Russia: President Interviewed By Opposition Paper.

President Dmitri A. Medvedev gave an interview this week to Russia's most prominent opposition newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, whose journalists have crusaded against what they believe is an increasingly authoritarian government. Mr. Medvedev, asked whether he would try to ''rehabilitate'' democracy in Russia, demurred, according to an interview transcript released on Wednesday. ''The highly difficult political and economic processes of the 1990s became associated with the arrival of the key democratic institutions in our country for many of our fellow citizens, and for them, this was a very difficult time,'' he said. He added that: ''I do not think that we need to rehabilitate democracy. Democracy was, is, and will be.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]