to drag society into their adventures, and we won't allow any outside interference into our domestic affairs," he said.
Mr Medvedev's words follow mass demonstrations since the December 4 parliamentary election, in which the opposition believes Vladimir Putin's party, United Russia, cheated its way to victory. Independent monitors said the ruling party only managed to retain its majority through fraud.