Putin could head back to Kremlin in 2012
Source: Agencies |
August 31, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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RUSSIA'S paramount leader, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, hinted yesterday he would return to the presidency in 2012 for six more years and said protesters marching without permission deserved to be beaten.
Asked by the Kommersant daily newspaper in an interview whether Russia's 2012 presidential election did not worry him because he had already decided it, Putin replied: "No, it interests me like... I wanted to say like everyone, but in fact more than everyone else. But I don't want to make a fetish out of it."
Putin ruled as president from 2000 to 2008 before handing the presidency to his chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev, in order to observe a law banning a third consecutive term.
But Putin will be free to run again in 2012 for a newly extended term of six years.
"The most important thing is that these problems of 2012 don't derail us from the path of stable development," Putin added in the interview.
Kommersant said it was conducted during a 180-kilometer drive in his bright yellow Lada Kalina car between the cities of Khabarovsk and Chita in Russia's Far East.
Putin's remarks in the extended interview with his longtime favorite journalist Andrei Kolesnikov were immediately seized upon by some Moscow commentators as further evidence that he would return to the Kremlin in two years' time.
The Ekho Moskvy radio station, which gives airtime to opposition views, began polling listeners on whether they backed another Putin presidency.
Some 86 percent said "no", a result which reflected the station's Moscow middle-class audience. But it is not typical of average Russians, among whom Putin remains popular, polls show.
Putin robustly defended police crackdowns on protesters in recent months.
He said those who marched must obey current laws requiring them to seek advance permission from local authorities.
"If you get (permission), you go and march," Putin said. "If you don't - you have no right to. Go without permission, and you will be hit on the head with batons. That's all there is to it."
Asked by the Kommersant daily newspaper in an interview whether Russia's 2012 presidential election did not worry him because he had already decided it, Putin replied: "No, it interests me like... I wanted to say like everyone, but in fact more than everyone else. But I don't want to make a fetish out of it."
Putin ruled as president from 2000 to 2008 before handing the presidency to his chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev, in order to observe a law banning a third consecutive term.
But Putin will be free to run again in 2012 for a newly extended term of six years.
"The most important thing is that these problems of 2012 don't derail us from the path of stable development," Putin added in the interview.
Kommersant said it was conducted during a 180-kilometer drive in his bright yellow Lada Kalina car between the cities of Khabarovsk and Chita in Russia's Far East.
Putin's remarks in the extended interview with his longtime favorite journalist Andrei Kolesnikov were immediately seized upon by some Moscow commentators as further evidence that he would return to the Kremlin in two years' time.
The Ekho Moskvy radio station, which gives airtime to opposition views, began polling listeners on whether they backed another Putin presidency.
Some 86 percent said "no", a result which reflected the station's Moscow middle-class audience. But it is not typical of average Russians, among whom Putin remains popular, polls show.
Putin robustly defended police crackdowns on protesters in recent months.
He said those who marched must obey current laws requiring them to seek advance permission from local authorities.
"If you get (permission), you go and march," Putin said. "If you don't - you have no right to. Go without permission, and you will be hit on the head with batons. That's all there is to it."
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