According to a paper released on 3 February by the Institute of Contemporary Development (INSOR), a think tank headed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Russia will join NATO and the EU, reduce its military, reintroduce gubernatorial elections and four-year presidential terms and disband its Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service, news agencies reported.
The essay, 21st-Century Russia: Reflections on an Attractive Tomorrow, published by the institute says the country should consider joining both the European Union and NATO. “This will stimulate (Russia’s) further positive transformation, it says. Relations with the European Union should be raised to a level that could eventually lead to Russian membership in the trade bloc, the institute said. The US should become “strategic partner” with Russia as a member in a “substantially transformed” North Atlantic Treaty Organization.”
The paper calls for drastic measures but also embraces modernization appeals formulated by Medvedev last fall in his “Go, Russia!” article and his state-of-the-nation address. Medvedev chairs the institute’s board of trustees.
The 23,000-word essay — published on the institute’s web site, Insor-Russia.ru, and signed by its chairman, Igor Yurgens, and sociologist Yevgeny Gontmakher - argues that Russia’s economic modernization depends on political reforms that will transform the country into a western-style democracy. “We’re talking about the very survival of Russia, at least within its geostrategic parameters and as a leading nation,” the paper read, which was sent to “all relevant government agencies.” Among the paper’s more radical contents is a sweeping reform of the law enforcement authorities, which are often seen as a haven for the country’s conservative hard-liners, the so-called siloviki.
The authors propose that the Interior Ministry be disbanded and replaced with a Federal Criminal Police Service. Simpler police duties like road traffic would be carried out by a new force subordinated to regional leaders.
The paper also proposes to replace the Federal Security Service with a Counterintelligence Service and a Service for the Protection of the Constitution, the latter of which would be responsible for fighting terrorism and separatism — a model that seemingly mimics the intelligence organization of present-day Germany. The military is to be slashed in half to 500,000 to 600,000 servicemen in peacetime.
The paper also calls for the return of popularly elected governors and reducing the presidential term to five years. A Medvedev-backed amendment extended the term to six years, from four previously.
 The decision to abolish gubernatorial elections in 2004 has been criticized as a leading example of Putin rolling back democracy during his presidency, which ended in 2008. Medvedev has said he personally participated in this decision and that it should remain intact for the next 100 years. 
The idea of working out a systemized approach and defining exact steps in moving towards desired aims has long been in the air. The Russian business daily Vedomosti writes that the idea of a report on the issue came up last summer. Kremlin aide Arkady Dvorkovich said that Medvedev had received a draft of the proposals a few weeks ago, but had yet to comment.