Russia's Medvedev to help small political parties

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday that he would change electoral rules to make life easier for small political parties.

"I believe that parties receiving between five and seven percent of votes could be guaranteed one or two mandates (in parliament)," Medvedev said in his state of the nation speech. "This would allow... to offer the parliamentary rostrum to small parties representing the interests of a pretty significant number of people."

(Reporting by Christian Lowe, writing by Dmitry Solovyov, editing by Guy Faulconbridge)