Putin, but my guess is not very many, and the rest will simply be appointed by him to continue in their present jobs."

Experts say leaders of Russia's democratic parties have also muted their criticism of President Putin's proposed changes.

Stephen Cohen, a Professor of Russian history at New York University, says some of Russia's prominent democrats are not resisting because they know they are in part responsible for the undemocratic changes unfolding in the country.

"That is, these are people who supported Russian President Yeltsin, the first post-communist president of Russia when, for example, he used tanks in 1993 against an elected parliament," he said. "Surely that opened the door to the end of democracy. It's almost unprecedented in history, for an executive to use tank cannons to blow awayan elected parliament. It was an extraordinarily fateful and fatefully bad episode in Russian political history. And yet, overwhelmingly at the time, the people who call themselves democrats and who would then head self-described democratic parties in parliament after 1993 supported that act. They also supported privatization as it occurred, which was clearly not only undemocratic, but eroded popular support for democracy."

That view is echoed by Celeste Wallander, a Russia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She says one of the problems with democratic politicians in Russia, is that they have always been seen as critics of the government while offering few plausible alternatives.

"The Russian public is, not surprisingly, tired of hearing about complaining and problems in their system," she said. "They want some answers