MOSCOW, April 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the liberal Novaya Gazeta newspaper on Wednesday he did not think democracy in Russia needed rehabilitating.

"I do not think we need to rehabilitate democracy. There has been, is and will be democracy," Medvedev said in his first interview with a Russian publication since taking office last May.

He warned against matching stable wellbeing against a set of political rights and freedoms.

"You cannot set democracy against a full stomach," Medvedev said.

He admitted that "indispensible human rights and freedoms could be jeopardized if society is unstable, if it fails to provide elementary welfare; if people do not feel protected, if they are not paid wages, if they are unable to buy essential goods, and if their life is at stake."

Presidential spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said it was Medvedev himself who chose to give Novaya Gazeta an interview as a way of offering his "moral support" to the publication which has tragically lost some of its correspondents, the most high-profile being Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in 2006 in the entrance to her home.

Most recently, Anastasia Baburova, who also worked at the paper, was shot dead alongside lawyer Stanislav Markelov in downtown Moscow in January.

During his two terms as president, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not give an interview to Novaya Gazeta.